business plan template bcg

BCG Matrix for Excel, Google Sheets, PDF

Download Free Template

Available for Excel & Google Sheets & PDF

Your download is available!

Click to download your document template in the format you need.

Your download is ready!

Download BCG Matrix for Excel & Google Sheets & PDF or email it to yourself later.

Download BCG Matrix for Excel & Google Sheets & PDF.

• Send to email

Plus, you've unlocked access to our full collection of 130 hand-built business templates!

Template Highlights

• Consider the growth and market share of your products to determine their category according to the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) methodology.
• Access the template in Excel, Google Sheets, or PDF format.
• Identify the best and worst performing products in terms of their return on investment.
• Design strategies tailored to each product to maintain or improve their commercial performance.
• Print the template in your desired format or share it via email.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a bcg matrix, how do you create a bcg matrix, can i edit this template, is this template free, related tags:.

• Google Sheets

Related Business Templates

Standard operating procedures (sop).

Describe the how, what, and where of your organizational tasks to employees with this free SOP templ...

Gap Analysis

Conduct thorough assessments of your current state vs. goals with this free gap analysis template.

Root Cause Analysis

Use this free root cause analysis template to identify the source of business issues and create a pl...

Business Case

Make a case for an upcoming project or investment with the help of this free business case template.

Progress Report

Share your project progress with other team members, departments, or relevant parties with this free...

Action Plan

Use our free action plan template to help get your business or project goals off the ground.

Fishbone Diagram

Identify a problem's root causes efficiently with a fishbone diagram. This visualization template ca...

Process Map

Streamline your workflow, enhance efficiency, and foster continuous improvement in your organization...

Download the free 5 whys template to identify the root cause of business challenges and develop prac...

Succession Plan

Enhance your organization’s leadership continuity, improve workforce readiness, and ensure smooth tr...

Business One-Pager Template

Use this professional one-pager template to help capture the attention of stakeholders and potential...

Decision Tree

Use this free decision tree template to understand the potential outcomes of your business decisions...

Get this template for free!

Refine your business strategy with the BCG matrix template, and navigate product portfolio management with clarity and confidence. Start now to align your resources effectively

Share this Template

In the ever-evolving landscape of business, clear strategic planning is essential. The BCG matrix (Boston Consulting Group matrix) template is a straightforward tool for evaluating your company's product portfolio. It simplifies comparing market growth and share, leading to smarter, informed decisions. This tool is crucial for leaders and strategists who aim to stay ahead in the competitive market.

Benefits of using the BCG matrix template

This template illuminates the path to strategic insight. It offers a detailed yet easy-to-understand evaluation of your products, resulting in practical insights. Key advantages include:

• Immediate product positioning insight : Instantly see which products are Stars, Cash Cows, Question Marks, or Dogs.
• Streamlined decision-making : This guide aids in deciding where to invest, develop, or cut back.
• Efficient use of resources : Focus your resources on products that promise the highest returns.

Key components of the BCG matrix template

The BCG matrix template's vital elements are:

• Stars (High market growth and share) : Market-leading products that present significant investment opportunities.
• Cash cows (Low growth, high share) : Steady performers generating consistent revenue with little investment.
• Question marks (High growth, low share) : Emerging products have the potential to become market leaders or be divested.
• Dogs (Low growth and share) : Lagging products that might need phasing out due to low profitability.

The importance of the BCG matrix in strategic planning

The BCG matrix is a key tool for portfolio management and strategic planning. Its power lies in turning complex business scenarios into straightforward, actionable strategies. Consider how global brands have used the BCG matrix to navigate market trends and stay competitive. It's invaluable for prioritizing investments, nurturing growth in profitable areas, and identifying risks in less promising sectors.

Who benefits from the BCG matrix

The BCG matrix template is a crucial asset for various professionals:

• Executives : Gain a strategic overview of your product lines.
• Marketers : Optimize portfolio management efficiently.
• Small business owners : Make data-driven decisions for your business growth.
• Consultants : Employ a proven framework for client strategy development.

Embrace strategic decision-making

Ready to advance your strategic planning? The BCG matrix template is your key to unlocking the complexities of product portfolio management. It's designed to empower you, so you can ensure your strategies align with market realities.

Start improving your strategic planning with the BCG matrix template now, and lead your business to long-term growth and success.

FAQ About the BCG matrix Template

Trusted by millions, including teams at

Discover More Templates

Take impactful to a whole new level

Always with you

Easy to use

Works your way

Powerful Features

Get in or get out

Offline first

Beautiful sharing

You’re not alone

We’re here to help

Online BCG Matrix Template

An online BCG Matrix tool for creating fast, clear BCG Matrix.

Edit BCG Matrix online

BCG matrix (aka. Growth-Share matrix) is a strategic planning tool, which is used to portray firm's brand portfolio on a quadrant along relative market share axis (horizontal axis) and speed of market growth (vertical axis) axis.

VP Online Diagram provides a BCG matrix maker along with a set of pre-made BCG matrix templates. Followings are few of them. Click the Edit button to start editing straight away. It's free and no registration needed.

Feature Highlights

The simplest way to diagram and collaborate. Take a look at some of the great features.

Simple Yet Powerful

Easy drag-and-drop tools to help you create diagrams in minutes. Apply different formats to shapes and connectors.

For Word, Excel, PPT

Embed your diagrams into documents and presentations created with MS products such as Word, PowerPoint, etc.

Import Visio

Import your Visio files into VP Online. Create and edit diagrams collaboratively, in real-time.

Multi-Export Options

Easily share your diagrams with your co-workers and clients via PNG, JPG, SVG, GIF and even PDF.

Professional Templates

Create fast, professional looking diagrams with over 2,000 professionally designed templates.

Collaborate with Anyone

Communicate and collaborate faster with real-time diagram editor. Add comments to diagrams for discussions.

More than just a BCG Matrix Template

Get Started Now

Create diagrams and charts in a simple and flexible way.

• Technical diagrams: UML , ERD , DFD , PERT , Network diagram , Wiring , PFD , P&ID , and more
• Business diagrams: ArchiMate , BPMN , SWOT , Value Chain , Value Stream Mapping , Org. Chart , and more
• Cloud architecture design tool: AWS , Azure , Google Cloud , IBM , Oracle , Alibaba , Tencent
• Powerful Flowchart , Floor plan , Mind map and Venn diagram tool
• Process Map Designer with templates like Customer Journey Mapping , Competitor Analysis , Root Cause , etc

©2024 by Visual Paradigm. All rights reserved.

• Terms of Service
• Privacy Policy
• Security Overview

What is a BCG Matrix and how to get the most out of it?

Trying to make high-level decisions about the future of your company can feel overwhelming. Trust us — we know first-hand what that feels like here at Miro. Companies often set up special committees that take months — or even years — and dozens of meetings before committing to a path.

But in the 21st century, the first mover’s advantage is more crucial than ever. You need to prioritize fast without letting biases affect how you invest your capital and effort.

That’s where the BCG (Boston Consulting Group) Matrix comes in. It’s a portfolio management tool that helps your company prioritize different businesses or products to get the best long-term results.

Let’s dive into everything you need to know about a BCG Matrix.

Try Miro’s BCG Matrix Template

• BCG Matrix definition: What is a Growth Share Matrix?

The Growth Share Matrix, also known as the BCG Matrix, is a portfolio management framework developed by the Boston Consulting Group’s founder in 1968.

It divides a company’s business units into categories based on their respective market shares and market sizes. To help you roughly estimate the profitability of a business, the matrix uses the two metrics of relative market share and market growth rate.

• Relative market share: Your share of the market compared to your largest competitor.
• Market growth rate: The rate at which a certain market grows in revenues compared to the previous year.

Based on these two metrics, you divide your company’s businesses or products into four categories:

• Stars: High market share in a high-growth market.
• Cash cow: High market share in a mature market.
• Dogs (or pets): Low market share in a market with a slow growth rate.
• Question marks: Currently low market share in a fast-growing market.

The different categories help you simplify complex decision-making about investment and business focus. Companies use the framework to decide which businesses or products to invest in to maximize growth potential and profitability.

While first created to manage product lines for manufacturing companies in the ‘60s and ‘70s, it’s equally relevant for tech startups that offer a variety of digital services. Just because you deal in pixels doesn’t mean you’re immune to regular business mistakes like overspending on a product with little potential.

The BCG Matrix can help you make sense of your portfolio of products and make smarter decisions about future investments in both R&D and marketing. If you’re struggling to visualize it, don’t worry. Below, we’ll cover a real example and showcase how the different categories work.

• BCG Matrix example

The table below shows a fictitious company’s product line, including necessary metrics for using the BCG Matrix.

It includes the revenues, the largest competitor’s market share — the local market leader — the product’s market share, and the market growth rate.

If we put these products through the BCG Matrix, #1 is a dog, #2 a cash cow, #3 a star, and #4 a question mark.

As you can see, the quadrants have nothing to do with the objective revenue numbers. It’s all about where the market is going and how your product’s doing within that market.

But before you dive in and create your own, you should understand the benefits and your ultimate goal for creating a BCG Matrix in the first place.

Why you should use a BCG Matrix — key benefits

You should use a BCG Matrix because it helps you prioritize business and products, cut waste, and create a robust portfolio.

Let’s break down these benefits.

Prioritize the right business or product quickly to establish a first-mover advantage

Instead of focusing on dying products or cash cows that sustain themselves without much effort, your company can focus on creating new winning products and businesses.

For example, your star product has the lion’s share of the market in a marketplace that’s growing at a rapid pace. Focusing on this business unit would be the smart move going forward.

Eliminate wasteful spending by cutting your losses

A dog product or product line can weigh down your company’s capital and manpower when you’d be better off selling it off and focusing on your winners.

By identifying a business as a dog — something with limited growth potential — you can cut your losses by selling the business or even, if it’s not profitable, simply closing it down.

For example, realizing that its TV business was a dog, Phillips decided to sell off its TV business unit in 2012. The company was coming off record deficits in 2011 and decided to cut its losses.

Since that decision, the company has refocused on other areas and regained healthy profitability.

It is one of the most iconic success stories of selling off and divesting from a “dog” product line in modern history.

Create a more robust and balanced portfolio

Ultimately, the goal isn’t to succeed in one area but to better balance your company’s investment of capital and effort across your entire portfolio. By placing bets on high-growth markets while maintaining healthy cash cows, you can future-proof your company.

If you’re looking for a similar tool to help you plan the journey of a single product, you could try impact mapping .

• What are the four quadrants of the BCG Matrix?

The four quadrants of the BCG Matrix are stars, dogs, cash cows, and question marks.

While we’ve roughly covered them above, let’s explore each category a bit closer, using real product examples.

A cash cow is a well-established business with stable brands in a mature market.

An example of a cash cow business is the domestic soft drink business in the U.S. for Coca-Cola, where the company maintains a 44% share of all revenue.

The market has long since matured and is growing at a fairly slow rate at about 5.1% , which is currently lower than the U.S. rate of inflation.

So, it’s a low-growth market with little potential for future growth, but the business is a winner — AKA a cash cow.

An example of a star is Amazon’s Amazon Web Services business that provides cloud services to B2B customers. The company has a 32% market share, and the public cloud industry is growing rapidly, forecasted to grow 21% in 2021 alone.

This type of market-leading product in an industry that’s virtually exploding is what we call a star .

Phillips’ television business — which we covered earlier — is an example of a dog, where the company had a low market share in a mature marketplace.

Question mark

Kia’s electric vehicle business is a good example of a question mark. Although it currently has a small market share of around 2.1% , the EV market is rapidly growing globally, at an expected average rate of 24.3% in the U.S. until 2028.

Because of the rapid growth of the market, there’s plenty of opportunity for new players to establish themselves.

• How to calculate relative market share in the BCG Matrix

Before you can categorize your businesses, you need real data to see where they stand in the marketplace. The relative market share is one of the key metrics you use in the BCG Matrix.

Let’s break down how to calculate it.

Find a reliable source for up-to-date marketplace data

There are a plethora of market research firms that sell industry data of varying levels of accuracy online.

Either find a firm that specializes in your industry and locations and offers the most accurate data, or establish your own in-house research team.

