McKinsey & Company acquires two companies in Australia. These are the first acquisitions in its 50-year history.
Both acquisitions aim to build McKinsey & Company’s digital capabilities, especially as many of its global clients pursue digital transformations to gain a competitive advantage and unleash value. Currently, McKinsey’s digital practices are a major contributor to 40% of its projects around the world.
With the acquisition of Hypothesis, the strategy consulting firm adds a team of around 40 professionals to McKinsey Digital’s Australian practice. Hypothesis is a Sydney and Melbourne-based digital consulting firm that specializes in four areas: product design and digital concepts, data science, development of tools and solutions including software engineering and product interfaces, and adopting agile ways of working.
Read more: McKinsey Australia buys a premise to foster digital divide
With the acquisition of Venturetec, McKinsey added a small team of consultants and innovators to McKinsey Digital. Venturetec was founded two years ago and has grown into a company that specializes in digital innovation. The agency has completed more than 80 client projects in seven countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
Read more: McKinsey supports Venturetec technology in digital businesses in Australia
Venturetec is in the Leap Practice of McKinsey Digital, which helps clients launch, build, and expand their digital businesses. Hypothesis is incorporated into the Build by McKinsey practice, which helps corporate and public sector clients implement digital transformation and transformation strategies into an agile enterprise.
McKinsey Digital employs more than 5,000 people worldwide – data scientists, engineers, architects, developers, technology leaders, agile trainers, designers, and cybersecurity experts – working from offices in more than 60 countries.
The deals come shortly after McKinsey acquired Candid Partners in the US, an organization that provides cloud consulting services to large organizations and employs about 150 employees. As the deals close, McKinsey appears to be moving away from the traditional growth strategy, which favors organic growth over acquisitions. Last year, German Orpheus was McKinsey’s only acquisition, and in 2019 it bought strategic consulting firm Westney Consulting in the US. In 2018, the New York-based strategy giant made no acquisitions whatsoever.
