The Top 25 Consultants of 2000: David Pecaut of E-Ventures/BCG

#2. David Pecaut, 44
Managing Director of E-Ventures/Boston Consulting Group

While most traditional consultancies are still working to move their offerings into the e-business space, analysts agree that Boston Consulting Group arrived there years ago. The credit largely belongs to David Pecaut, who established BCG's e-commerce practice from his base in Toronto. Today, BCG's management claims the e-commerce practice makes up 50 percent of  the firm's North American business and 40 percent of its global business. "We made a very important decision in the beginning that we would not organize e-commerce as a silo practice," says Pecaut, the former chairman of Canada Consulting Group, which merged with BCG in 1993. "Instead, it was an overlay on everything we do, and all our staff would have to be able to do e-commerce."
BCG's latest e-commerce engagement is building a travel site that is a joint venture among five airlines — United, Delta, Continental, Northwest, and American. As it did with Brandwise.com, a comparison-shopping Web site, BCG not only does the strategy work but also helps launch the business with its own consultants in roles of acting CEO and marketing and sales directors until the new business becomes operational. Regardless of whether the consultancy's many ventures succeed or fail, Pecaut is now responsible for having built a critical connection with the community best able to enrich the knowledge BCG's large-account customers now crave.
But that's not all. Pecaut is now building BCG's e-venturing business, which has the lofty goal of growing to the size of the firm's consulting business. The e-venturing business will draw on opportunities identified by the consulting practice as well as by teams set to help launch the businesses.
"Unlike some of the consulting firms that have established venture funds at arm's length from their consulting business, ours is going to be very closely tied to our ability to launch the new company," says Pecaut, who comes from a family of stock brokers. "This is the first time in 35 years that BCG has established a second business, so it's very important to us that it be successful," explains the expectant father of BCG's next generation.