The important thing is to find a reliable source of the latest, up-to-date market information. Without accurate data, your product portfolio decisions are going to be more luck than judgment.

Identify your largest competitor’s market share

Examine the marketplace data and find your largest competitor for the specific product you’re researching.

Try to find its latest revenue numbers. The company may release revenue data by sector or even product in its quarterly reports. Get as specific as possible to use accurate numbers on the actual business area you want to compare.

Divide your market share by the largest competitor’s market share

The formula to find your relative market share is super simple — just divide your market share (or revenues) by that of your largest competitor.

For example, if your main competitor sells $600,000,000 in tablets and you sell $150,000,000 worth of tablets per year, your relative market share is 0.25.

The relative market share focuses on the importance of “owning” a market, which typically means stable income even without large marketing efforts.

• The role of the BCG Matrix in strategic management

Strategic management is the process of using objectives, procedures, and initiatives to make a company more competitive.

Instead of vague guesswork and thinking, you use formalized processes and real data to come up with objectives and strategies.

For example, this could be investing in researching competitors to explore where your products stand in the marketplace.

The BCG Matrix in itself isn’t the end-all-be-all of strategic management. It’s only a single tool in a larger process.

Start with a planning workshop and creating a big-picture strategy

Don’t try to create a BCG Matrix in a vacuum. Before your company will get anything of value out of it, you need the big picture figured out.

You wouldn’t try to build a house without setting up a robust foundation. So first, you should come up with a vision and strategic objectives for your company based on real data like market research.

A practical way to do this is to arrange a planning workshop with executives and key stakeholders involved with your entire portfolio.

Using a framework like OKR (Objective & Key Results) makes it easier to avoid wild guessing and personal biases.

Combine with strategic objectives to prioritize investments

If your objective is to focus on innovation, double down on stars and question mark businesses in rapidly growing markets, and move some of the marketing and R&D budgets away from stable cash cows.

If it’s to expand globally, focus on the market expansion of an existing cash cow product.

Revise and adapt as circumstances change

It’s important to understand that you’re not going to perfectly predict the path to bombastic success for your company in a single planning workshop and your first BCG Matrix.

As markets and competitors change, you need to adapt your plan and revise your BCG Matrix and priorities.

For example, as market growth peters off, a previous question mark could quickly become a dog, with no real prospects of becoming a winning product for your company.

• How to use the BCG Matrix to improve your marketing strategy

The BCG Matrix can also help you optimize your marketing strategy and grow your business with better promotions.

Let’s look at how.

Re-adjust budgets based on the growth Matrix quadrants

The first step is to use the BCG Matrix to recalibrate your marketing budget.

Ideally, you’d do this in a live meeting with every key stakeholder on board. Of course, if everyone doesn’t work in the same office, which is often the case, this can be difficult. But with our BCG Matrix Template , your team can remotely collaborate on a virtual board in real-time.

With a visual representation of where the products are in their market, it’s easier to accurately distribute the budget.

If you want to be more aggressive, you can focus on question marks and star products with growth potential rather than the safe and steady cash cows.

Adjust your marketing message based on the state of the market and your brand

If you’re pushing an up-and-coming product, you can’t use the same message as you use for markets where you’re already the go-to brand.

You need to adjust based on your place in the market. For example, Avis had a legendary marketing campaign where the company pointed out that it wasn’t the market leader.

By making the argument that “we work harder since we’re second,” Avis experienced rapid growth and established itself as a strong contender to Hertz in the rental car market.

The average consumer tends to default to familiar products and market leaders because it’s a “safe choice.” Find a unique angle to turn your underdog status into a perceived benefit, not a risk.

• Disadvantages of using the BCG Matrix

Just because you can use the BCG Matrix in various areas of your business doesn’t mean you should trust it blindly.

This framework has a number of limitations and issues that make it an imperfect tool for strategic planning.

A high market share doesn’t equal profitability

Just because your product has a high market share doesn’t mean it’s a profitable business. It could be a cut-throat market with high costs, leaving you with bad margins and poor cash generation.

Depending on variations in market size and product type, dogs can actually earn more than cash cows.

It doesn’t account for external factors

The BCG Matrix doesn’t leave room to account for crucial external factors outside the market. For example, the Covid-19 pandemic decimated the tourism sector as a whole, with over one trillion dollars in lost revenue in 2020.

If your company had a plan to expand your tour bus offerings, it’s probably a good idea to put that on hold, even if you could win market share.

Lack of middle ground — only classified low or high

The BCG Matrix tends to deal in extremes — a product either has a low market share or high, with no in-between.

But that’s an overly simplistic outlook on marketplace dynamics. For example, could you truly describe PepsiCo’s share of the U.S. beverage market as low? That’s what you’d have to do if you followed the BCG Matrix formula.

The model is simply too simple

Market growth rates and your relative market shares are important metrics, sure. But on their own, that’s not enough data to make a solid investment or other business decisions.

To make a truly educated decision about your company’s future, you must also consider overall market size, profit margins, operating costs, cash flow, and much more.

So for best results, use it in combination with other frameworks and data when planning budgets and marketing campaigns.

• Use the BCG Matrix as a starting point to make better long-term strategic decisions

The BCG Matrix alone isn’t a complete framework that will help you predict the future and always make the right business decisions.

But it’s a great starting point to help you live up to your strategic objectives over the long term.

It forces you to dig up data on your competition and put your products into context, which can help you identify new marketing opportunities.

It’s not a solution on its own, but it can become a valuable tool in your strategic management toolbox.

Are you ready to build your own BCG Matrix?

Use our bcg matrix template to get started., miro is your team's visual platform to connect, collaborate, and create — together..

Join millions of users that collaborate from all over the planet using Miro.

• Why you should use a BCG Matrix — key benefits

Keep reading

How i do it in miro: networking diagramming with software engineer andre mocke.

How to get started with visual thinking: Diversify your brainstorm sessions with these visual thinking techniques

How I do it in Miro: Streamline your sprint planning with Rosanna Knottenbelt

BCG Matrix Template

Create a BCG Matrix Template in Record Time with Just One Click Using Our Free Template! Harness the power of strategic portfolio management with our BCG Matrix Template. This tool simplifies the analysis of your business units or products by categorizing them into four distinct quadrants, enabling you to allocate resources efficiently and capitalize on market opportunities.

Start now with your BCG Matrix for free on Collaboard!

About the template for a BCG Matrix

Our BCG Matrix Template is meticulously designed to streamline your strategic analysis process. By visually segmenting your business units into 'Stars', 'Cash Cows', 'Question Marks', and 'Dogs', this template provides a clear framework for managing and evaluating product portfolios. Its intuitive design helps identify which products to invest in, develop, or divest, making complex decisions more straightforward. Collaboard offers you free BCG Matrix Templates to fill in directly.

BCG Matrix Templates in Collaboard

Over 2 million people trust Collaboard and use the online whiteboard and over 100 templates. 

Why is a BCG Matrix Important?

Understanding the value of a BCG Matrix is crucial for strategic decision-making. Here’s why:

• Resource Allocation: It guides companies in optimizing resource allocation across different business units based on market growth rate and relative market share.
• Strategic Insights: Provides clear insights into the potential of each business unit, helping prioritize investments in profitable areas.
• Portfolio Balance: Helps maintain a balanced portfolio, combining cash generating and consuming units to sustain business growth.

What is a BCG Matrix used for?

A BCG Matrix, exemplified in various strategic models, serves as a foundational tool in business management. Here are the primary applications of the BCG Matrix, as examples:

• Market Analysis: Using the matrix to assess market positions and potential growth opportunities for various business units.
• Strategic Planning: Aiding in long-term strategic planning by identifying which units require investment, divestiture, or further development.
• Competitive Assessment: Enabling businesses to benchmark their units against competitors to better understand market dynamics.

How to use the BCG Matrix Templates in Collaboard

• Access Collaboard and choose the BCG Matrix template from our collection.
• Enter your specific data for each business unit or product into the four quadrants: Stars, Question Marks, Cash Cows, and Dogs.
• Review the visual output to understand which areas are thriving and which require attention or divestment.
• Utilize the insights from the matrix to strategically allocate resources and plan future actions.
• Update the matrix as market conditions change to ensure strategies remain aligned with business goals.

Why Collaboard?

Easy to use

Intuitive user interface where you can get started right away without much effort. No app to install, use it directly in your web browser.

Highest data security

Collaboard offers GDPR-compliant data hosting in Europe, Germany or Switzerland of your choice.

Numerous integrations

Collaboard can be easily integrated into your existing video conferencing and collaboration solution.

BCG Matrix Template: Frequently asked questions and answers

How to create a bcg matrix.

Creating a BCG Matrix involves identifying your business units or products, assigning them to one of the four categories based on their market growth and share, and visualizing them on a chart to guide strategic decisions.

How to make a BCG Matrix?

You can make a BCG Matrix using tools like Collaboard, which offers customizable templates that simplify entering and visualizing data to reflect the current state of your business portfolio.

What is the BCG Matrix structure?

The BCG Matrix is structured around four quadrants: Stars, Cash Cows, Question Marks, and Dogs. Each represents a different type of business unit based on its market growth and relative market share.

What is BCG Matrix for dummies?

The BCG Matrix is a strategic tool used by businesses to manage their portfolios by classifying products into four categories that help determine investment and development strategies.

What are the 4 strategies of BCG Matrix?

The four strategies of the BCG Matrix include investing in Stars for growth, maintaining Cash Cows for profit, monitoring Question Marks for potential, and divesting Dogs to reallocate resources.

What are the disadvantages of the BCG Matrix?

The main disadvantages of the BCG Matrix include its oversimplification of market dynamics, reliance on market share and growth as the only factors, and potential misclassification of products or business units.

BCG Matrix and how to use it | New Updated Template

What is the BCG Matrix?

The BCG matrix or the growth share matrix in its essence is a portfolio management framework that enables companies to manage their product lines . If you work as a product/brand manager in a medium to large scale organization, chances are your company has a number of products in its portfolio. These products are organized into various categories on the basis of attributes such as price positioning(popular, premium, luxury), quality perception, functionality etc. For companies in industries such as FMCG , or consumer durables , this portfolio can be extremely wide and complex.

As product or category manager, one of your biggest challenges is portfolio management. How do you decide what products/variants should be retained, which ones to deprioritize and which ones to discontinue altogether? This is where the BCG matrix comes in handy. Created in 1968 by BCG ’s founder, Bruce Henderson, this helpful, visual framework has since garnered global acclaim and become an essential tool in a product manager’s strategy toolkit.

In this article, we present to you a ready made template for the BCG matrix as well as basic guidelines that help you analyse your product portfolio in a visual, easily understandable layout.

How to use a BCG matrix?

The idea that underpins the BCG Matrix is that there are 2 large determinants of product success. Growth and market share. Growth is the rate at which the particular market is growing. Market share is the market share of the product relative to competition. In the matrix, these two metrics are represented along the two axes. The product portfolio is then plotted onto the chart. Let us now break down the resulting 4 quadrants.

• Cash Cows (Low growth market, high market share) – These are the products that have a high market share in a low-growth industry or category. The ROI associated with these products is generally high since marketing monies are typically not invested in slow growing or ‘mature’ industries. These products are ‘milked’ for as much revenues as can be generated and the resulting cash flow is then invested in faster-growing categories.
• Dogs (Low Growth market, Low Market Share) – These low-share products in a mature industry barely generate any profitability. Unless these have some kind of strategic importance for the company, eg. Visibility, establish presence or a flanking strategy these should eventually be discontinued.
• Stars(High market growth, high market share) – These are products that have the highest future potential. Constant investment in these are required to fight off competition and maintaining market share. Once the market growth slows, the goal is for these to become cash cows.
• Question Marks(High growth market, low market share) – The non-obvious nature of these ‘question marks’ means that these need to be carefully analysed. Investing in these might turn them into stars and eventually cash cows or if they fail to take hold, they could degenerate into dogs.

Use template

BCG Matrix: A visual overview

Like other strategic frameworks such as SWOT or Pestel , the greatest strength of the BCG matrix template is its simplicity and ease of use. It affords you the ability to lay out complex information visually. This can then be circulated among teams and even with senior management as an easily understandable snapshot of your portfolio.

