Representatives of 29 advisory firms have won or been specially commended for prizes at the Management Consultancies Association’s annual awards ceremony, at London’s Grosvenor House. While PwC led the honours, a cohort of 15 boutiques also scooped some of the night’s top prizes – something the organisers say reflects “the strength and depth of the UK’s consulting industry”.
The Management Consultancies Association (MCA) is the representative body of Britain’s £21 billion consulting sector – and each year, it celebrates the industry’s best and brightest with a showpiece awards gala. Returning to its glamourous venue, the 29th edition of the MCA Awards saw more than 1,000 consultants, clients, government officials and media representatives converge on the Grosvenor House Hotel, in London’s Mayfair district.
Emphasising the spectacle, guests were treated to a lightshow before the event, and at half-time – when a lavish three-course meal was served – while cannons of gold confetti marked the closing of the ceremony.
This year’s guest host – broadcaster and entrepreneur Amol Rajan – pointedly noted at several moments in his introductory speech that he felt consultants were due higher levels of appreciation in public life, on the back of his experiences leaving the BBC newsroom to establish his own digital media organisation.
Rajan said, “Tonight is the Oscars, the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs all rolled into one, we have the absolute cream of the industry here… Having spent the last year trying to set up a small business, I can tell you it is absolute hell. As an owner you spend all your time thinking about what’s going wrong, an avalanche of legal and bureaucratic work, and you carry that burden incredibly heavily. But it’s worth it because you are doing what you love, something useful, and you can take back control. But so heavy is that burden, that when very smart people offer to help, it does make a critical difference. So, what consultants do when they transform an institution, or undertake a critical project, is deliver value, and also help a lot of very stressed people to sleep at night. So on behalf of all those tired people, I want to say thank you for everything you do.”
Illustrating this huge impact further, MCA CEO Tamzen Isacsson used her opening speech to highlight a number of the ways nominees had made a difference to the UK economy, and wider society. One team helped the British Heart Foundation recover 500,000 in savings – vital funds which can be put back into its life-saving work. Another helped an NHS trust cut missed hospital appointments by a fifth, so more patients can access the vital treatment they need. Consultants also helped 1,200 people back into work via the Thames Tideway Programme, and freed up 48,000 hours of admin time, giving police more time to focus on frontline service.
“UK consulting is an engine of growth, an exporting hub, a source of deep specialist expertise,” Isacsson added. “We don’t say it enough, but this industry is a great British success story. Tonight, we celebrate the individuals and firms behind that work, because the face is our growth, reputation and people are all powered by one thing: people. That’s why tonight we recognise the very best of them – the people who took on complex problems which many others thought was impossible. This evening is heavy on glitz and glamour – but getting here involved a lot of grit. So, to every consultant who made it this far, let’s offer a huge congratulations.”
While the previous years have seen the government consider reducing fees for consultants, a change in management saw members of Andy Burnham’s first cabinet also strike a conciliatory tone in speeches during the ceremony. Small business and enterprise secretary Lord Leong explained that “Britain has much to be confident about” – in particular due to the “expertise the world wants to buy.”
“Our professional and business services sector contributes 326 billion to the economy, helping businesses across the country to become more competitive, productive, and successful. Consulting is central to that contribution; you help organisations solve complex problems, and turn ambition into results. The MCA’s latest figures give us even more reasons to be optimistic here. Export earnings rose by 9% last year, while member firms recruited 5,400 people, and firms forecast revenue growth of 8% in 2027. That means new opportunities for careers, new clients, and new opportunities for British expertise.”
Boutique challengers
Getting into the meat of the event itself, once again, the nominees lauded by the ceremony reflected that dynamism by celebrating a wide range of brands in the sector – not just the biggest firms. There were 25 award categories in this year’s MCA Awards, with 12 project awards, 10 individual awards and three overall awards. While in the end, PwC picked up most award nods, with eight special commendations and six wins; and IT giant Capgemini Invent was the closes rival on the night with five special commendations and one win, the night also saw a number of small and mid-sized firms also give them a run for their money.
In the projects categories, for example, JCURV was the winner in the Performance Improvement in the Private Sector Award. The firm helped Sainsbury’s transform its data and analytics function into a “disciplined, value‑led performance engine” by embedding a single, enterprise‑wide quarterly planning rhythm aligned to strategy, capacity and commercial outcomes. In just three quarters, the approach delivered a 10x increase in realised value,
Meanwhile, in the Young Consultant of the Year category, Tanushree Agarwal from Inner Circle Consulting won the prize. From an early career as an architect in Mumbai to public sector management consulting in London, she was praised for being “driven by curiosity about the deeper causes shaping environments and the systems of decision-making that determine how people experience them.”
As the event drew to a close, the two biggest awards of the night were also split between a Big Four titan, and a specialist boutique. Drawn from the winners of all the collective categories, PwC’s Kate Kenyon scooped Times Consultant of the Year, having “demonstrated exceptional leadership in one of the most demanding client environments PwC has faced in recent years.” But matching its heavyweight counter-parts pound for pound, Resulting IT picked up Project of the Year for its work with NHS 24, delivering a complex, time-critical digital transformation of Scotland’s national urgent care service – replacing ageing technology, insourcing core operations, and delivering a modern digital platform for six million people, on time, within budget, and without a single moment of disruption to live patient services.
Once again, the diversity of the winners demonstrates a depth of expertise which means British businesses can face the future with confidence, according to the MCA. Whatever hurdles await in the next 12 months – including continued geopolitical instability, supply chain turmoil and technological disruption – consultants will still likely be the ones public and private clients turn to for help weathering the storm. And as the MCA has now kicked off its 2027 awards calendar, the door is already wide open to those firms, whatever their size, to be the stars at next year’s awards ceremony.
A full list of the MCA Awards winners 2026 can be found on the organisation’s website.