Billable Consultants: (186 U.S. Only)
Headquarters: Ann Arbor, MI
Twelve years ago, Paul Driver's boss warned him not to leave Andersen Consulting to help launch a small project-management firm.
"He said, 'Big-name consultancies are the only firms that can get into the world's largest organizations, and you don't want to work for second-tier organizations,'" recalls Driver, president of Pcubed, which has headquarters in Ann Arbor, MI, and London. It didn't take long for Driver to prove his boss wrong.
Pcubed chairman and CEO Adrian Balfour had worked with Driver in the project management field during their days at Ford Motor Company in Europe. When Balfour hung his own consulting shingle in Ann Arbor after winning a contract to set up a project management office for an early joint initiative between Ford and Jaguar, he invited Driver to help him start Pcubed. Driver remained in the U.K., "which forced us to think and operate globally from the start — something that has been a major advantage for us," he says.
The fledgling firm quickly landed several deals at large companies, including Compaq. "We started marketing ourselves as people who helped with difficult projects and programs — a combination of projects designed to meet a strategic objective — at the world's biggest PC company, the world's second largest car company, and the world's biggest mining company," Driver recalls. "That had a ring to it that enabled us to get conversations with a number of executives in a number of organizations."
Since then, Pcubed has focused on delivering excellent customer service along with top-notch project and program management expertise — which Driver describes as "cutting through the problems large organizations have in making difficult, cross-functional, cross-departmental, cross-company programs work."
Since issuing that stern warning, Driver's former boss, still a good friend, has been a Pcubed client twice. "Every time I see him, I enjoy reminding him of his words of caution," says Driver with a grin. That
playful streak runs through the entire firm. "We think that we're more irreverent than other organizations out there," he adds. The recruiting firms Pcubed uses seem to agree. "Those agencies have told us that when they're looking for someone to put forward to us, they select the people they like because they are the ones we typically hire," he says. "We've heard that repeatedly, which gives a really great feeling that we're doing something good here."
That may explain why the firm, with its combination of interpersonal irreverence and top program management talent, can pull off a "McKinsey of project management and program execution" comparison. "This means that we're going to have the best and the brightest and the best track record and continually build on that, share that effectively across the business, and can engage with the client to help them solve their problems in this area," Driver notes.
The firm envisions itself as a unique alternative between the Big Five and smaller project management firms with a narrow geographic focus. Difficult projects and portfolios of projects at large organizations almost always cut across locations, function, and, often, continents. Executives searching for that sort of assistance "don't want to be drowned by a 100-person team," says Driver. Yet, they also need top expertise with a global reach. Pcubed's teams, typically staffed by 10 or so program management experts, appear to meet that need — as current clients Thomson Group (France), Cadbury Schweppes (U.K.), and Johnson Controls (U.S.) all attest.
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