Tools such as Conceptboard help you map out abstract information in a visual format that is visually appealing, easy to use and easier to understand. Discover all the templates we offer and try them for free today on Conceptboard!

More interesting articles for you

Unwrap the Joy: Elevate Your Team’s Holiday Spirit with Our Exclusive Christmas Game Template!

The holiday season is upon us, and at Conceptboard, we’re thrilled to unwrap the gift of festive cheer with our special Christmas Game Template!

Wireframe Template – A structure to build something great | Free Template

By using Wireframe Templates, you can streamline your workflow and ensure a more efficient and effective design process.

How do we handle the onboarding of new employees at Conceptboard? With Conceptboard!

Here at Conceptboard, our tool has become an indispensable part of our everyday work. We are constantly discovering new use cases and finding new, better processes. Find out what we achieved in the field of HR.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Post Comment

Experience the power of visual collaboration

Experience how Conceptboard boosts your team’s hybrid collaboration and communication.

No credit card

No commitments

Start right now

• Content Calendar Templates
• Customer Experience Management Framework
• Customer Experience Strategy
• Customer Journey Touchpoints
• Customer Pain Points
• Guide to Product Launches
• How to Improve Customer Experience
• Industry Analysis Templates
• Lead Generation Vs Demand Generation
• Marketing Planning Process
• Marketing Roadmap
• Mastering Demand Generation Strategy
• Net Promoter Score
• SOAR Analysis
• Understanding Demand Management
• What is BCG Matrix
• What is Customer Segmentation
• Content Marketing Plan
• Customer Journey Maps
• Visualizing Buyer Personas
• Improving Customer Support Processes
• Guide to Viral Videos
• Marketing Mix
• Ansoff Matrix
• BCG Matrix Template
• Brand Wheel
• Agile Templates
• Chore Chart Templates
• Cost Management Techniques
• Dependency Mapping
• Efficiency vs Effectiveness
• Event Planning
• Expense Report Templates
• Improving Project Estimation Accuracy
• Power Influence Grid
• Progress Report
• Project Evaluation
• Project Management Methodologies
• Project Management Metrics
• Project Portfolio Management
• Proof of Concept Templates
• Punch List Templates
• Requirement Gathering Process
• Requirements Traceability Matrix
• Resource Scheduling
• Roles and Responsibilities Template
• Setting Sprint Goals
• Stakeholder Engagement Model
• Stakeholder Identification
• Stakeholder Mapping
• Stakeholder-theory
• Team Alignment Map
• Team Charter
• Templates for Managers
• What is Project Baseline
• Work Log Templates
• Workback Schedule
• Workload Management
• Assumption Mapping
• Work Breakdown Structures
• Agile Team Structure
• Avoding Scope Creep
• Cross-Functional Flowcharts
• Precision VS Accuracy
• Scrum-Spike
• User Story Guide
• Creating Project Charters
• Guide to Team Communication
• How to Prioritize Tasks
• Mastering RAID Logs
• Overcoming Analysis Paralysis
• Understanding RACI Model
• Achieving Big Hairy Audacious Goals
• Critical Success Factors
• Deadline Management
• Eisenhower Matrix Guide
• Guide to Multi Project Management
• Procure-to-Pay Best Practices
• Procurement Management Plan Template to Boost Project Success
• Project Execution and Change Management
• Project Management Success Factors
• Project Plan and Schedule Templates
• Resource Planning Templates for Smooth Project Execution
• Risk Management and Quality Management Plan Templates
• Risk Management in Software Engineering
• Setting and Achieving Stretch Goals
• Stage Gate Process
• Stakeholder Management Planning
• Understanding the S-Curve
• Visualizing Your To-Do List
• 30-60-90 Day Plan
• Work Plan Template
• Weekly Planner Template
• Task Analysis Examples
• Cross-Functional Flowcharts for Planning
• Inventory Management Tecniques
• Inventory Templates
• Six Sigma DMAIC Method
• Visual Process Improvement
• Value Stream Mapping
• Creating a Workflow
• Fibonacci Scale Template
• Supply Chain Diagram
• Kaizen Method
• Procurement Process Flow Chart
• Guide to State Diagrams
• UML Activity Diagrams
• Class Diagrams & their Relationships
• Visualize flowcharts for software
• Wire-Frame Benefits
• Applications of UML
• Selecting UML Diagrams
• Create Sequence Diagrams Online
• Activity Diagram Tool
• Archimate Tool
• Class Diagram Tool
• Graphic Organizers
• Social Work Assessment Tools
• Using KWL Charts to Boost Learning
• Editable Timeline Templates
• Kinship Diagram Guide
• Power of Visual Documentation
• Graphic Organizers for Teachers & Students
• Visual Documentation Techniques
• Visual Tool for Visual Documentation
• Concept Maps in Science
• Conducting a Thematic Analysis
• Visualizing a Dichotomous Key
• 5 W's Chart
• Circular Flow Diagram Maker
• Cladogram Maker
• Comic Strip Maker
• Course Design Template
• AI Buyer Persona
• AI Data Visualization
• AI Diagrams
• AI Project Management
• AI SWOT Analysis
• Best AI Templates
• Brainstorming AI
• Pros & Cons of AI
• AI for Business Strategy
• Using AI for Business Plan
• AI for HR Teams
• BPMN Symbols
• BPMN vs UML
• Business Process Analysis
• Business Process Modeling
• Capacity Planning Guide
• Case Management Process
• How to Avoid Bottlenecks in Processes
• Innovation Management Process
• Project vs Process
• Solve Customer Problems
• Spaghetti Diagram
• Startup Templates
• Streamline Purchase Order Process
• What is BPMN
• Approval Process
• Employee Exit Process
• Iterative Process
• Process Documentation
• Process Improvement Ideas
• Risk Assessment Process
• Tiger Teams
• Work Instruction Templates
• Workflow Vs. Process
• Process Mapping
• Business Process Reengineering
• Meddic Sales Process
• SIPOC Diagram
• What is Business Process Management
• Process Mapping Software
• Business Analysis Tool
• Business Capability Map
• Decision Making Tools and Techniques
• Operating Model Canvas
• Mobile App Planning
• Product Development Guide
• Product Roadmap
• Timeline Diagrams
• Visualize User Flow
• Sequence Diagrams
• Flowchart Maker
• Online Class Diagram Tool
• Organizational Chart Maker
• Mind Map Maker
• Retro Software
• Agile Project Charter
• Critical Path Software
• Brainstorming Guide
• Brainstorming Tools
• Concept Map Note Taking
• Visual Tools for Brainstorming
• Brainstorming Content Ideas
• Brainstorming in Business
• Brainstorming Questions
• Brainstorming Rules
• Brainstorming Techniques
• Brainstorming Workshop
• Design Thinking and Brainstorming
• Divergent vs Convergent Thinking
• Group Brainstorming Strategies
• Group Creativity
• How to Make Virtual Brainstorming Fun and Effective
• Ideation Techniques
• Improving Brainstorming
• Marketing Brainstorming
• Plot Diagrams
• Rapid Brainstorming
• Reverse Brainstorming Challenges
• Reverse vs. Traditional Brainstorming
• What Comes After Brainstorming
• Flowchart Guide
• Spider Diagram Guide
• 5 Whys Template
• Assumption Grid Template
• Brainstorming Templates
• Brainwriting Template
• Innovation Techniques
• 50 Business Diagrams
• Business Model Canvas
• Change Control Process
• Change Management Process
• Macro Environmental Analysis
• NOISE Analysis
• Profit & Loss Templates
• Scenario Planning
• What are Tree Diagrams
• Winning Brand Strategy
• Work Management Systems
• Balanced Scorecard
• Developing Action Plans
• Guide to setting OKRS
• How to Write a Memo
• Improve Productivity & Efficiency
• Mastering Task Analysis
• Mastering Task Batching
• Monthly Budget Templates
• Program Planning
• Top Down Vs. Bottom Up
• Weekly Schedule Templates
• Cash Cow Matrix
• Kaizen Principles
• Opportunity Mapping
• Strategic-Goals
• Strategy Mapping
• Strategy vs Tactics
• T Chart Guide
• Business Continuity Plan
• Developing Your MVP
• Incident Management
• Needs Assessment Process
• Product Development From Ideation to Launch
• Value-Proposition-Canvas
• Visualizing Competitive Landscape
• Communication Plan
• Graphic Organizer Creator
• Fault Tree Software
• Bowman's Strategy Clock Template
• Decision Matrix Template
• Communities of Practice
• Goal Setting for 2024
• Meeting Templates
• Meetings Participation
• Microsoft Teams Brainstorming
• Retrospective Guide
• Skip Level Meetings
• Visual Documentation Guide
• Visual Note Taking
• Weekly Meetings
• Affinity Diagrams
• Business Plan Presentation
• Post-Mortem Meetings
• Team Building Activities
• WBS Templates
• Online Whiteboard Tool
• Communications Plan Template
• Idea Board Online
• Meeting Minutes Template
• Genograms in Social Work Practice
• Conceptual Framework
• How to Conduct a Genogram Interview
• How to Make a Genogram
• Genogram Questions
• Genograms in Client Counseling
• Understanding Ecomaps
• Visual Research Data Analysis Methods
• House of Quality Template
• Customer Problem Statement Template
• Competitive Analysis Template
• Creating Operations Manual
• Knowledge Base
• Folder Structure Diagram
• Online Checklist Maker
• Lean Canvas Template
• Instructional Design Examples
• Genogram Maker
• Work From Home Guide
• Strategic Planning
• Employee Engagement Action Plan
• Huddle Board
• One-on-One Meeting Template
• Story Map Graphic Organizers
• Introduction to Your Workspace
• Managing Workspaces and Folders
• Adding Text
• Collaborative Content Management
• Creating and Editing Tables
• Adding Notes
• Introduction to Diagramming
• Using Shapes
• Using Freehand Tool
• Adding Images to the Canvas
• Accessing the Contextual Toolbar
• Using Connectors
• Working with Tables
• Working with Templates
• Working with Frames
• Using Notes
• Access Controls
• Exporting a Workspace
• Real-Time Collaboration
• Notifications
• Using Creately VIZ
• Meet Creately VIZ
• Unleashing the Power of Collaborative Brainstorming
• Uncovering the potential of Retros for all teams
• Collaborative Apps in Microsoft Teams
• Hiring a Great Fit for Your Team
• Project Management Made Easy
• Cross-Corporate Information Radiators
• Creately 4.0 - Product Walkthrough
• What's New

BCG Matrix in Strategic Management: A Guide to Portfolio Analysis and Decision-Making

In the realm of business strategy, making informed decisions is key for success. Strategic management provides a framework for guiding these decisions, making sure that resources are allocated effectively and goals are achieved. One of the fundamental tools in strategic management is the BCG Matrix, a simple yet powerful model for analyzing and managing a company’s portfolio of products or services. In this guide, we will look at the role of the BCG matrix in strategic management and how to effectively use it for portfolio analysis and decision making.

Understanding the BCG Matrix Framework in Strategic Management

The BCG Matrix categorizes a company’s products or services into four quadrants based on two dimensions: market growth rate and relative market share. These quadrants are Stars, Question Marks, Cash Cows, and Dogs. Each quadrant represents a different strategic implication for the product or service it contains, guiding decisions on resource allocation and growth strategies.

To learn more about what is the BCG matrix and how to use it, refer to our guide What is BCG Matrix: A Comprehensive Guide with Templates .

Explore more BCG matrix examples .

Steps for Implementing the BCG Matrix in Strategic Management

Implementing the BCG Matrix in strategic management involves several steps, each of which is crucial for effectively analyzing your business’s portfolio and making informed decisions. Let’s break down these steps:

Step 1: Data Collection and Analysis

To begin implementing the BCG Matrix in strategic management, the first step is gathering relevant data and conducting thorough analysis. This involves collecting information on two key metrics for each product or service in your portfolio:

• Market growth rate : This metric reflects the rate at which the overall market for a particular product or service is growing. It helps determine the attractiveness of the market in which a product operates.
• Relative market share : This metric compares a product’s market share to that of its competitors. It indicates the product’s strength and competitiveness within its market segment.

