There Are Amazing Consulting Firms Out There That Aren’t The “Big 3”
3 Consultants Tackling Diverse Problems
When you think of “consulting,” chances are that there are a few big firms’ names that pop into your head. While the Big 3/4/5 consult on interesting management- and strategy-related problems, there are also a number of niche consulting companies out there that may allow you to explore specific interests and think about solutions to problems in areas that are more interesting to you, while you pick up the skills that consulting promises to teach its trainees. It can be harder to come across information about firms that may not recruit as heavily on college campuses, so in this piece I set out to interview a few of my colleagues who work as consultants at firms seeking to solve a variety of unique problems.
Annie Morefield, Navigant (Washington, D.C.)
“As a junior in college, I was toying with the idea of interviewing for jobs in both finance and consulting. There were only a few qualities in a firm I was confident about — I wanted to be involved in healthcare, I wanted a reasonable work-life balance, and I wanted to be challenged,” says Annie.”
“After talking to recruiters, teammates, and alumni, I narrowed my choice to consulting. From what I could gather, it would afford me a better work-life balance and I would be challenged by the short project timelines and upskilling demands,” she shares.
“The part of the equation I was missing was the healthcare piece. Most of the major consulting firms recruiting on campus offered a two-year generalist track; analysts would be exposed to a new industry every four to six months. After researching other options, I found that Navigant checked all my boxes.”
“The firm offers a range of consulting and advisory services to its clients — including in energy, finance, government, and healthcare. Specifically, our healthcare practice works with health insurers and healthcare systems to solve strategic, financial, and operational problems.”
This is just one small aspect of what Navigant’s healthcare practice does as a whole. The healthcare industry, specifically hospitals, is facing a hard reality of changing regulations, narrower financial margins, and more complex roles in the community. Knowing that my role is helping hospitals and healthcare systems stay operational and profitable is not only a benefit to our clients, but to the community they serve more broadly. This, paired with the fact that I get to work with intelligent and motivated colleagues, has reassured me that my decision to join Navigant was the correct one.
A Recent Project
“For my most recent project, I worked with a team to evaluate a 300-provider physician group to understand how they could improve their productivity. We found that the biggest burden on provider productivity was access to care. Our recommendations centered around consolidating phone lines, creating online appointment scheduling, improved internal referral processes, and opening provider schedules. Our team then works with clients to implement these recommendations over a period of six to twelve months, depending on the anticipated challenges.”
Ella Park-Chan, Applied Predictive Technologies (New York, NY)
“Applied Predictive Technologies (APT) is a software-based consulting company founded by consultants who felt that the quantitative work at major consulting firms was unnecessarily repetitive and at times not very rigorous, and could be transformed into a user-friendly software.”
Ella explains, “In concept, APT is similar to TurboTax in that we take something complicated (doing analysis for your business) and make it more accessible and efficient (the software asks what dates a particular program occurred and what you want to measure, and will work to correct biases for you).”
“In the past 18 years, we’ve won clients such as Walmart, American Airlines, McDonald’s, and Comcast, and were acquired by Mastercard, which enables us to leverage credit card data. We tackle any analytical questions that can be answered with data, including remodels, pricing, operations, marketing, and labor.”
“The fact that our software makes analysis so much more efficient means we spend a lot less time on getting to answers (no frustrating manual work in Excel or waiting for slow models to load), and a lot more time on figuring out what questions we want to answer in the first place. I appreciate this because it means that we can spend our time being more strategic to figure out how we can make our analysis have the biggest impact. On a career progression standpoint, it also means that we are able to advance much faster than you could at a traditional consulting firm. I have loved getting to experience so many facets of the job and appreciate that two years in I am officially in a team manager position, whereas at most major consulting groups it would take at least four years.”
“We’ve been able to retain a lot of our startup mentality and culture even as the firm has grown and been acquired by Mastercard. We have the requisite free food and game room and smoothie machine, but we also have more special things like our flat hierarchy, house system (employees are sorted into houses and compete in various activities to earn points for their house each year), extremely comprehensive semi-annual firm feedback, and frequent mentorship catch-ups. And because quality of work is valued over facetime, I have time after work to go play frisbee or take Chinese classes in the evenings, and then sign on for another hour or two before bed. I travel to my client’s site a few days a month, which means that I get enough access to our clients to gain onsite experience, while still being able to experience the sense of community in my home office.”
A Recent Project
Ella shares, “APT sits at the unique intersection of technology, data analytics, and business. For example, I recently analyzed the impact of introducing UberEATS to a restaurant client. We used the software to quantify impact on in-store and delivery sales, and build a model based on store characteristics and demographics to determine which stores would benefit most from partnering with UberEATS in the future. I enjoy my work because I feel like using the software to process real data adds legitimacy and rigor to our work that is harder to come by using interviews, focus groups, and generalized industry research.”
Allie Pace, Brandtrust (Chicago, IL)
“Brandtrust is a brand strategy and market research firm that sits atop the 32nd floor of a downtown Chicago skyscraper. We believe that human decision-making is rooted in emotion, and that typical consumer research only scrapes the tip of the iceberg,” Allie shared.
“The firm works with Fortune 500 companies and we use qualitative research methodologies rooted in psychology and behavioral science to more deeply understand subconscious emotional human truths — and the decisions that we make as a result of those truths. Ultimately, we inform human-centric business and brand strategies.”
Allie reflects, “Brandtrust was my first job out of college, and as a science geek with no experience in Ec10, I can decisively say that it was the best introduction to the intersection of business and humanity that I could possibly dream of. As a Human Evolutionary Biology concentrator, this human-centered approach to research and strategy was what hooked me.”
“The brilliance of Brandtrust is that the firm leads with trust (hence the name). Leaders trust you to speak your mind; clients trust you to deliver results; the firm trusts you to work from home and dip out for lunch if you have a doctor’s appointment. It is a place where work and life are not a balance, but an integration. You can take a personal call in the conference room just like you might write an email after dinner. Brandtrust believes that travel makes you a better person, and therefore gives you the opportunity to research and strategize across the globe (enjoying your fair share of authentic dinners and quintessential coffee shops along the way).”
A Recent Project
“This past month, I was in Sweden, Argentina, and Moscow working to understand the psychographics and decision-making motivations of global veterinarians for a Fortune 500 pet food brand. After gathering insights with a team of brilliant researchers, I came back to the States to help develop a new brand and go-to-market strategy for our client. And instead of feeling the potential sliminess of corporate America, I felt the joy of being a voice for the veterinarians that we spoke with.”
Allie continues: “I encourage you to look outside of the box that colleges may put you in (or that you put yourself in). Sometimes (maybe even often), the small, unique firms are the ones that help you grow the most.”
