WGMB Market Barometer 2024

New heights: Consultancy turnover in Germany exceeds the 50 billion euro mark for the first time – but growth is losing momentum

The German consulting industry experienced a record year in 2024: for the first time, the turnover of management, IT and HR consultancies exceeded the 50 billion euro mark. With an increase of 5.9 per cent over the previous year, the market reached a volume of 50.1 billion euros. The industry owes this success not least to its own transformation: whereas consultants concentrated on strategic topics for a long time, it is now primarily operational, implementation-oriented services with a strong technological focus that account for the greatest share of growth in the industry.

Crossing the 50 billion mark is a strong signal for the industry. But the question remains as to whether this momentum can be maintained in the years to come. The pace of growth has slowed noticeably – in 2022, revenue growth was still 16.0 per cent, in 2023 it was 7.3 per cent and in 2024 it was 5.9 per cent, as mentioned above. Economic uncertainties and high cost burdens in core industries could further dampen demand for consulting services. At the same time, disruptive technologies such as generative AI will permanently change the working methods and business models of the consulting industry. Despite the milestone, the industry still faces a challenge in one area in particular: its flexibility to adapt to new challenges. The coming years will show whether consultants can continue to prove their adaptability and assert their role as indispensable partners to the economy.

The complete market barometer is available to download in PDF format via this link (in German).

We have summarised the most important excerpts below.

Looking back at the years since 2000, it is evident that the growth of the consulting industry has far outpaced overall economic growth in Germany, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP). In the past, the industry’s growth was only slowed by the attacks of 11 September 2001, the financial crisis and the coronavirus pandemic. However, the recovery after coronavirus followed quickly – driven by pent-up demand for transformation and digitalisation projects, as well as the need for many companies to become more crisis-proof. The year 2024 marks a turning point: the catch-up effect seems to have been exhausted. After the historic revenue growth of 16 per cent in 2022, growth now falls back to 5.9 per cent, which is close to the long-term average of past decades.

With a share of 36.3 per cent, operations consulting represents the largest single segment of the consulting market. This is followed by IT consulting with 23.4 per cent, transformation consulting with 19.2 per cent and strategy consulting with 14.2 per cent. HR consulting comes in last with a market share of 6.9 per cent.

2024 has seen growth in all segments of the German consulting market. However, there were significant differences between the individual segments. In management consulting, strategic topics recorded moderate growth of 5.6 per cent, as did operations consulting, which grew by 5.3 per cent. AI-based solutions for process automation and data-driven decision-making gained strongly in importance. At the same time, the optimisation of supply chains increasingly came into focus in the face of geopolitical uncertainties. The strongest growth in management consulting was achieved by transformation consulting at 6.4 per cent. In view of the ongoing economic uncertainties, the acute avoidance of insolvencies and the prospective strengthening of crisis resilience increased by 8.2 per cent.

IT consultancy grew by 7.2 per cent. This area was dominated by the topics of data security and cybersecurity, which recorded the strongest single growth at 8.6 per cent. At the same time, demand grew for cloud solutions and AI-supported systems, as well as for energy-efficient data centres and sustainable IT infrastructures that meet ESG criteria.

HR consulting grew the least, at 4.2 per cent. The focus was on the shortage of skilled workers, hybrid and agile working models and reskilling programmes, but reluctance to hire new staff and waves of redundancies dampened momentum. ESG and diversity initially shaped the design of working models, but lost relevance again towards the end of the year.

Growth in ESG and sustainability remained below expectations. At the beginning of the year, the industry had predicted a much more dynamic development of consulting revenues in this area, but many companies shied away from major investments in ESG programmes in the face of economic uncertainty.

The manufacturing industry remains the largest customer of consulting services with a market share of 29.5 per cent, followed by financial service providers (21.4 per cent) and the public sector (9.3 per cent). Other sectors such as healthcare, retail, telecommunications, IT, media, utilities and transport together account for 39.9 per cent.