Current state of the industry

Management consulting has grown quickly, with growth rates of the industry exceeding 20% in the 1980s and 1990s. As a business service, consulting remains highly cyclical and linked to overall economic conditions. The consulting industry shrank during the 2001-2003 period, but has been experiencing slowly increasing growth since.

Currently, there are four main types of consulting firms:
Large, diversified organizations that offer a range of services, including information technology consulting, in addition to a strategy consulting practice (e.g. Accenture, Deloitte, Ernst & Young). Some very large IT service providers have moved into consultancy as well and are also developing strategy practices (e.g. IBM, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys).
Medium-sized management consultancies, that blend a boutique style with similar services and technologies offered by large consultancies (e.g. Qedis Consulting Ltd, ZS Associates, SDG Group).
Management and strategic consulting specialists that offer primarily Strategy Consulting and Business Intelligence Models to any industries (e.g. McKinsey & Company, The Boston Consulting Group, Bain & Company).
Boutique firms which have focused areas of consulting expertise in specific industries, functional areas, or technologies, or regions of the world. Some focus on entirely new concepts which may be emulated by larger players (e.g. Stroud Consulting, SEI Consulting) while others specialize in niches like sourcing (such as TPI, Gartner or the Everest Group) or a particular world region (e.g., Amritt, Japan Intercultural, or Roland Berger).

Revenue model
Traditionally, the consulting industry charged on a time and materials basis, billing staff consultants out based solely on the hours worked plus out-of-pocket expenses such as travel costs. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, there was a shift to more results-based pricing, either with fixed bids for defined deliverables or some form of results-based pricing in which the firm would be paid a fraction of the value delivered. The current trend seems to favor a hybrid with components of fixed pricing and risk-sharing by both the consulting firm and client.[citation needed]