Gathering data for these metrics may involve market research, sales data analysis, and competitor benchmarking. Once collected, the data should be carefully analyzed to ensure accuracy and reliability.

Step 2: Plotting on the matrix

With the data collected and analyzed, the next step is to plot each product or service on the BCG Matrix. The matrix consists of four quadrants, each representing a different combination of market growth rate and relative market share:

• Ready to use
• Fully customizable template
• Get Started in seconds

Stars : Products with high market share in high-growth markets. These products typically require significant investment to maintain their growth trajectory.

Question Marks (or Problem Children) : Products with low market share in high-growth markets. These products have potential for growth but require careful investment and strategic management.

Cash Cows : Products with high market share in low-growth markets. These products generate significant cash flow and profits and typically require minimal investment.

Dogs : Products with low market share in low-growth markets. These products may not generate significant profits and may require reevaluation or divestment.

Each product or service in your portfolio should be placed in one of these quadrants based on its market growth rate and relative market share.

Step 3: Analyzing results and formulating strategies

Once products or services are plotted on the matrix, the final step is to analyze the results and formulate strategies accordingly. This involves understanding the strategic implications of each quadrant and determining appropriate actions:

Stars : For products in this quadrant, the focus should be on investing resources to maintain and further grow market share. Strategies may include product innovation, marketing campaigns, and expansion into new markets.

Question Marks : Products in this quadrant require careful consideration and strategic investment. Depending on the potential for growth and market dynamics, strategies may include market development, product differentiation, or strategic partnerships.

Cash Cows : These products are typically mature and stable, generating consistent cash flow. Strategies may focus on maximizing profitability through cost management, pricing optimization, and efficient resource allocation.

Dogs : Products in this quadrant may require reevaluation or divestment, especially if they are not contributing to the overall profitability of the portfolio. Strategies may include product rationalization, divestment, or strategic alliances.

By analyzing the results of the BCG Matrix and formulating appropriate strategies, organizations can optimize their portfolio management and make informed decisions to drive sustainable growth and profitability.

Implementing the BCG Matrix in strategic management requires careful consideration of market dynamics, competitive positioning, and strategic priorities. By following these steps and leveraging the insights provided by the matrix, organizations can effectively manage their portfolio of products and services to achieve their strategic objectives.

Tips for Effectively Using the BCG Matrix in Strategic Management

Here are effective tips for leveraging the BCG Matrix to drive strategic insights, optimize resource allocation, and position your business for sustainable growth and success.

Regularly update your data

Market conditions and product performance can change rapidly. To ensure the accuracy and relevance of your BCG Matrix, make it a priority to update your data regularly. This includes monitoring market growth rates, assessing relative market shares, and tracking changes in your product portfolio.

Ensure accurate positioning

The accuracy of your BCG Matrix hinges on the precise positioning of your products/services within the four quadrants. Take the time to gather reliable data and thoroughly analyze each product/service before plotting it on the matrix. Avoid making assumptions and rely on empirical evidence whenever possible.

Consider external factors

While the BCG Matrix provides valuable insights into internal factors such as market growth rate and relative market share, it’s essential to consider external factors that may impact your business and its portfolio. This includes economic conditions, industry trends, regulatory changes, and competitive dynamics. Integrating these external factors into your analysis will provide a more comprehensive view of your strategic landscape.

Integrate with other strategic tools

The BCG Matrix is just one tool in your strategic management toolkit. To gain a holistic understanding of your business and its strategic options, consider integrating the BCG Matrix with other tools and models, such as SWOT analysis , PESTEL analysis, and Porter’s Five Forces . Each tool offers unique perspectives that can complement and enrich your strategic decision-making process.

Prioritize actionable insights

The primary purpose of the BCG Matrix is to identify strategic priorities and guide resource allocation decisions. Focus on actionable insights that will drive tangible outcomes for your business. Prioritize investments in products/services with high growth potential (Stars and Question Marks) while optimizing profitability in established offerings (Cash Cows) and rationalizing underperforming ones (Dogs).

Involve key stakeholders

Strategic decision-making is a collaborative effort that involves input from various stakeholders across your organization. Engage key stakeholders, including senior management, product managers, marketing teams, and finance professionals, in the BCG Matrix process. This will ensure alignment, foster buy-in, and enrich the quality of your strategic decisions.

Monitor and adapt

Markets are dynamic, and strategic landscapes evolve over time. Continuously monitor the performance of your products/services and reassess their positioning on the BCG Matrix. Be prepared to adapt your strategies and reallocate resources as needed to capitalize on emerging opportunities and mitigate potential risks.

BCG Matrix vs Ansoff Matrix in Strategic Management

While both the BCG Matrix and the Ansoff Growth Matrix are valuable tools in strategic management, they serve different purposes and focus on different aspects of strategic decision-making. The BCG Matrix is primarily used for portfolio analysis and resource allocation, while the Ansoff Growth Matrix is focused on growth strategies and market expansion. Depending on the company’s objectives and context, both tools can provide valuable insights for informed decision-making in strategic management.

Purpose and focus

• BCG Matrix : Helps companies decide where to invest resources among their existing products.
• Ansoff Growth Matrix : Helps companies decide how to grow, whether by selling more of what they have, selling to new customers, selling new products, or entering new markets.

Analysis approach

• BCG Matrix : Sorts products into groups based on how much they’re growing and how much they’re selling.
• Ansoff Growth Matrix : Helps decide if a company should sell more to current customers, find new customers, sell new products, or try something completely new.

Time horizon

• BCG Matrix : Helps with short to medium-term decisions.
• Ansoff Growth Matrix : Thinks about the long-term future of a company.

Application

• BCG Matrix : Best for big companies with lots of products, helping them decide where to invest and where to pull back.
• Ansoff Growth Matrix : Useful for any company wanting to grow, helping them understand how to do it, whether by selling more of the same products, finding new customers, making new products, or trying something new altogether.

Understanding the BCG Matrix Positions Throughout the Product Lifecycle

By analyzing the product lifecycle of each product in the portfolio and aligning them with their appropriate positions on the BCG matrix, companies can develop targeted strategies for resource allocation, investment prioritization, and portfolio optimization. This approach enables companies to maximize the value of their product portfolio and drive sustainable growth in competitive markets.

Introduction stage

• At the beginning of their lifecycle, products are introduced into the market. Sales are typically low as consumers become aware of the product and its features.
• Question Marks : These products have low market share but high growth potential, indicating they are in the early stages of market penetration.
• Stars : Some products may quickly gain market share and exhibit high growth rates, positioning them as stars in the BCG Matrix.

Growth stage

• As products gain acceptance and popularity, they enter the growth stage. Sales begin to increase rapidly as consumer demand grows.
• Products in the growth stage are typically classified as Stars in the BCG Matrix.
• Stars represent products with high growth potential and significant market share, reflecting their success in capturing a growing market segment.

Maturity stage

• After reaching peak sales levels, products enter the maturity stage. Market saturation becomes apparent, and competition intensifies.
• In the BCG Matrix, products in the maturity stage are usually classified as Cash Cows.
• Cash Cows have high market share but low growth rates, indicating their position as established and profitable products.

Decline stage

• Eventually, products reach the decline stage as sales begin to decline due to changing consumer preferences or technological advancements.
• Products in the decline stage are typically classified as Dogs in the BCG Matrix.
• Dogs represent products with low market share and low growth rates, signaling the need for strategic decisions regarding their future viability.

The BCG Matrix is a valuable tool in the strategic management toolkit, providing a structured approach to portfolio analysis and decision-making. By understanding its framework, implementing it effectively, and recognizing its strengths and limitations, businesses can make more informed strategic choices and drive sustainable growth.

Join over thousands of organizations that use Creately to brainstorm, plan, analyze, and execute their projects successfully.

More Related Articles

Amanda Athuraliya is the communication specialist/content writer at Creately, online diagramming and collaboration tool. She is an avid reader, a budding writer and a passionate researcher who loves to write about all kinds of topics.

• Strategy Templates

Consulting Templates

• Market Analysis Templates

• Business Case

• Consulting Proposal

All Templates

10 real consulting proposals, free to download.

Table of contents

Mckinsey proposals.

• BCG Proposals 

Bain Proposals

Deloitte proposals.

Consulting proposals from top-tier consultancies like McKinsey, Bain, and BCG are typically closely guarded secrets. However, now and then, an RfP response finds its way into the public domain. Most are for government projects, disclosed under transparency requirements.

For your convenience, we've rounded them up here, along with short summaries of each document.

Please note: Many of the proposals here are responses to government RfPs, and as a result often long text-heavy documents structured according to the specifications of the RfP. These proposals are quite different from typical consulting proposals that tend to be shorter, more visual, and often delivered as a slide deck. 

Proposal guide & template See our  consulting proposal guide  to learn how to structure and write a winning commercial proposal. Or download our best-selling  Consulting Proposal Template for PowerPoint  to get recent real-life consulting proposal slides used with corporate clients.

McKinsey proposal on COVID-19 response to the State of New Jersey (2020)

At the State of New Jersey's request, McKinsey submitted this 16-page proposal in April 2020 on how it could assist the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management in navigating the pandemic.

Great inspiration for: How to divide a project into work streams with clear objectives, activities, and key deliverables. This proposal shows how McKinsey breaks up their fee according to work streams, team size, and project duration. 

Download the proposal here

BCG Proposals  

Roadmap for a low carbon energy system, mercury, genesis energy, and contact energy - bcg proposal (2022).

A short written proposal prepared for a consortium of New Zealand energy companies. The aim of the project was a report that " creates a whole-of-electricity-sector view to enable the bringing together of an independent view of the best pathway to a low carbon energy system ".  The document only includes the core of the proposal (context & problem, proposed solution, timeline, objectives, and scope). Proposal specifics like the proposed project delivery approach, fees, and next steps are not included. 

Great inspiration for: How to structure and write a clear and short proposal.  Download the proposal here

BdB new payment system - BCG Proposal (2012) 

A 121-slide BCG proposal (in German) from 2012. The proposal, created for The Association of German Private Banks (BdB), was aimed at developing a new payment system for the German market

Great inspiration for: How to structure and design a large slide-based proposal. It's interesting to note that more than half of the proposal is slides on the situation and challenges. 

Operational Excellence, The University of California, Berkeley - Bain proposal (2009)

An older but very effective Operational Excellence proposal developed by Bain. The project aims to identify options to reduce the University's addressable operating cost structure by as much as $100 million through more efficient operations. 

Great inspiration for: How to structure a proposal utilizing the  SCR framework  and the  Pyramid Principle . The result is a proposal that is easy to understand despite its complexity. 

State of Iowa, Efficiency and Transformation Review - Deloitte Consulting proposal (2014) 

A very detailed 185-page proposal submitted as a response to an RfP created by the Board of Regents at the State of Iowa. The Board seeks management consulting support to perform a comprehensive, system-wide review of Iowa’s public universities. This proposed review includes identifying opportunities to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and increase revenue for Iowa’s State System of Higher Education.

Great inspiration for: What it takes, in terms of details and pre-work, to win a large government consulting project. 

Georgia Medicaid Program RfP - Proposals from Deloitte, Accenture, and EY (2019)

Six consulting firms (Accenture, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, McKinsey, and Public Consulting Group) got invited to submit detailed proposals for helping the Georgia Department of Community Health develop two waiver applications to send to the federal government, seeking to expand Georgia's Medicaid program and offer a private health insurance marketplace through an alternative to the Affordable Care Act.

All but McKinsey submitted proposals. Based on the detailed proposals received, Deloitte, EY, and Accenture were shortlisted and invited to make a short pitch. The three pitches can be found here:

• Deloitte proposal pitch (winner)
• EY proposal pitch
• Accenture proposal pitch

The state ultimately picked the proposal from Deloitte Consulting. While the three decks' overall quality and design could be much better, Deloitte's deck is at least clear and concise. 

More Inspiration  

When creating a new presentation or project report it can be helpful to see how others have done it in the past. We have collected a number of real McKinsey decks , BCG decks , and Bain Decks from around the internet for you to review, analyze, and learn from. 

Download our most popular templates

High-end PowerPoint templates and toolkits created by ex-McKinsey, BCG, and Bain consultants

Create a best-practice proposal incl. solution design, team, project timeline, KPIs, pricing etc.

