Most of the advice traditional consulting firms provide is fundamentally flawed. Firms tend to be built around functional or industry-specific silos, serving narrow engagements to help small slivers of a company. However, those blinders prevent firms—and their clients—from seeing the big picture—the complexity between the pieces. That's the big idea that separates Wilson Perumal & Company from other consulting firms. To learn more about the firm, Consulting's One on One recently sat down with Andrei Perumal, who, along with Stephen Wilson, founded the firm in 2009.
Consulting: What's the big void in the marketplace that you think your firm is uniquely positioned to fill?
Perumal: Most companies don't think about the unintended consequences of complexity. We think they should focus less on the individual pieces of their business and more about how all of the pieces fit together. Corporate leaders constantly have to make internal tradeoffs between those pieces. On a production line floor, for example, there are many consulting firms that can help optimize the output of each product. But there are few that pay much attention to the change over time when the plant stops building one item and starts producing another. To attack systemic issues, it takes a firm with a strategic mindset and operational depth. And we think that's an underserved area in the market.
Consulting: How are clients reacting to the news that their previous consulting projects have been focused on the wrong things?
Perumal: When we wrote the book, Waging War on Complexity (published by McGraw Hill, 2009), we honestly didn't know how business leaders would react. We've been pleasantly surprised. What we've found is that the more senior someone is in an organization, the more our message resonance. CEOs get it because they have a more complete view of their business. What they are challenged with is how to manage all of the complexity.
Consulting: Where are you getting pushback?
Perumal: We think the issue of internal complexity is just starting to garner recognition. We think it's going to become a much more prominent issue in the next five to ten years. We're happy the wave is just starting now—we're still building our foundation. As of May 2011, we employ 25 people and generate about $5 million annually. But our growth is really taking off. We're adding a new hire every month; 75 percent of our staff has been added in the last 12 months. One of our hires was a full-time professional recruiter; a necessary investment—even for a firm our size—to continue to meet our clients' demand.
Consulting: What kind of prior experience prepares someone to work for your firm?
Perumal: We're really looking to build a diversity of talent. I came from Bain & Co., which is a tremendous firm, but if 80 percent of my firm were former Bain consultants, we'd be great but limited. Our goal is to find talent from three different sources: traditional consulting firms, industry, and the top technical military programs. Consultants currently make up the largest group because they're able to come in and hit the ground running. Industry experts, those with at least four to eight years of experience, are better able to see problems from the point of view of our clients. And former military officers make excellent candidates because they have a devotion to duty, high technical skills and it's easy for us to identify top performers. In time, I'd like each bucket to account for one-third of our talent pool. Currently, about 75 percent of our managers — those at the pre-partner level — are ex-consultants. But I look forward to the day when we promote a group of managers that did not have prior consulting experience before joining our firm.
Consulting: What advice would you give to consultants thinking of starting their own firms?
Perumal: Trust your instincts. When we started this firm, we were told the same things over and over again: 1) you have to pick a narrow space and compete on industry depth; and, 2) use contractors, and avoid making full-time hires, to manage cash flow. We ignored the conventional wisdom. If we had to compete on industry depth, we'd have lost significant opportunities elsewhere. We're focused, but our focus cuts across industries. And while we've used contractors here and there, about 95 percent of our staff is comprised of salaried employees. Of course it was a big risk, but if we were limiting ourselves to contractors we'd only be deploying resources in the market. Our success is going to rest on the alchemy of the mix of talent we have.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.