The essential element of successful strategy is that it derives its success from the differences between competitors with a consequent difference in their behavior.

In such endeavor he conjectures that industries that are "stable" and "competitive" will evolve into a structure with "no more than three" significant competitors with market share ratios around 4:2:1. He left the firm in 1963 over disagreements with the firm's leadership. Henderson Chair in Strategy was endowed by Bruce's wife Bess after his death at the Owen School of Management of Vanderbilt University.

Henderson founded BCG in 1963 in Boston Massachusetts. Bruce Doolin Henderson (1915–1992) was the founder of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).