Consulting toolkit and template

A comprehensive library of slide layouts, templates, and typically consulting tools and frameworks.

Create a full business case incl. strategy, roadmap, financials and more.

Related articles

How to Write Recommendation Slides Like a Consultant (Examples and Template)

In this article, we discuss what a Recommendation slide is, how it is different from a Next Steps slide, and how to create a best practice version with examples from McKinsey, BCG, and Bain decks.

May 9, 2024

How to Write Roadmap Slides Like a Consultant (Examples and Template)

Roadmap Slides function like a map, laying out the key milestones, goals, activities, and timelines for achieving a particular objective. In this post, we will explore various roadmap slides and offer a few tips and tricks for building your own.

Apr 25, 2024

What is the MECE Framework – McKinsey Toolbox

In this post, we cover the MECE principle and how you can apply it to sharpen your thinking and simplify complex ideas into something that can easily be understood.

Dec 6, 2023

• Consulting Toolkit
• Business Strategy
• Market Analysis
• Market Entry Analysis
• Due Diligence Report
• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Digital Transformation
• Product Strategy
• Go-To-Market Strategy
• Operational Excellence I
• Operational Excellence II
• Operational Excellence III
• Consulting PowerPoint Templates

• How it works
• Terms & Conditions
• Privacy Policy

© 2023 Slideworks. All rights reserved

Denmark : Farvergade 10 4. 1463 Copenhagen K

US : 101 Avenue of the Americas, 9th Floor 10013, New York

The Leading Source of Insights On Business Model Strategy & Tech Business Models

BCG Business Model In A Nutshell

It all started in 1963 when Bruce D. Henderson founded the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as part of The Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company. The BCG became independent by the end of the 1970s and started an expansion process. In 2019, BCG made over $8.5 billion in revenues.

Table of Contents

The Product Portfolio (the BCG trademark)

BCG has been able to expand globally also thanks to its recognized brand and the ability of its founder (Bruce Henderson) to leverage on a model where ownership was distributed, thus enabling a fast expansion.

At the same time, the BCG trademarks and ideas shaped the consulting world for decades.

Among its most recognized trademark ideas and one of those concepts that you find persistently at business school , there is the BCG Matrix .

According to that, success is achieved when a company can divert part of its cash and resources toward products that can turn into cash cows in the long run.

While failure is guaranteed when the cash generated from cash cows or star products is diverted into products that, over time, will become dogs.

Origin and evolution of BCG

Bruce Henderson , the founder of BCG, was an innovator who proposed alternative business ideas back in the 1960s that became part of its trademark.

Ideas like The Product Portfolio (aka BCG Matrix or growth-share matrix) and time-based compensation would become the main trademarks of its brand .

In the 1960s , BCG established itself as a consulting firm proposing alternative ideas compared to companies that applied best practices and acted according to the previous era’s strategy rules.

It helped the post-war European, and Japanese markets recover, thus enabling BCG to expand globally.

By 1968, BCG counted 68 consultants between New York and Tokyo, and its BCG Matrix would have become its trademark.

By the 1970s , BCG, now a prominent consulting firm, would start its expansion in Europe, gaining an important share of the consulting market.

The company had tripled by the 1970s, with 277 consultants and seven offices worldwide.

Bruce Henderson would compare strategy with a “bucketful of marbles:”

By the 1980s , BCG had reached 524 consultants and 14 total offices worldwide.

BCG started helping companies optimize their processes in those years and decades, which would become its trademark in the 1990s.

By the 1990s , all the big brands and companies relied on BCG to execute complex projects, from post-merger integration process optimization to restructuring IT systems.

By the 2000s , change management had become the most requested service.

As the dot-com bubble burst, by 2001, BCG helped companies restructure their operations.

How does BCG make money today?

By 2019, BCG had reached $8.5 billion in revenues.

To gain a bit of context, Accenture and Deloitte would reach $43.2 and $46.2 billion, while smaller management consulting firms like Bain and Company and Kearney reached $4.5 billion and $1.3 billion, respectively.

As reported by BCG , “from 2009 to 2019, global sales grew from $2.75 billion to $8.5 billion” and from 6,900 to 21,000 employees worldwide. Therefore tripling in size in a decade.

While revenues kept growing, the question of whether BCG’s approach is still relevant in today’s world is still open, which forced the iconic consulting firm to rush a set of acquisitions to stay on top of its game.

The rushed acquisitions to stay relevant in a new world

What drove growth throughout this decade? CEO  Rich Lesser  noted that “more than ever before, clients turn to BCG for new solutions to the challenges of our times,” while its focus  on “digitizing and embedding AI in core processes, building “bionic” organizations, and supporting large-scale change efforts to accelerate performance, even in challenging environments.”

As of 2020, the BCG management consulting services are broken down in a few main areas.

There used to be a time when management consulting firms were seen by large corporations as the ones to call to help them solve important problems related to innovation .

That time though was gone; when the web took over, those management consulting firms also lost some of their relevance, and while their bottom lines have grown, those companies still have major corporate clients.

Management consulting firms, BCG as well, have been rushing to acquire small innovative management consulting firms in an attempt to stay relevant in a market that has completely shifted.

Therefore, now BCG has been integrating those consulting firms within the BCG global team, which now offers a few “innovative” services, as part of this acquisition process:

• BCG Digital Ventures: helping companies research, design , and launch new products and services.
• BCG GAMMA: data science, AI, and analytics arm.
• BCG Platinion is primarily about IT processes focused on digital transformation.
• BCG Omnia: offering strategy and data solutions.
• BrightHouse: a global creative consultancy firm.
• Expand: offering research and syndicated benchmarking for the world’s leading financial institutions.
• INVERTO: an international supply chain and procurement consultancy side.

How will BCG stay relevant in the coming decade?

In this new era, where data is available anywhere, the primary job of companies like BCG will be to help, especially larger brands, figure out what to do with that data in the first place.

For instance, in 2019, BCG acquired Kernel Analytics and integrated it within its BCG Gamma services.

As BCG CEO Rich Lesser said at the time,

“BCG GAMMA is one of the most exciting parts of our business, and we expect the market for tailored AI solutions to continue growing rapidly. As we further expand our capabilities, this acquisition will help us to continue enabling our clients to deliver on their ambitions,”

The GAMMA team comprises profiles such as Analytics Software Engineers, Machine Learning Engineers, Analytics Architects, and many other profiles able to handle and interpret a large amount of data.

Most of GAMMA’s team are people on the engineering side rather than sales or marketing .

Therefore, those are more Ph.D. rather than MBA.

As pointed out by a GAMMA engineer, back in 2018, they “deliver custom data science-based solutions (machine learning, numerical optimization…) to clients to allow them to take advantage of the huge impact data analytics and AI are having on the business world: pricing optimization, personalized marketing , more dynamic logistic, etc.. they create the data science models, program the software (in Python or R essentially) and deliver working solutions, not only advices and slide decks. To build those solutions, we need to understand both data science and business.”

Value Proposition:

• Strategic Consulting Services: The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) offers strategic consulting services to help clients solve complex business challenges, achieve growth , improve performance, and drive innovation . BCG’s value proposition lies in its expertise, insights, and methodologies that enable clients to make informed strategic decisions and navigate market dynamics effectively.
• Industry Expertise: BCG provides industry-specific knowledge and insights tailored to various sectors, including healthcare, technology, consumer goods, financial services, and more. By leveraging deep industry expertise, BCG helps clients identify opportunities, anticipate trends, and develop strategies to stay competitive in their respective markets.
• Data-Driven Insights: BCG utilizes data analytics, market research, and proprietary tools to generate actionable insights and recommendations for clients. By analyzing market trends, consumer behavior, competitive landscapes, and internal performance metrics, BCG helps clients make data-driven decisions and optimize business outcomes.
• Innovation and Transformation: BCG assists clients in driving innovation and organizational transformation to adapt to changing market conditions, embrace digital technologies, and capitalize on emerging opportunities. Through strategic initiatives, organizational redesign, and change management strategies, BCG enables clients to achieve sustainable growth and long-term success.

Revenue Model:

• Consulting Fees: BCG generates revenue primarily through consulting fees charged to clients for strategic advisory services. These fees are typically based on factors such as the scope and complexity of the project, the level of seniority of BCG consultants involved, and the duration of the engagement.
• Project-Based Engagements: BCG often works with clients on project-based engagements, where fees are structured based on specific deliverables, milestones, and outcomes defined in the project scope. These engagements may include strategy development, market analysis , organizational restructuring, and operational improvement initiatives.
• Retainer Agreements: BCG may enter into retainer agreements with clients, where clients pay a recurring fee to retain ongoing access to BCG’s consulting services, expertise, and support. Retainer agreements provide clients with continuous strategic guidance and support to address evolving business needs and challenges.
• Performance-Based Fees: In some cases, BCG may negotiate performance-based fees tied to the achievement of predefined business objectives, key performance indicators (KPIs), or financial targets. Performance-based fees align BCG’s incentives with the client’s success, encouraging collaboration and accountability in driving results.

Marketing Strategy:

• Thought Leadership and Content Marketing: BCG maintains a strong thought leadership presence through publications, research reports, whitepapers, and industry insights shared via its website, blogs, social media channels, and traditional media outlets. By producing high-quality content on relevant business topics, BCG establishes credibility, attracts potential clients, and stimulates demand for its consulting services.
• Client Referrals and Testimonials: BCG relies on client referrals and testimonials as a key marketing strategy to acquire new business. Positive recommendations and endorsements from satisfied clients serve as powerful endorsements of BCG’s capabilities, expertise, and value proposition , helping to build trust and credibility with prospective clients.
• Industry Events and Conferences: BCG participates in industry events, conferences, and networking forums to showcase its thought leadership, expertise, and capabilities. By sponsoring events, hosting workshops, and delivering keynote presentations, BCG increases brand visibility, engages with target audiences, and generates leads for potential consulting engagements.
• Digital Marketing and Online Presence: BCG employs digital marketing tactics such as search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, email marketing , and social media marketing to reach and engage with target audiences online. By optimizing its website, content, and digital channels, BCG enhances its visibility, generates inbound leads, and nurtures relationships with prospects throughout the buyer’s journey.

Distribution Channels:

• Direct Sales and Client Relationships: BCG utilizes a direct sales approach to engage with prospective clients and cultivate long-term relationships. BCG’s team of consultants, partners, and business development professionals actively prospect for new business opportunities, engage with decision-makers, and tailor solutions to meet clients’ specific needs and objectives.
• Global Network of Offices: BCG operates a global network of offices across major cities and regions worldwide, providing local presence and support to clients in diverse markets. Through its network of offices, BCG leverages local insights, resources, and expertise to deliver customized solutions and consulting services tailored to regional nuances and market dynamics.
• Virtual and Remote Engagement: BCG leverages virtual collaboration tools, video conferencing, and remote communication technologies to engage with clients and deliver consulting services remotely. By embracing digital platforms and virtual engagement models, BCG expands its reach, accessibility, and flexibility in serving clients across geographies and time zones.
• Partnerships and Alliances: BCG forms strategic partnerships and alliances with complementary service providers, technology vendors, and industry organizations to extend its capabilities, offerings, and reach. Through strategic collaborations, BCG enhances its value proposition , accesses new markets, and delivers integrated solutions that address clients’ broader business needs and challenges.
• Founding and Growth: BCG was founded in 1963 by Bruce D. Henderson as part of The Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company. It later became independent and experienced significant growth , reaching over 21,000 employees globally and generating over $8.5 billion in revenue by 2019.
• BCG Matrix: One of BCG’s trademark concepts is The Product Portfolio (BCG Matrix), introduced in the 1970s. This matrix categorizes products into four groups based on growth potential and market share: cash cows, pets (dogs), question marks, and stars.
• Global Expansion: BCG expanded internationally, especially in Europe and Asia, and played a role in helping post-war European and Japanese markets recover. The company’s founder, Bruce Henderson, emphasized innovative ideas and alternative strategies, differentiating BCG from competitors.
• Acquisitions for Relevance: As the business landscape evolved, BCG made acquisitions of small innovative management consulting firms to remain relevant. This led to the creation of various services such as BCG Digital Ventures, BCG GAMMA (data science and AI arm), BCG Platinion (digital transformation), and more.
• Future Focus: BCG’s future relevance is centered around leveraging data and AI solutions to help companies navigate the changing business landscape. The company is focused on providing tailored AI solutions, such as analytics, machine learning, and data interpretation, to enable clients to make informed decisions and optimize their operations.
• Shift in Consulting Landscape: The rise of digitalization and data-driven decision-making has led BCG and other consulting firms to adapt their offerings to cater to the changing needs of clients. BCG’s acquisitions and focus on AI and data reflect this shift in the consulting industry.

