The Burnie Group

What The Burnie Group does

The Burnie Group Inc. is a privately held, founder-owned boutique management consulting firm headquartered at 350 Bay Street in Toronto, Ontario, founded in 2011 by David Burnie after eight years at McKinsey & Company. The firm delivers professional services across four core practices: M&A Advisory (commercial due diligence, value creation, post-merger integration, divestitures and carve-outs), Strategy & Operations (strategic planning, target operating model design, operations excellence, primary research, intelligent automation, technology strategy), Customer Channels (contact center, branch operations, IVR and chatbot), and People & Organization (organizational design, change management, roles and accountability). Burnie Group differentiates through senior-led delivery, with Principals and Practice Leaders drawn from McKinsey, BCG, and Bain actively engaged in client work, and access to a bench of more than 100 top-tier consultants. The firm operates under a fees-at-risk commercial model and serves large enterprise clients including BMO, Scotiabank, Desjardins, Bell, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, EmpireLife, Belairdirect, Teranet, Life Labs, Revera, Sienna Senior Living, and the Financial Services Regulatory Authority across financial services, insurance, private equity, senior living, telecommunications, long-term care, and tech-enabled services.

The firm's most distinctive technology capability is its position as the first SS&C Blue Prism Certified Partner in North America to implement the Service Assist contact center automation solution, recognized with three consecutive regional Partner Excellence Awards (2022-2024) and a 2022 Global Partner Excellence Award. Burnie Group has codified proprietary methodologies including a 5-Step Alignment Approach, an Organizational Design Framework, and reusable integration playbooks documenting nearly 1,000 milestones and 5,000 activities. Documented client outcomes include 50%+ throughput improvement in a P&C claims engagement, more than 25 change initiatives supported within a one-year PMI timeline, and approximately $1M per week in cross-sell synergies enabled through integration support. The firm does not develop or sell software products; its offering is professional services delivered through direct enterprise sales, with no public revenue disclosure and no external funding rounds.

Name

The Burnie Group

Legal name

The Burnie Group Inc.

Website

https://burniegroup.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Burnie Group is a Toronto-based boutique management consulting firm founded in 2011 by ex-McKinsey principal David Burnie, serving large enterprises across financial services, insurance, private equity, and senior living with M&A, strategy, operations, and contact center automation engagements.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Management Consulting

NAICS

Management Consulting Services (54161), Other Management Consulting Services (541618), Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services (541611), Custom Computer Programming Services (541511)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742), Services-Management Services (8741)

akta.pro primary industry

Operations & Process Improvement Consulting (BPAHACAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Strategy & IT Advisory (BPAEAAAA), M&A HR Advisory (Due Diligence, Integration, Carve-outs) (BPACAJAL), ERP, CRM & Enterprise Applications Consulting (BPAHAEAI), Customer, Marketing & Sales Consulting (BPAHACAG)

Keywords

• Management consulting
• Post-merger integration
• Operations excellence
• Robotic process automation
• Organizational design

Headquarters

HQ city

Toronto

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Management Consulting Services: Burnie Group generates revenue through professional consulting engagements. Services include strategic planning, operational transformation, M&A advisory and integration, organizational design, contact center optimization, and technology implementation. Engagements are typically project-based with fees at risk until client satisfaction.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

The Burnie Group is a boutique management consulting firm that sells senior-led advisory and implementation services across four practice areas: M&A Advisory (commercial due diligence, value creation, post-merger integration, divestitures and carve-outs), Strategy & Operations Consulting (strategic planning, target operating model, operations excellence, intelligent automation, technology strategy), Customer Channels optimization (contact centre, branch, IVR and chatbot), and People & Organization services (organizational design, change management, roles and accountability). The firm also implements SS&C Blue Prism Service Assist for contact centre automation and delivers Integration Management Office (IMO) services and proprietary playbooks for post-merger integration, with fees at risk until client satisfaction.

