Firm: PRTM Headquarters: Waltham, Mass. Billable Consultants: 660 Who knew? One of PRTM’s consultants, Andy Hewett, recently cut an album with his band Evolution Eden.

PRTM, an operational strategy and innovation firm has been a player in the management consulting arena for three decades. It has consistently found a home in Consulting’s Best Firms to Work For survey over the past six years. What makes it stand out from its peers? One element, says PRTM’s Global Managing Director Scott Hefter, is that the firm realizes that consultants have a choice when it comes to where they choose to work.

“We provide an infinite opportunity for folks to learn and contribute,” Hefter says, explaining what makes the Waltham, Mass.-based consultancy different. “We offer folks, I believe, a tremendous professional freedom to explore, learn and evolve in their careers. That’s the greatest thing that we can do here to keep the talent.” He says consultants also get paired with a mentor to help them grow at the company.

Steve Palagyi, a 16-year consultant with PRTM, and a partner for 10 of those years, says he’s enjoyed how hands-on the firm’s allowed him to be since his arrival. “One of the things that struck me most when I joined PRTM is that from day one you get involved in running the business.”

But at the same time, says Palagyi, who is based in the Dallas office, a true team spirit drives the firm. “We work on teams for every aspect of our business. When an opportunity presents itself, we’ll pull together the right team from all levels of the company.”

And consultants continue to have even more opportunities for success, whether on teams or on their own, as Hefter explains that the firm has been growing, thanks in part to the tech bust at the turn of the century. “Being a technology consulting firm, that had an effect on us. I think that when history gets fully rewritten, that will have proven to have been a very important and very good time for us because it forced us to get into a more diversified set of industries,” he says, citing the firm’s entrance or expansion into each of the following arenas: public sector, consumer products, life sciences and global health. “We are much more diversified as a company, and we are continuing to grow, and I don’t see that really changing for the next few years,” he says.

“We offer folks a tremendous professional freedom to explore and learn and evolve in their careers.” — Scott Hefter Global Director, PRTM

With those new clients, though, comes the need to meet with them, and Hefter is realistic about how much his people need to travel in order for the firm to do its job. “We try to limit it to no more than three nights a week out. But the type of work where we’re sitting and actually helping our clients transform requires us to be with the client to get that done. There’s only so much you can do with e-mail and back in the office.”

And soon consultants will be traveling to even more locations. “Geographic expansion is absolutely something we’ll continue at PRTM,” he says, explaining that the firm currently has 16 offices throughout the world to accommodate its 660 consultants. Offices overseas include Paris, Tokyo and Shanghai.

In addition to expanding around the world, Hefter says he sees three main challenges as the company moves forward. “I think [one challenge] as we expand globally, and as we expand with the industries and the segments that we work in, is to remain one firm. The second is to really win the war on talent.” And the last, he says, is to “ensure that as the industries that we operate in shift and evolve, that we are absolutely certain that we understand the end-to-end value globally.”

For those who can rise to those challenges, the sky’s the limit. Hefter says a key differentiator at the firm is that everyone has the opportunity to rise as high as their talent will take them. “This is a business where literally everyone who’s here has the opportunity to make partner. And that’s a very subtle but very profound difference about PRTM."