Key Highlights:

• Boston Consulting Group (BCG) was founded by Bruce D. Henderson in the 1960s and has since become one of the world’s leading management consulting firms.
• The BCG trademark includes concepts like The Product Portfolio (BCG Matrix) and time-based compensation, which have shaped the consulting world for decades.
• The BCG Matrix categorizes products into four main categories: cash cows, pets (dogs), question marks, and stars, based on potential growth and market shares.
• BCG has expanded globally and grown its revenues significantly, reaching over $8.5 billion in 2019.
• In recent years, BCG has focused on digitizing and embedding AI in core processes, building “bionic” organizations, and supporting large-scale change efforts to accelerate performance.
• BCG has made a series of acquisitions of small innovative management consulting firms to stay relevant in the rapidly changing market.
• The acquisitions have led to the creation of BCG Digital Ventures, BCG GAMMA (data science, AI, and analytics arm), BCG Platinion (IT processes for digital transformation), and other innovative services.
• BCG’s future relevance will rely on its ability to help companies make the most of data and AI solutions in the evolving business landscape.

Business Model Recap

• Types Of Business Models
• Business Strategy Examples
• Digital Business Models

Ansoff Matrix

• Growth Matrix
• Digital Strategy Matrix
• Speed-Reversibility Matrix

Connected Strategy Frameworks

GE McKinsey Model

Porter’s Five Forces

McKinsey 7-S Model

Porter’s Generic Strategies

Porter’s Value Chain Model

Porter’s Diamond Model

SWOT Analysis

PESTEL Analysis

Blue Ocean Strategy

More Resources

About The Author

Gennaro Cuofano

Discover more from fourweekmba.

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Type your email…

Continue reading

• 70+ Business Models
• Airbnb Business Model
• Amazon Business Model
• Apple Business Model
• Google Business Model
• Facebook [Meta] Business Model
• Microsoft Business Model
• Netflix Business Model
• Uber Business Model

• All our Toolkits
• Corporate/Business Strategy and Strategic Planning Toolkit
• Operating Model and Organization Design Toolkit
• Digital Transformation and IT Strategy Toolkit
• Program, Project and Change Management Toolkit
• Management Consulting Toolkit
• Human Resources & Talent Management Toolkit
• Mergers and Acquisitions Toolkit
• Post Merger Integration Toolkit
• Sales, Marketing & Communication Strategy Toolkit

Business Plan and Entrepreneurship Toolkit

• Supply Chain Strategy Toolkit
• Lean 6 Sigma Toolkit
• Risk Management Toolkit
• Leadership Development Toolkit
• Financial Modeling, Planning & Analysis Toolkit
• Customer Experience Strategy & Design Thinking Toolkit
• Data Analytics Strategy Toolkit
• Warren Buffet Value Investing Strategy Toolkit
• Full Access

To instantly translate our Toolkits, our clients usually choose the world’s best AI translators in the world: Deepl Translator or Microsoft Translator.

• With Deepl Translator, you can easily and instantly translate an entire document in 30+ languages. All you need to do is go on their website https://www.deepl.com/translator, and drag and drop your Powerpoint or Word document. We indirectly pay for Deepl.com by providing you a US $50 discount, which you can use to purchase our Toolkits. This discount will cover the cost of Deepl.com. To get this US $50 discount, enter this discount code at checkout: DEEPL$50DISC.
• With Microsoft Translator, you can easily and instantly translate our Toolkits in all languages. Microsoft Translator is free and directly available within Powerpoint and Excel. It uses Neural Machine Translation (NMT), which is the new standard for high-quality AI-powered machine translations.
• Arabic, Levantine SM
• Bosnian (Latin)
• Cantonese (Traditional)
• Chinese Simplified
• Chinese Traditional
• Haitian Creole
• Portuguese (Brazil)
• Portuguese (Portugal)
• Queretaro Otomi
• Serbian (Cyrillic)
• Serbian (Latin)
• Yucatec Maya

This Toolkit was created by ex-McKinsey, Deloitte and BCG Consultants and Entrepreneurs , after more than 4,000 hours of work. It is considered the world's best & most comprehensive Entrepreneurship Toolkit. It includes all the Frameworks, Tools & Templates required to build, run and scale your own Business and excel as an Entrepreneur.

Editable Toolkit to help you reuse our content: 300 Powerpoint slides | 30 Excel sheets | 10 Word pages | 27 minutes of Video training

Number of users: rights: our toolkits and intellectual property (ip) are protected by copyright law. if multiple persons use our toolkit(s), please select a multi-user option. every user will have the right to download, store, copy, edit, print & use our toolkits for personal and professional presentations, on their professional and personal devices. which option to choose an independent consultant or a sole trader will usually select the option “1 user”. a team or a small business with less than 5 people using our toolkit(s) will usually select the option “5 users”. a team or a small business with less than 30 people using our toolkit(s) will usually select the option “30 users”. for more than 30 users, please contact us at [email protected] to get a quote. restrictions: the user is not allowed to publish our toolkits online, sell our toolkits or provide public access to our toolkits. " data-tipped-options="position: 'top',maxwidth: 800">, trusted by 200,000+ executives, consultants and entrepreneurs from small & large organizations.

This Toolkit includes frameworks, tools, templates, tutorials, real-life examples, best practices, and video training to help you:

• Build, run, and scale your own business with our practical 8-phase approach: (I) Generate business ideas and select the most promising one, (II) Define your business model and identify critical assumptions, (III) Gather data to validate or invalidate your critical assumptions, (IV) Build a business plan, (V) Implement your business plan and gather more, (VI) Estimate the value of your business and raise funds, (VII) Carry out a financial analysis, (VIII) Engage stakeholders
• (I) Generate business ideas and select the most promising one: (1) Business idea generator, (2) Prioritization of business ideas
• (II) Define your business model and identify your critical assumptions: (1) Key partners, (2) Key activities, (3) Key resources, (4) Value propositions, (5) Customer relationships, (6) Channels, (7) Customer segments, (8) Cost structure, (9) Revenue stream, (10) Critical assumptions
• (III) Gather data to validate or invalidate your critical assumptions: (1) Data required to validate or invalidate our critical assumptions, (2) Methods to get the required data, (3) New data and insights, (4) Impacts on our business model, (5) Impacts on our business ideas prioritization
• (IV) Build a business plan: (1) Problem to solve and solution, (2) Mission, vision, and strategic objectives, (3) Target market, (4) Market analysis, (5) Competitor analysis, (6) Marketing plan, (7) Business structure, (8) Financial plan
• (V) Implement your business plan and gather more data along the way: (1) Key performance indicators dashboard, (2) Action plan, (3) Monthly budget to monitor the expenses and the revenue of your venture, (4) New data and insights, (5) Impacts on our business plan and business model
• (VI) Estimate the value of your business and raise funds: (1) Valuation methods including discounted cash flow valuation model, precedent transaction analysis and comparable company analysis, (2) Venture capital 101 and cap table (3) Investor and startup term sheet: Post-money valuation, Amount of financing, Size of option pool, Vesting periods, Board representation, and a summary of all the terms and pitfalls to avoid
• (VII) Carry out a financial analysis: (1) Income statement, (2) Balance sheet, (3) Cash flow statement, (4) Three statements model, (5) Sales and costs analysis, (6) Financial ratios
• (VIII) Engage your stakeholders effectively: (1) Stakeholder analysis, (2) Stakeholder engagement strategy, (3) Stakeholder engagement detailed plan

Benefits of our Management Consulting Toolkits

Improve the growth & efficiency of your organization by leveraging Management Consulting Toolkits created by ex-McKinsey, Deloitte & BCG Consultants.

Make a great investment for your career & organization. It cost us US$8M+ over the past 10 years to create all our Toolkits. Get them for a fraction of this cost.

Get a competitive advantage. It’s like hiring Management Consultants to create all the practical Frameworks, Tools & Templates you need.

Get the job done quicker and never start from scratch again with our ready-made and fully editable Frameworks, Tools & Templates in Powerpoint & Excel.

Don't reinvent the wheel. We have already worked 30,000+ hours over the past 10 years to create all the Management Consulting Toolkits you need.

Improve the capabilities of your organization by learning how the Fortune 100 and Global Consulting Firms do it.

Get free support and advice from our ex-McKinsey, Deloitte & BCG Management Consultants.

Decrease your costs. Hiring tier-1 Consultants for a project would cost you $300k+. Way more expensive than our Toolkits, which will last you a lifetime!

Become your organization’s subject matter expert and impress your stakeholders with world-class approaches to resolve common business problems.

'Imagine having a team of ex-McKinsey, Deloitte and BCG Management Consultants at your disposal at any time of the day to help you solve your business problems and improve the growth and efficiency of your organization. How much more confident would you be about the future performance of your organization and your own career progression? How much more time could you save?

If you have ever tried solving business problems that you haven’t encountered before, you know how frustrating it can be to start from scratch. And even then, you still aren’t sure if what you’re doing is going to end up wasting your time and money. Having someone by your side who has already solved these business problems would be a huge help. That’s why businesses hire management consultants for support in the first place.

The only problem is that hiring a couple of tier-1 Consultants for a management consulting project would cost you at least $300,000! Not every business or team can afford this.

I wanted to do something about this because I believe everyone deserves to receive high-value business guidance, regardless of their budget!

That’s why in 2012, I decided to team up with other ex-McKinsey, Deloitte and BCG Consultants to create all the Management Consulting Toolkits required to solve your business problems and improve the growth and efficiency of your organization!

Whether you're an executive, entrepreneur or consultant from a small or large organization, you can now leverage the know-how and best practices of our ex-McKinsey, Deloitte & BCG Management Consultants without breaking your budget.'

What our clients say about our Toolkits

Verified reviews.

Elise Barho

Director at Huron Consulting Group

Invaluable resource for my consulting firm

With all these toolkits, Domont Consulting provided an invaluable resource for me and my Consulting Firm. It would have taken us more than a year to create the same Toolkits on our own!

www.huronconsultinggroup.com/

John Karageorgiou

Senior Manager at Deloitte

Really handy

I just downloaded a toolkit - it looks really handy and will start using it for my clients.

www.deloitte.com

Hilda Wallace

Business student

I'm a student from India. Can't afford it

All these materials seem great but I'm a business student located in India and can't afford it. They should have different prices for students from developing countries.

Marco Zuniga

Senior Sales Representative at Oracle

Your Toolkits are terrific. Really. A great work. I loved them. It has given to me a lot of new ideas, refresh others.

www.oracle.com/au/corporate/

Senior Manager at Capgemini

World-class toolkits

Your toolkits and templates are truly world-class. I will be buying more toolkits in the next few months (as soon as business starts picking up in the ANZ region).

www.capgemini.com

Frank Lohter

Senior Manager

High impact on profit growth

Our profit increased by 27% in one year. Not all of this increase can be attributed to their toolkits, but a big part of it can. Everyone is now clear on where the company is going, and how to get there. And our project prioritization process is now way more robust, which led to better and quicker decisions.

Chijioke (CJ) Ezea

Senior Manager at Aon

Amazing tools kits and templates

Great connecting with you Aurelien. You are an authority in business strategy. Went through your website and I saw so many amazing tools kits and templates. Great job you did there, I must confess.

www.aon.com/home/index

Venkat Matoory

Director at MSU Consulting Academy

Great compilations!

I have referred some of your toolkits, tremendous effort, great compilations!

broad.msu.edu/undergraduate/opportunities/consulting/

Xavier Rachida

Strategy Executive

Better profit margin

The corporate and business strategy toolkit helped us clearly define our vision, strategic objectives and the initiatives required to reach our strategic objectives. By being clear on these 3 components, we were able to make the most of our financial and human resources. The company is now way more structured and our profit margin went from 12% to 19% in 1 year.

