In the News

September 10, 2008

North Highland WINS Global Award: Best Firms to Work For 2008

While other firms struggle to turn a profit in these tough economic times, North Highland is thinking long term, and as such has seen 25 percent growth in the past year. Growth also has been geographic, as North Highland recently opened two offices in California, and one in Trenton, N.J.

The third one might seem out of sync, especially as North Highland looks toward westward expansion to gain what CEO Dan Reardon calls a "national footprint," but he says it's perfectly in line with what the firm is doing. "We do about 10 percent of our revenues with state governments," he says.

Another big change the firm has seen since its stellar debut at No. 4 onto the Best Firms list last year is converting to an ESOP model, which means the firm is now 100 percent employee owned. "When we talk to our employees about our future, it's really their future. They have a big equity stake in where the company goes and the results. It's very powerful," Reardon says.

North Highland consultants clearly are invested in their future-and their present. Respondents gave high marks (4.67 out of 5.00) to the type of engagements they're doing, and Reardon thinks that's attributable in large part to the mindset the firm has about its projects. "[We] take the same two-year project that our competitors would call a two-year project... and we would call that a four-phase project and break it into six months. I just think it's a lot healthier." It also helps the firm make sure the project is on track-something extremely important to keep an eye on, as the firm guarantees all of its work. "I don't want to wait two years to find out if they're happy," Reardon says. "I want to know all along the way to make sure we're doing what they need done."

That guarantee is something that separates the firm from many-if not most-of its competitors. "That makes you look at every project a little bit differently," Reardon says. "If you know that you're guaranteeing something, you try to think of every possible thing that will go wrong and mitigate that risk." The guarantee is something that's very important, especially as what many firms do start to overlap and mirror each other's models. "Consulting's a commodity; it's a lot of competition over price and it's hard to tell the difference between IBM and Accenture and North Highland. So the differentiation comes out of how you do it, not what you do," he says.

And, he adds, the guarantee isn't just a win for the client, it's a win for the consultant. "Our folks take a lot of pride in the work that they do because it actually results in things being different. The change that the client wanted is the change that they get because we stay there until we're done."

Consultants also have a high level of satisfaction because they aren't traveling all the time, giving them a chance to integrate into their respective communities. "We have a tremendous amount of community involvement. Which I could never do [before]-I was with Arthur Andersen for 10 years, so I never knew if I was going to be home on a Wednesday night," Reardon says, adding that North Highland consultants forge very strong community and client relationships because of that local model.

And he sees the results on the revenue sheet, adding that because of repeat engagements, consultants are very close to clients and intimately understand their needs. "We're going to get it done faster; we're going get it done right the first time." -Jacqueline Durett