The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is a global management consulting firm, founded by Bruce Henderson in 1963. It has 66 offices in 38 countries, and its current CEO is HansPaul Brkner. BCG is generally ranked as one of the most "prestigious" management consulting firms in the industry.[1][dead link]
The firm prides itself on its employeefocused culture, and over the last 4 years has been the only toptier consulting firm to appear in Fortune magazine's "Best companies to work for" report. In the 2009 list, BCG is listed as the 3rd best company to work at, and is the only toptier consulting michael kors outelt firm to appear in the top 100.[2]
The company was formed when Henderson, a Harvard Business School alumnus, left Arthur D. Little to become head of a new management consulting division of the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company. [3]
In 1975 Henderson arranged an employee stock ownership plan, so that the employees could take the company independent from The Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company.[4] The buyout of all shares was completed in 1979.[5]
The X factor in China's burgeoning luxury consumption is the country's onechild generation a group of people who tend to be highly individualistic and perceive luxury goods discounted michael kors handbags as a way to set themselves apart. after her parents fled Mainland China for Taiwan when the communists took power in 1949. Theirs is often a sensibility inclined to "bring on the Balenciaga, bring on the Yves Saint Laurent," she added, in contrast to the rising tide of young adults globally who are clamoring for the fastfashion, designer oneoffs of stores such as H and Zara, and the cheap chic of players like Uniqlo.
Young adults reared by mothers and fathers who were "prodigious savers," the urban Chinese in their 20s and 30s are receiving some funds from their parents cash flow that is propelling luxury spending, said Michael Silverstein, a senior partner and managing director at The Boston Consulting Group, who visited Beijing and Shanghai in the summer. "The vast majority of luxury goods [in China], around 75 percent, are purchased by people under 40," he said. "This is a young movement."
This youthful appetite is not lost on the world's major luxury brands, pioneers in China such as Louis Vuitton, Lanvin, Herms, Gucci, Chanel, Prada, Cartier and Tiffany Co. "The desire to differentiate among 'onechilds' will spur new merchandising and marketing efforts," Pao forecast. "Much of the luxury [consumption] flow goes to Hong Kong, now," rather than to the Mainland.
Roughly 300 million affluent and wealthy Chinese including many of the 37.9 million in this cohort born since 1979 are considered the most likely consumers of luxury in a population of 1.35 billion.
With housing and food available in China at far lower costs than is common in developed nations, annual household income of about $6,000, or 40,920 yuan, allows for savings and discretionary spending that could include luxury goods, Silverstein said. Such luxuries encompass $400 Chanel sunglasses as well as $200 Adidas and Nike running shoes, also seen as premium products in the emerging economy.
"People are very brandconscious and buy highly visible things they can wear around," he said, citing "watches that show big logos" as an example. In addition, Pao said the "really flashy" clothes, the "really short skirts" or the pairing of jeans with a Chanel jacket and Balenciaga bag prompted her to think: "You go out in public like that?"
"They look weird, but they look cool," she added of the eclectic sensibilities. "They are much more aspirational."
About 40 percent of Chinese consumers' luxury purchases are transacted in Mainland China, 48 percent in Hong Kong, and the balance are made elsewhere, Pao explained. Roughly 60 percent of luxury spending in China stems from existing family wealth, with the rest paid for with earned income, according to the Hong Kong Trade Development Council.
"You have four grandparents and one child, so there's going to be a lot of attention and money lavished on that child," Edie Weiner, president of futurist Weiner, Edrich, Brown Inc., observed of the onechild generation.
"They totally distort their spending to get things they really want bigscreen TVs, highend bikes, leather couches," Silverstein recalled of his recent visits to middleclass homes. It was not unusual, he said of such tradeoffs, to visit a home with a leather couch, "gorgeous" wood furniture, a big flatscreen TV, and a 4by5foot kitchen, with a small sink, a small Haier refrigerator and a flattop grill without a vent.
As 2009 draws to a close, China will rank as the world's secondlargest luxury goods market, topped only by Japan, with consumer purchases totaling between $5 billion and $6 billion, based on estimates of the World Luxury Association, China Market Research and Goldman Sachs. in January to take the numbertwo spot.
Purchases of luxe fashion accessories handbags for women and watches for men typically serve as the entry point for future purchases of luxury apparel, often bearing the same designer names as the favored accessories, Pao said, citing "The China Luxury Panel" survey of 448 individuals most of them women ages 20 to 39 with high net worth.
A survey by The Boston Consulting Group of 2,550 Chinese consumers last year at the height of the global economic crisis found that Chinese "aspire to" luxury brands and can increasingly afford them, the group said in a statement.
The findings are seen boding well for expensive foreign brands, from handbags to cars, with ambitions in China.
Rising incomes are a hallmark of modernisation in Chinese cities such as Beijing and Shanghai since the 1990s. China's economy grew even during the recent global crisis.
"Right now, Chinese consumers are relatively younger than most of the clients luxury companies have in other places, most of them are in the 25 to 35 age span," Lui said.