Paul Marks PCC (ICF)

Managing Director at Change Works Ltd

Great Toolkits

Their toolkits and slides are great and very useful for my company Change Works, which helps leaders and teams upskill for the future.

www.changeworksltd.co.th/

Daniel Cenza

Manager at KPMG

Great complement to our own frameworks

We currently have a dozen management consultants from singapore, Italy and the US currently using their toolkits as a great complement to our own frameworks.

home.kpmg/xx/en/home.html

Satishi Kama

Help increase productivity.

All these premium toolkits helped me significantly increase the productivity of my team (probably by more than 20%) and the quality of our deliverables, which are now a lot more structured.

Roger Skinner

Chairman at Visper Financial Group

Your Toolkits are, at first glance, very good. Thanks. Roger

www.visperltd.com

John Anthony

Independent Management Consultant

Leverage someone else's work

My motto is simple: why would I start from scratch when I can leverage someone else's work? Thank you for putting together so many frameworks & templates that I can reuse for my client engagements!

Managing Director at ION Intelligence of Nature

Invaluable to get things started

After over 20 years working for others in the wine & spirits industry, starting to support multiple companies achieve their goals. Your information has been invaluable to get things started. Thank you.

www.intelligenceofnature.com

James Misery

Strategy Consultant

$750K+ of savings

Now that we have access to all these frameworks, Tools & Templates, we don’t have to spend as much in management consulting fees, which resulted in $750K+ of savings.

Albeiro Herrera C

Senior Leader experts in Transformation

Really Awesome

I bought your Digital Transformation Package, and it is really awesome!

Antoine Larodrie

Manager for a Fortune 500 Company

Great to solve common business problems

Each time I face a new Business problem, I always go on Domont to see if one of their tier one Consultants already created a structured approach to solve it.

Dr. Wafi Asiri

Executive in Residence at Utah Valley University

Inspiring work!

Awe-inspiring work on Domont Consulting toolkits!

www.uvu.edu/

Nida Rollins

Senior Executive

Helped us generate $32M in revenue

The digital transformation toolkit helped us fasten our digital transformation and generate $21M in savings and $32M in incrementatal revenue

Adam J. Borgens

COO at Bravo Environmental Northwest

Thankful for this resource

Awesome. Thanks, I got a couple of packages and they are really great. I really appreciate you helping me learn this new path and work with your tools. So thankful for this resource as I ramp up things. Great job!

https://www.bravoenvironmental.com/

Siria Clear

Management Consultant

Price point too high for developing countries

"You’ve done an absolutely amazing job in creating the toolkit for consultants. I requested for the sample version and loved it. The reason I am writing to you is share that while for Americas, and most of Europe, your price-points are great, for India, Philippines and other developing economies, USD 800 is what most consultants make in a month."

Marco Spinner

Truly useful though website not always clear.

"Thank you so much for your service. I am glad I found your website! Truly useful! Though, it was not crystal clear on your website that the strategic plan template was part of the corporate & business strategy toolkit."

Fatma A.Halim

Communication & PR Consultant

Invaluable consulting toolkit

I would like to thank your wonderful consultants who took the time and effort to provide such an invaluable management consulting toolkit. It is amazing. I just need to make sure my download is complete, as there are a lot of material here. Kindly verify.

inktankir.com/

Lori D. Kendall, PhD

Managing Director at DIT Advisors

Nicely done

I bought the Silver Business & Consulting Package. Nicely done. Your content is fantastic!

Marc Lenepar

Great website.

Great website Great website but I wish you had more frameworks, templates and tools around customer experience

CEO at Pic River Energy & Forestry

Excellent tools

Excellent tools and great value as a senior manager. I'd love if you had also online videos and google slides instead of Powerpoint.

David Reynolds

Consultant & Executive

Helped me save hundreds of hours

"Wow, What can I say other than to thank you for the quality, definition and sheer volume of work provided. This is going to help me align our messages and save hundreds of hours (if not more) in preparation time. Will definitely recommend."

Antoine Lamy

Deputy Director Group Ipesup

Very happy with their consulting services

I hired Aurelien Domont and one of his consultants to help me value and sell our company to potential buyers. Very happy with their consulting services.

www.ipesup.fr

Entrepreneur & Email Marketing Expert

High quality and easy to use

High quality and easy to use frameworks and templates. The fact that these were made and used by the top consultants in the industry says enough. Their customer service has been very responsive.

www.zoranorak.com

Director at Body Corporate Wellness

Helped conceptualize and clarify our offering

Aurelian provided effective advice for a business startup I was working with. His extensive knowledge and supplementary frameworks and document templates helped conceptualize and clarify what it was we were offering.

Erik Castillo

Chief Business Development Officer at GroupM

Excellent material

Excellent material. The content is good and powerful for structure

www.groupm.com

Oscar Franco

Entrepreneur and MBA student

I highly recommend the Consulting Kit

I just finished my MBA and this product is fantastic. The quality of the graphics is of the highest level. It is an investment that will definitely be of great help to start my new business. The customer service is excellent. I highly recommend this Consulting Kit.

Valentine Masina

Time saver and high quality.

Really a timesaver for consultants. It is very resourceful and enlightening. I was amazed at the quality and concise content. Plus if you know the value of such, you would know that you have received more bang for your buck than you would find elsewhere. Overall I am delighted and I know this will improve our consulting business in more ways than one. Thanks Aurelien and the Domont Team

Ali Abas Wani

Very promising and structured.

The Sales, Marketing & Communication Toolkit seems to be very prorevimising and structured. However, lower pricing should be adopted for students and startups.

Yoro Olivier

Managing Director at Zsquare

Thank you for sharing your hard work

Even If I can't afford your hiring fees, I will rely upon your toolkits and templates to make sure that my perpectives are sound and on the good track. Thank you very much for sharing your hard work, providing high level expertize to startup founders like me, and helping create a cumulative economy.

www.zsquaremedical.com/

Steven Helmholz

Recruitment Partner at MossiTribe

Wondereful Toolkits

Wondereful Toolkits. Will keep you guys in mind for other stuff. I had an issue with the watermark at the bottom of some slides. But they helped me easily remove it.

www.mossitribe.com

Martin Kerr

Director at Structured Change Pty Ltd

Great content

I purchased the gold business and consulting package this morning for my team of 3. Great content thank you!

www.structuredchange.com.au

Thokozani Thwala

CEO at GROWTHMAP INFONOMICS

Useful and insightful

The templates and the tools are very useful and insightful.

www.growthmap.com

Nicholas Reade

Director at RRBA Business Advisory

Excellent initiative

This is an excellent initiative. Thank you very much for sharing all these best practices!

www.rrbaadvisory.com

Our Wall of Love

Many thanks for the thousands of unsolicited feedback that domont consulting (formerly slidebooks consulting) received from executives, consultants, and entrepreneurs.

Join our 100,000+ social media followers

Having over 27,000 professionals following our managing director, linkedin stands as our primary platform for sharing best practices and updates.

All Toolkits include:

Fully editable text, graphics, logos and colors

Instant download after purchase

Considered a refundable business expense

1-week money back guarantee (per terms)

Free support and advice from tier-one consultants

Guaranteed safe checkout

Interested in multiple Toolkits?

Get all our Toolkits for half the price with the Gold Access

Need additional help on top of our Management Consulting Toolkits?

Hire one of our Management Consultants for $3,000 a day

Aurelien Domont

Ex-Deloitte Consultant

15 years of experience

Daniel Curtis

Ex-McKinsey Consultant

16 years of experience

Tony Altimore

Ex-Booz Allen Hamilton Consultant

Syed Ali Usman Gardezi

Abhishek Bhalla

Ex-Accenture & IBM Consultant

Karola McArthur

20+ years of experience

Akshata Prabhu

Ex-Bain & Company

5+ years of experience

Ilija Sovilj

Ex-Ernst & Young Consultant

10 years of experience

Hussein Al-Aaraj

Ex-Accenture Consultant

26 years of experience

Raimonds Kulbergs

Ex-Deloitte & EY Consultant

12 years of experience

Rafik Zemouli

Ex-PWC & Kurt Salmon Consultant

11 years of experience

Ricardo Agostini

Ex EY and PWC Consultant

19 years of experience

Gabriela Hrasko

Ex-Mckinsey Consultant

20 years of experience

Swati Lohiya

17 years of experience

© 2012 - 2023 Domont Consulting

• Free Sample
• Hire a Consultant

How to Create a Business Growth Plan (+Template)

• February 17, 2022

Every startup should have a strategic business growth plan to create clear alignment and accountability. We want to make sure all startup leaders can reap the benefits, so we’ve put together a business growth plan template.

A plan with achievable and measurable goals can make the difference between success and stagnation. This holds true for most people, from entrepreneurs to athletes. Identifying where you want to end up — and the steps you need to take to get there — will ensure you’re acting purposefully and efficiently. 

What Is a Business Growth Plan?

A business growth plan is a strategic document that enables organizations to develop the strategies and implement the tactics needed to accomplish their goals. It also includes data-driven checkpoints to help executives and other stakeholders evaluate their progress and measure success.

Every department, from sales and marketing to product development, must help build this plan on a detailed level. This collaboration helps achieve alignment and empowers you to work faster and smarter. Growth plans also get your board of directors aligned to what success looks like for your startup company in the coming months and years.

Business Growth Plan Template

Why you need a business growth plan.

A strategic business growth plan drives strategy formulation (where you want your business to get to) and implementation (how you get there).

Startup founders should make sure everyone in their business, from advisors to freelancers to leadership teams, knows what they’re trying to achieve as a collective group. This instills confidence, allowing colleagues to move quickly because they know they’re heading in the right direction. It also empowers individuals to work independently, reducing the need for constant meetings to get realigned. Lastly, and maybe most importantly, it promotes measuring success with real metrics instead of gut feelings.

How Do I Write a Business Growth Plan?

To write a business growth plan, break down your goals like this:

• Strategic business objectives
• Annual objectives
• Action items
• Measurement

Our business growth plan template will help you organize your thoughts, but I’ll explain a little further here.

I like to think of a business plan as a nesting doll. Within each goal, you have smaller objectives that help you achieve your vision. Over time, small steps add up to set you in the right direction. This approach breaks down a business plan using the popular Hoshin Kanri Strategic Planning Model :

Most startups already have a vision statement: the long-term, overarching, big-picture mission of their company.

Example: At York IE, our vision is to change the way startups are built, scaled, and monetized.

2. Strategic Business Objectives

Break down the vision into two or three broad business growth goals to achieve in the next one to three years. These goals are relevant to each arm of your business but mean something different within each team.

Example: something simple yet powerful, like “increase our customer base by X%” or “achieve $X in ARR, representing Y% growth year over year.”

3. Annual Objectives

For each strategic business objective, you’ll need two or three annual objectives to help you make progress. These goals should be more focused and measurable over the course of a year.

Example: If your strategic objective is to achieve $X in annual recurring revenue , an annual objective for the go-to-market team might be, “Increase team quota carry through hiring and deploying new sales enablement tools.”

4. Action Items

For each annual objective, generate three to five tangible, impactful and actionable tasks. These are items you can check off on a list as you go along.

Examples: Launching a hiring campaign to add 10 new team members, completing a budget that demonstrates 0% to 5% profitability or rolling out a significant new product feature.

5. Measurement

You’ve surely heard that numbers don’t lie. Of course, I am a numbers person, but it’s true! Quantitative benchmarks help us objectively determine if we’re on track.

Examples: Generate X number of leads over the next 12 months, increase website traffic by X%, maintain gross margin between X% and Y%, achieve revenue per employee of $X.

Get Started with a Business Growth Plan Template

There’s plenty more to know, but you don’t need to be an expert to get started.

Download the business growth plan template below, grab your leadership team and start identifying the steps you’ll take to achieve your startup’s vision this year — and beyond.

Related Posts

Sell and Win with the AWS Marketplace

New channels and opportunities to accelerate revenue growth, reduce customer churn and improve the time to value for solutions — that’s what software companies are

Technical SEO Audit Checklist for Startups

A technical SEO audit helps ensure that your website is well-positioned to serve the needs of both site visitors and search engines. And a technical

What Is a Valuation Cap?

