E ditor’s Note
S mallville
Bob Cliff’s seen a thing or two in his
day. Bob is the founder and CEO of Oakland, Calif.-based Cliff Consulting. He founded the firm way
back in 1972 and quickly grew it to about 15 billable
consultants. And that’s pretty much where it is
today. Since he’s owned and operated a small firm
since the days Richard Nixon was president, I think
Bob more than qualifies to offer up his perspective
on the current state of the small consulting firm. “I
suspect that there are more small firms than ever
before, and I think they’re—well we’re—having a bigger impact than
we’ve ever had,” Bob told me a few weeks ago.
I think Bob’s right—they are having a bigger impact. Every time a
consultant leaves a legacy firm to either start his own firm or to join
the ranks of a smaller firm, the industry sits up and takes notice. With
the war for talent still raging, the legacy firms can’t afford to have a
big crop of smaller firms promising a lot less travel for just a little less
pay. But that’s what is happening in the
industry right now. But why now?
Theboomof
the small firm
in consulting
probably can be
traced back to a
single event—
the breakup of
Arthur Andersen.
The boom of Smallville in the consulting
industry probably can be traced back to a single event—the breakup of Arthur Andersen
in 2002. That one event set off a chain reaction that has brought us to where we are
today. In a matter of weeks, thousands of
consultants were suddenly on the sidelines,
figuring out what they wanted to do next.
Some were scooped up by other firms—
Michael Travis is now president and CEO of
Hitachi Consulting—while others circled the wagons, secured some capital and launched their own firms.
Indeed, three of this year’s Seven Small Jewels—Cary McMillan’s
True Partners Consulting, Steve Sestak’s MarketSphere Consulting and
Venanzio Arquilla and George Hensen’s The Claro Group—were
founded by ex-Andersen folks. (Cliff Consulting, of course, was not.)
And the industry is full of former Andersen consultants now running
their own firms. The biggest ex-Andersen success story to date has to
be Gary Holdren’s Huron Consulting Group, which topped $500 mil-
lion in revenue in 2007, not bad for a firm that’s barely five years old.
Collectively, the 2008 Seven Small Jewels represent the very best of
the entrepreneurial spirit in consulting. All firms, of course, say they
are heavily focused on their clients and committed to their own people.
But the small firms have to be; for them it’s a matter of survival.
This year’s Seven Small Jewels begins on Page 14. As always, let us
know what you think. Consulting magazine welcomes your thoughts
and values your feedback.
Joseph Kornik
Editor-in-Chief
jkornik@consultingmag.com
4
March/April 2008 Consulting
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