Perhaps unlike in any other age in consulting, the current market for talent is leading firms to invigorate their talent models, and nowhere is this more evident than inside those firms now counted on our annual “Best Firms to Work For” list. Resulting from input from more than 5,000 consultants this year, our “Best Firms to Work For” ranking once again provides a unique view into the consulting world’s talent marketplace, signaling the rise of hot new talent shops such as Point B of Seattle and Huron Consulting of Chicago. Moreover, the list signals a different distinction for those firms whose names no longer appear on it (such as, perhaps most notably, Booz Allen Hamilton, which this year dropped off the list after having made it for five consecutive years).

This year’s “Best Firms” survey also shed light on industry-wide trends. A few things we noticed: Now, it seems that the top firms are paying more attention to work/life balance than ever before. The historic divide between men’s and women’s satisfaction with compensation appears to have been leveled. And, there seems to be a notable difference in compensation satisfaction levels between junior and more senior consultants.


Making Talent

In The Parable of the Talents, a master gives one servant five talents, another servant two talents, and a third servant one talent before leaving on a trip. When he returns, he finds that the first servant had invested his five talents and made five talents more. The second servant had made two more, and the third servant had buried his one talent for safekeeping and therefore returned his talent to his master.

In response, the master praises the first two servants and gives them both more responsibility. As for the third servant, the master calls him wicked and lazy for not making use of his talent, takes his one talent, and gives it to the first servant, casting the third into darkness. The master preaches, “Everyone who has much will be given more, and whoever has a little, even the little that he has will be taken away.”

The common interpretation is that we are under a moral obligation to use our abilities rather than bury them.

Consulting firms, too, must invest their talent in order to make more talent, or risk losing business. In fact, Steven Kauderer, a managing director and head of the North American Insurance practice at Mercer Oliver Wyman, admits that his firm has been known to “turn down assignments because we didn’t have the right people.”

So, what does it mean to have the right people? Essentially, this means having the best mix of individuals who are able to work together toward a mutual goal: delivering the best to the client. Unlike in the parable, in consulting, teamwork is integral to the success of any project and ultimately that of any firm. In fact, 88 percent of consultants polled expressed the notion that a team-oriented culture is important or very important at their firms. Many firms also expect consultants to have the ability to think creatively. Impressively, at Monitor and Kurt Salmon Associates (KSA), about 95 percent of consultants agreed with the statement, “Creativity is encouraged here, even if it leads to mistakes.”