Family figures prominently in Gary Holdren's career.
The Huron Consulting Group chairman/CEO has followed guiding principles laid out by his father, a successful business owner, through 30 years with Andersen and three years at the helm of the Chicago-based financial and operational consulting services firm, whose growth continues to climb.
"My father taught me two principles," Holdren recalls. "The customer always comes first, and you have to have good people with you. You also have to treat those people like you treat your family — otherwise, you have nothing."
Huron's success definitely qualifies as something. Launched in 2002 by Holdren and 25 of his former Andersen partners, the firm has grown from 250 people to more than 600. Huron's annual revenue for 2004, $159.6 million, represented a 57 percent increase from the previous year. The company, which conducted a successful initial public offering in 2004, posted first-quarter 2005 revenue that was more than 16 percent higher than 2004 first-quarter revenue.
Holdren is characteristically succinct when explaining the firm's overall success and how it was able to land the United Airlines engagement, the largest bankruptcy in the airlines industry, only three months into its existence.
"It's not because I look good or because they like the name Huron," he says. "It's the quality of our people."
Those people provide services around business dispute analysis, valuation, strategic sourcing, performance improvement, and other corporate advisory areas. The firm also focuses on the healthcare and higher education markets.
Holdren says that the service and sector mix represents "the way I've been thinking for 30 years about attacking the market." The Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other regulatory issues have played well to Huron Consulting Group's independence (it does not provide attestation services) and strength in corporate finance, and Holdren seems more than optimistic about the future, given the firm's services, sector focus, and repeat buyers.
"Very few of our engagements result from a competitive situation where we're responding to an RFP," he reports.
A bright future requires a steady influx of bright minds, so Holdren took two pages from Andersen's book and added one of his own. The CEO Advisory Council at Andersen was the most prestigious group among young partners at Holdren's former firm. At Huron, Holdren opened up his council to managing directors and individuals below that level. He meets with his in-house advisers, who serve a two-year stint on the council, four times a year and uses an e-mail chat room to maintain an ongoing discussion with them.
Fifteen younger managing directors also participate in an Andersen-esque "Masters Program," through which they spend more time with senior partners and client CEOs while ripening their relationship-building and selling skills.
"I think that these programs are having a positive impact," Holdren adds. "Our people are going out and telling other people in the industry the neat things we're doing to help develop their careers."
Holdren knows a thing or two about the value of a good mentor. His father started his $60 million company by selling auto parts out of the back of his station wagon. Holden's success shows that strong guidance can lead to a strong business, regardless of whether you're selling brakes and spark plugs or brainpower and problem-solving skills. — Eric Krell
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