A valuation cap is the maximum valuation at which a SAFE or convertible note will convert into equity, protecting investors from dilution if a startup

Investor Pitch Deck Template

As a founder, an investor pitch deck is one of the most important documents you will create.

How to Master Sprint Planning (+Template)

Sprint planning helps teams quantify, define and refine their product development process.

How to Write a Press Release (+Template)

Writing and distributing a press release can be a great way for your company to gain brand recognition and traction.

Growth. Delivered.

Knowledge is power, get insights into the world of startups and angel investing straight to your inbox..

Two Things to Include in Your Business Plan That Your Template Doesn't Have

E ach year literally hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs and business owners will develop a business plan. Most will incorporate the 10 key sections most business plan templates include. But even then, most miss two ingredients that are crucial, particularly if you are seeking outside funding for your plan.

Let's go through these two items so you don’t fall victim to this mistake.

1. Be sure to cite past accomplishments in your business plan

Lenders and investors are making a bet when they fund your company. They are betting you will have future success. And if they are correct, they will earn a healthy return. So, what is the best indicator to someone you will have future success? The answer is past success.

Past successes are so powerful that many multimillion dollar checks have been written to Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who don’t even have a firm idea. That’s because if you’re an entrepreneur who has sold or taken multiple companies public, investors know the chances are high you’ll do it again; they will fund whatever venture you conceive.

Because past successes are the best indicators of future successes, be sure to document all past successes in your business plan . For established companies, think about the difference between your company when it started and where it stands now. Then document all the positive changes that have occurred such as:

• Sales milestones you’ve reached
• Hiring milestones (e.g., hiring your first, fifth, twentieth or even hundredth employee)
• Partnership agreements you’ve signed
• Customer relationships you’ve secured
• Products you’ve developed or patented
• Marketing campaigns you’ve launched

Importantly, even if you’re a startup, you’ve accomplished goals both in your career and in your new business. With regards to the new business, maybe you’ve:

• Signed a lease
• Secured a partnership
• Forged an agreement with a customer
• Hired an employee
• Built an advisory board or found a mentor
• Conceived a unique business name
• Built a website

Essentially, every key goal you’ve accomplished should be listed in your business plan as each will lend credibility that you’ll be successful going forward.

2. Document why you’re uniquely qualified to succeed

Many entrepreneurs get hung up on not telling their business ideas to others since they think doing so will ruin the success of their business opportunity. Rarely is this the case, and if it is, it’s only when the idea is a completely new concept for which you can be the first mover.

But, if you’re not the first mover on a new concept, you’re only going to be successful if your company has unique qualifications. For example, let’s say you have an idea to open a pizza shop in your town. The question to ask then is why are you uniquely qualified to run a successful pizza shop. Here are some potential answers:

• You have 15 years experience running a pizza shop.
• You have relationships with equipment suppliers who can get you great equipment at below market prices.
• You have secret recipes that allow you to make high-quality pizza.
• You have relationships with product suppliers that your competitors don’t, allowing you to offer products competitors can’t.
• You have 10 years of social media marketing experience that will allow you to effectively promote your pizza shop.
• You have 12 years experience managing a team of retail employees and maximizing their productivity.

A good way to think about your unique qualifications is to ask yourself what would happen if someone launched a pizza shop next to yours. Would you or your new competitor win the battle? The winner would depend on the unique qualifications of you and your competitor.

If you don’t have unique qualifications now, use this exercise to figure out what you must do to gain them. For example, maybe you need to hire a new employee or consultant to give you unique qualifications. Or maybe you need to create and sign exclusive agreements with vendors, partners, or customers so once you secure them your competitors can’t.

Citing your past accomplishments and making sure your company is uniquely qualified to succeed are sure to vastly improve the chances your business plan successfully raises outside funding. And the process of identifying accomplishments and unique qualifications will get you thinking about how you can build the company of your dreams.

So start doing this today.

RELATED: Write a Winning Business Plan

• Leaders need a holistic, disciplined approach to managing their costs. Those who adopt this approach will build an always-on capability for keeping costs out.
• Leaders should confront overhead, focus exclusively on strategic priorities, and deploy technologies that will keep their organizations competitive in the years ahead.
• Implementation is key. As with any transformation, leaders must have a robust, actionable plan and stay focused on people and culture.  

Subscribe to our Cost Management E-Alert

Cost Management

/ article, a better way to manage costs.

By  Paul Goydan and  Kevin Kelley

Key Takeaways

What follows is an abridged adaptation of “ Don’t Wait for a Crisis to Reduce Costs ,” published originally in Harvard Business Review. Read the original, full version of the article here.

After years of increased spending in response to major and sometimes unprecedented global events, the pendulum of business is swinging back to cost cautiousness and efficiency.

Nevertheless, companies too often wait for the next crisis to cut costs. When they do, the response can be sudden and drastic, resulting in slashed budgets, shuttered locations, and shortsighted layoffs. These reactive measures rarely generate results beyond the short term. A BCG survey of 600-plus C-suite executives suggests that while most leaders met their recent cost targets, 35% reported that excised costs crept back in 12 to 18 months.

There are two critical reasons for costs creeping back up: most organizations fail to address the root causes of their cost challenges, and most lack the discipline required to manage them holistically and continuously.

There is a better way to achieve cost competitiveness and enduring efficiency—one that yields significant additional benefits. Leaders who understand the forces contributing to cost creep and who respond decisively can use freed-up resources to grow and support strategic priorities.

They will, in turn, build leaner, faster, and stronger organizations.

The Dynamics Driving Costs

Leaders must recognize and address several prevailing dynamics that make it difficult to maintain cost competitiveness and deliver lasting impact.

The first dynamic is that most managers are not incentivized to deliver cost performance. In the absence of a mechanism that forces them to evaluate the ROI of their spending, such as P&L accountability, managers will drive higher team budgets, regardless of broader cost goals or efficiency directives.

Second, overhead generates more overhead. Leaders commonly address business challenges by adding positions, organizational layers, and committees. Each measure adds incremental cost and convolution. This pattern creates a vicious circle of ever-more-complicated systems that are established to manage growing complexity.

Third, organizations add resources to address emerging priorities and fund new capabilities — without accounting for existing activities. Many fail to redeploy talent or reduce spending on less critical legacy efforts.

Finally, companies struggle to capture the full ROI from their substantial technology investments. Although the rapid adoption of AI and other capabilities has unlocked productivity in some areas, these gains typically arise from secondary activities instead of more valuable enterprise priorities.

The CEO’s Guide to Cost Discipline

Across industries and markets, we’ve identified five critical actions that CEOs and other executives can take to tackle cost challenges. Collectively, these measures help organizations sustain efficiency and redirect resources to invest in innovation , promote growth, and capture value.

Reset your organization’s design

Confront overhead

Do the right things...

...and do things right

Future-proof your organization

Revisit P&L responsibility to ensure that managers are accountable for performance and are empowered to help your company lower costs. Establish measurement and governance processes (as well as incentives) that will make leaders who lack direct P&L accountability answerable for specific, value-adding returns. One manufacturer improved profitability by pushing P&L accountability deeper into the business and pooling engineering resources. The company also adopted more flexible funding processes that made it easier and faster to reallocate capital to digital, AI, and other systems as priorities and needs changed. When market changes required the company to pivot product development, it was able to seize opportunities and redeploy engineers and investments across units without increasing overall costs.

Diligently search for layers, committees, and competing or duplicative efforts that can be removed or optimized. Align service levels with business needs and profitability requirements, ensuring that support function spending delivers concrete value to the business. One client discovered, for example, that 50% of its planning and analysis resources were dedicated to creating overly detailed performance reports that didn’t serve leadership goals. The value to business performance was limited at the cost of a high incremental bureaucratic burden. In the same vein, scale back or eliminate internal white-glove services, which create needless expense with marginal or no additional business value. An internal function might, for instance, spend a lot of time visually representing data, when stakeholders are more likely to rely on raw numbers captured in a spreadsheet. When in doubt, reallocate resources from overhead to direct value-generating activity, reducing costs and increasing productivity.

Methodically evaluate your portfolio of products and services to cut underperforming lines or low-value initiatives and be relentless about following through. One client had invested tens of millions in a digital operations program that two years in was still running in parallel with the manual processes it was designed to replace. To generate the intended efficiency, senior leadership had to revisit the business case and enforce the reduction of the legacy activity.

Reevaluate your processes, footprint, and technology to maximize efficiency. Consider, for example, supply chain pressures arising from geopolitical challenges and trade route disruptions. To keep costs in check, adopt lean manufacturing methods and evaluate your network and inventory strategy to identify opportunities to revisit relationships with suppliers and partners. Because rigid, just-in-time supply chains are ineffective amid today’s uncertainty, invest in flexible alternatives powered by real-time data and digital capabilities, and eliminate old processes along the way. Looking beyond supply chains, find ways to deliver services to customers without adding to your company’s cost base. One way is to scrutinize utilization and design to prevent waste. For example, our experience suggests that hasty deployment of cloud computing can give way to needless costs. In fact, many companies squander nearly 30% of their cloud spending because of poor architecture, duplicative data, and redundant legacy systems.

No company can afford to overlook the transformative power of conventional and generative AI. Organizations typically see AI as a growth driver but tend to overlook its tremendous potential in cost management and operational efficiency. Review all internal and external business processes, identifying opportunities for self-disruption. Transform meaningful legacy activities; eliminate needless or ineffective ones. At the same time, redeploy talent from areas that can be automated to more critical parts of the business. Start experimenting with AI, GenAI, and other emerging technologies today to stay ahead of competitors in the future.

Implementation Principles

Leaders must act boldly and decisively to achieve a competitive cost position, one that enables growth and generates quick returns for shareholders. By heeding the following three principles, leaders can position their organizations to deliver rapid, sustainable impact:

People Power Change. Create opportunities for high-performing employees to move within the organization based on their capabilities and potential. Build the aptitude required to assess employee skills (collaboration, financial analysis, data science, coding, etc.), upskilling and reskilling as needed to enable flexible deployment of talent across the organization as priorities change. These moves will strengthen your ability to pivot and retain top performers.

Planning Pays Off. Before executing your cost agenda, evaluate the strength and clarity of initiatives and roles, cost goals, interdependencies, and risks. Ensure that you have the right governance in place to help deliver savings when they are most needed. BCG research suggests that rigorously tested cost transformations capture an average of 130% of their target value. Less rigorous transformations captured 30 fewer percentage points.

Culture Matters. Leaders need to model desired behaviors. Shape your culture to focus on efficient, ROI-based decision making from the factory floor to the board room. Tangibly reward those who act in the interests of the enterprise. Over time, cost discipline will become a part of your company’s DNA.

If it’s been a while since you last reviewed your company’s costs and operations , don’t wait for a crisis.

Leaders who take a hard, holistic look across their cost base will find opportunity. Those who act boldly and decisively will realize short-term gains—and achieve lasting advantage.

Across industries, businesses are facing increased scrutiny to keep costs out while delivering superior margin performance. Learn more about how businesses can become leaner, faster, and stronger here.

Managing Director & Senior Partner; Global & NAMR Leader of BCG’s Cost Offer

Managing Director and Senior Partner, Global Lead for People and Organization Efficiency and Effectiveness

ABOUT BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP

Boston Consulting Group partners with leaders in business and society to tackle their most important challenges and capture their greatest opportunities. BCG was the pioneer in business strategy when it was founded in 1963. Today, we work closely with clients to embrace a transformational approach aimed at benefiting all stakeholders—empowering organizations to grow, build sustainable competitive advantage, and drive positive societal impact.

Our diverse, global teams bring deep industry and functional expertise and a range of perspectives that question the status quo and spark change. BCG delivers solutions through leading-edge management consulting, technology and design, and corporate and digital ventures. We work in a uniquely collaborative model across the firm and throughout all levels of the client organization, fueled by the goal of helping our clients thrive and enabling them to make the world a better place.

© Boston Consulting Group 2024. All rights reserved.

For information or permission to reprint, please contact BCG at [email protected] . To find the latest BCG content and register to receive e-alerts on this topic or others, please visit bcg.com . Follow Boston Consulting Group on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) .