What the Big Four / Big Three do well.
The Big Four (Deloitte, EY, KPMG, PwC) and Big Three (McKinsey, BCG, Bain) deliver real value at firms with significant scale: large-cap public companies, multi-billion-dollar private operators, governments. The methodology, the bench depth, the change-management muscle, the exec-level relationships. These are real assets and they justify the price for the right buyer.
The right buyer is usually not a $25M services firm or a $40M PE-backed home services platform. The economics do not work. The methodology is calibrated for problem scopes that are an order of magnitude larger than the mid-market operator has. The deck-driven cadence overshoots what the operator actually needs to make a decision.
Where Big Four / Big Three is the right answer.
Three patterns:
The $500M+ operator with a transformation budget. The fee is in the noise. The methodology pays for itself in the strategic alignment alone. Big Four / Three earn their rate.
The operation whose AI question is genuinely strategic, not workflow. "Should we acquire a vertical AI platform? Build a market-facing AI product? Restructure the org around AI?" These are advisor questions, not commission questions.
The regulated firm with stakeholder optics that require a recognizable brand on the deck. Bank board, public company board, government procurement. The Big Four signature on the recommendation isn't optional.
Where boutique commission is the right answer.
Three patterns:
The $8M-$50M operator with a workflow problem and a dollar figure attached to it. The 47-attorney firm with $1.4M in unbilled-time leakage. The $34M custom metals shop with 6-hour quote turnaround. The $24M independent agency with 18-hour COI cycle. The deliverable is a working system in 4-7 weeks, not a 200-page strategic memo. Boutique fits.
The operation whose problem is specific to its stack. Custom AI on top of CCH Axcess, iManage, Applied Epic, ServiceTitan, Epicor Kinetic. The Big Four does not commission on these the way a boutique with deep stack expertise does.
The operation that wants to own the system at handoff. Big Four engagements ship intellectual property the operation rents. Boutique commissions ship code the operation owns. For most mid-market operators, ownership is the right structure.
The economics, candidly.
A typical Big Four AI engagement at a $40M firm runs $400K-$1.5M for a 12-16 week strategic study, often with optional implementation phases that double or triple the total. The deliverable is a recommendation deck, an architecture diagram, and a phase-one implementation roadmap. Implementation usually requires the operation to hire engineers separately, or to engage a Big Four implementation arm.
A boutique commission at the same firm runs $45K-$180K, fixed-fee, for 4-7 weeks. The deliverable is a working system shipped into production, code owned by the operation at handoff. No implementation phase to add on, because implementation is the engagement.
The Big Four is right when the question is "what should we do." The boutique is right when the question is "build the thing." Most mid-market operators have already answered "what should we do" by the time they call us. They just need the thing built.
What we recommend.
Match the advisor's scale to your business's scale. The Big Four does not have a model for $25M firms; the work they bring is the model they use for $25B firms, scaled-down, and the scaling-down is what makes it a poor fit. The boutique does not have a model for $25B firms; the work we bring is the model we use for $25M firms, and the model doesn't scale up.
If you are reading this and your business is between $8M and $50M, your right advisor is probably not Deloitte. If your business is $500M+, your right advisor is probably not us. The honest framing.