Product overview

Burnie Group is a management consulting firm that operates as a unified portfolio of specialized service practices rather than a software platform. The core offerings are organized into four main practice areas: M&A Advisory (covering commercial due diligence, value creation, post-merger integration, and divestitures); Strategy & Operations Consulting (encompassing strategic planning, target operating model design, operations excellence, primary research, intelligent automation, and technology strategy); Customer Channels (including contact centre, branch operations, and IVR/chatbot optimization); and People & Organization (covering organizational design, change management, and roles/accountability). The firm also delivers specialized technology implementation services, most notably as an SS&C Blue Prism Certified Partner for robotic process automation using Service Assist, and offers proprietary methodologies such as its 5-Step Alignment Approach and IMO (Integration Management Office) services for post-merger integrations. Engagement deliverables include custom playbooks containing milestone frameworks and governance templates. The firm's model emphasizes senior-led delivery with access to over 100 top-tier consultants.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• M&A Advisory Mergers and acquisitions consulting covering commercial due diligence, value creation, post-merger integration, and divestitures and carve-outs for corporate and private equity buyers and sellers.
• Strategy & Operations Consulting Corporate strategy and operations consulting covering strategic planning and alignment, target operating model design, operations excellence, primary research, intelligent automation, and technology strategy.
• Customer Channels Consulting Customer-facing channel optimization consulting covering contact centre operations, branch operations, and IVR and chatbot consulting.
• People & Organization Consulting Organizational effectiveness consulting covering organizational design, change management, and roles and responsibilities alignment for enterprise clients.
• Blue Prism Service Assist Implementation Award-winning robotic process automation (RPA) implementation service using SS&C Blue Prism's Service Assist platform to digitally transform contact centre and back-office operations across finance, HR, IT, regulatory compliance, and customer care.
• Integration Management Office (IMO) Services Post-merger integration leadership and support covering governance, planning, project management, risk management, change management, synergy tracking, and document management across workstreams.

Quantifiable outcome

• 50%+ throughput improvement validated within three months in a P&C claims administration case study
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers15 records

Segments7 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• SS&C Blue PrismcoreTechnology or Integration · 25 May 2022Burnie Group is the first SS&C Blue Prism Certified Partner to implement Service Assist in North America. They are also SS&C Blue Prism's first North American partner and a certified capability and delivery provider. The partnership enables contact centre automation through Blue Prism's intelligent automation platform, with Burnie Group leading some of North America's largest automation centers of excellence.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• EY-Parthenon: Strategy and transactions consulting arm of EY with strong M&A, due diligence, and operations practices. Senior Engagement Manager Sebastian Hahn previously interned at EY-Parthenon, and the firm competes directly with Burnie Group on commercial due diligence and PMI engagements.
• McKinsey & Company: Global management consulting leader offering operations, strategy, and M&A services. Founder David Burnie spent 8 years at McKinsey, and Burnie Group's boutique model explicitly competes against the senior-led engagement model McKinsey pioneered.
• KPMG Canada: Big 4 firm with Canadian consulting practice covering operations excellence, M&A, and financial services transformation. Competes for the same Canadian banking and insurance clients as Burnie Group.
• PwC Consulting Canada: Big 4 professional services firm with strategy&, operations, and M&A practices serving Canadian banks, insurers, and PE firms. Directly overlaps with Burnie Group's target client base in Toronto's financial district.
• The Boston Consulting Group (BCG): Global management consulting firm with strong operations, strategy, and post-merger integration practices. Alexey Saltykov (Burnie Group's PMI Practice Leader) was a Project Leader at BCG for 5+ years, making BCG a direct competitive reference for Burnie Group's PMI offering.
• Bain & Company: Global strategy and operations consulting firm with deep private equity and operations practices. Graeme Hartlen (Practice Leader at Burnie Group) was previously a Case Team Leader at Bain, and Bain's M&A/PE work directly overlaps Burnie Group's PMI franchise.
• Accenture Strategy & Consulting: Global consulting and technology services firm with operations consulting, intelligent automation, and large-scale transformation capabilities. Directly competes with Burnie Group's automation and operations excellence practices.
• Deloitte Consulting: Big 4 professional services firm with large operations transformation, M&A, and human capital practices. Competes with Burnie Group across financial services, insurance, and PE segments where Deloitte's scale and breadth is a frequent alternative.

Direct peers

• Slalom Consulting: North American boutique consulting firm focused on strategy, operations, technology, and analytics with a similar senior-led delivery model. Closely comparable to Burnie Group in size, regional focus, and service mix across financial services and insurance.
• Charles River Associates: Boutique global consulting firm specializing in management consulting and financial economics for financial services and insurance clients. Comparable boutique scale and similar industry focus as Burnie Group.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@burniegroup5171
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/the-burnie-group
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Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Burnie Group