- The biggest ever MCA Awards sees 45 large, medium and small consulting firms make it to the final stages with a 22% increase in SMEs.
- 95 client organisations from across the private and public sector will participate in the MCA Awards interviews and highlight the vital role of consultancy in driving productivity and growth across the UK and being a positive force in society.
- The clear social impact of the sector is evidenced on a range of issues from helping the NHS provide better hospital care to improving blood and organ transplant donation and treatments, tackling youth reoffending and helping those suffering from the harmful effects of gambling.
- Private sector highlights include procurement and data transformations and cutting-edge work on the use of AI technology to improve the experience of millions of bank account users.
- Sector’s vital work on climate change evidenced in multiple categories and sectors from work on retrofitting homes and buildings, providing safer, greener travel and turbocharging the UK’s offshore infrastructure and the creation of new green jobs.
- 95 individual finalists make it to the finalist stages from young apprentices to experienced consultants joining consulting as a second career, highlighting the diversity of talent of all ages across the sector.
The finalists for the MCA Awards 2023 have been announced by the Management Consultancies Association (MCA) as the awards continue to grow with more entries than ever before and a move to a larger venue for the ceremony in London later in the year. Now in their 26th year, the MCA awards continue to recognise the transformational work the consulting sector is delivering for clients, both in the UK and across the world, and the social and economic impact this work is having. 95 individuals have made it to the finalist list highlighting the diverse talent of all ages and backgrounds excelling in their careers including apprentices, experienced leaders and technology consultants.
A total of over 95 clients from across the private and public sector will join leading consulting firms to promote the impact they have achieved in partnership across a range of different categories. Organisations championing the role of consultancy firms include the World Health Organisation, NHS Blood and Transplant, central government and local councils, Transport for London with the Elizabeth Line and firms including Marks and Spencer, Lloyds, Unilever, Lipton, NatWest and Rolls Royce.
In the Social Value category, firms demonstrate the work they are doing to help the most vulnerable people in society. From supporting people suffering from the harms of gambling (BMT with the Addiction Recovery Programme) to helping the poorest people in society who rely on cash for every day needs to access basic banking services (EY and UK Finance). Other finalists include KPMG with Key4life, which helps to tackle the problem of youth reoffending and PwC’s work with Birmingham City Council in providing long term support for Ukrainian refugees. Deloitte’s work with the NHS Blood and Transplant service also makes it to the shortlist as does SME firm Mason Advisory who worked with Northumberland County Council on securing high speed broadband in rural areas.
Other projects which have made a real impact to the economy and society include Baringa’s work to help government supporting businesses with soaring energy prices – they had eight weeks to put into place the Energy Bill Relief Scheme and IMPOWER Consulting who worked with the United Lincolnshire Hospital Trust to help patients be more safely discharged from hospital, freeing up beds. IBM Consulting also makes it to the shortlist for its technology work with Geonomics England (GEL) to help transform healthcare and help diagnose rare forms of cancer.
Finalists who focussed on sustainability include Deloitte who collaborated with SOLshare to enable two million electric rickshaws to draw power from solar energy in Bangladesh. Arup worked with Glasgow Life to help make large scale sustainability improvements to a listed building to help reach net zero emissions while Mott MacDonald partnered with the Department of Education to help revolutionise school construction by creating a blueprint for net zero schools that are both people and planet focused.
From the private sector, clients come from a variety of sectors and cases studies cover work with global organisations and well-known brands in the UK. Finalists include IBM Consulting with Lloyds Banking Group for their work on AI adoption, Arca Blanca for their work with Alliance Healthcare on unlocking the value of data to get the right medicines to the right place at the right time and PwC’s work with Lipton tea on its business transformation. Finalists in the People and Leadership category include Gobeyond Partners and First Bus who, through a cultural change programme, reduced rates of staff attrition, increasing driver engagement and re-focusing frontline management.
Once again, finalists come from a wide range of MCA Member Firms with larger firms making up the greatest proportion of project finalists. Smaller firms also continue to impress the independent judging panel and of the 45 consultancy firms through to finalist stage, 27 are SMEs, a 22% increase compared to last year. Over 50 independent judges from a range of backgrounds score all entries without knowing the brand or size of firm they are reviewing. Competition to reach the shortlisting stage has been strong with a 10% increase in overall entries compared to last year, which was itself a record year. PwC have 35 projects and individuals going through to the finalist stage, followed by KPMG (26), EY (25) and Deloitte (21). In the category for Best New Consultancy, a total of six consultancy firms are included.
Tamzen Isacsson, MCA Chief Executive, said:
“More than a quarter of a century ago the MCA Awards began in order to recognise the excellence and quality of the profession. Twenty-five years on, it is not just those standards of excellence and quality that have increased, but so too has the breadth and depth of the work the sector carries out across the UK and globally.
“The social responsibility, the diversity, the variety of the transformational work that is being carried out, in partnership with clients, is evidenced throughout all of the brilliant entries this year. The growth in our awards reflects the growth in the value that the management consultancy sector adds – in every sense – to all aspects of our society and economy.”
Broadcaster and author Clare Balding CBE has recently been announced as the presenter for the ceremony taking place at the Grosvenor Hotel in the Autumn and will be attended by the management consultancy sector and key stakeholders including Government, national media, and major client organisations. Full details including information on ticket and table bookings for the event taking place at the Grosvenor House in London can be found at www.mca.org.uk/mca-awards.
For sponsorship details please contact Natalie.Mendez@mca.org.uk
View all the MCA Awards 2023 Finalists here.