If you were a client at Alvarez & Marsal when the firm launched 25 years ago, it typically meant you had some challenges that needed drastic intervention. But now the firm is working with a broad spectrum of companies, ranging from those at crisis point to those who are looking to go from good to great.
"Starting in 1999, we decided to grow from a boutique large case firm to a more national and then a global restructuring firm," says co-founder Tony Alvarez II of the evolution. "And then in 2003, we began entry into a broader set of services that we internally referred to as our business advisory services and began to do more services for the healthy companies or the companies that needed profit improvement."
Now the firm, with about 1,200 consultants on staff, is advising healthcare companies, public sector operations, and real estate and financial services firms, among others. "We have clients that are large corporate Fortune clients, both publically listed and privately listed, and we have clients that we would refer to as middle market."
The past five or six years have been great time for growth at the firm. "I doubt very many of any both publicly or privately funded companies have grown as fast as we have," Alvarez says. "And what we're most proud of is that we have done that without acquisitions, we have done it all organically."
And since that growth has been organic, the firm's culture has been clearly established from the onset, Alvarez says, adding that what separates a professional services firm from its competitors is "not so much their technical competencies or just service lines but the culture and values. The amount of effort or emphasis that we put into making sure that people are true to our values and our culture is pretty huge." Alvarez says key values include objectivity, integrity and even fun. "If I were to point to one phrase that defines our firm, [it's our] belief that you do this because you like what you're doing and you like who you're doing it with." That mindset earned the firm a 4.6 out of a possible 5.00 in Culture.
Alvarez also attributes a great deal of the firm's success to its leaders. "We don't really bet on product lines, we bet on leaders more than we bet on product lines," he says. "And when we believe in someone and they share our values and they have an entrepreneurial spirit, we really empower them as long as they're true to our values and culture."
As an example, Alvarez points to Tom Elsenbrook's success leading the business consulting practice. "When we got into that business in 2003, we had zero revenues and zero head count in that division, and we hired one person and that was Tom Elsenbrook. And you fast forward to today and that division is close to 300 people and very profitable," he says.
"And the example of Tom is but one example," Alvarez adds. "There are several Toms in our firm where we've hired a leader, we've empowered them and they've grown the practice and they've bought in to our Kool-Aid—or our culture and values—and like it." The strength of his leaders helps Alvarez lead a large firm without bureaucratic barriers, he says. "I think of our firm as 14 divisions. Those 14 divisions have 14 leaders and these 14 leaders have leaders who report to them, and those leaders probably lead groups of 20 or 30. It's a way of thinking."
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