After 10 years, firm's CEO reflects on Huron's past, present and future
Huron Consulting Group, which marks its 10th anniversary this month, has garnered the reputation as a firm that—besides being a perennial stalwart for its client service and revenue growth every year—takes its culture and its community service outreach very seriously. So seriously, in fact, to celebrate this milestone, Huron is sending its employees out to serve the communities in which they work, partnering with more than 30 service organizations around the world as part of the firm's Huron Helping Hands initiative. Jim Roth, Huron's President and CEO, says community support and culture is such a big part of what the company has always been about. It's no wonder then, that the firm appeared on Consulting 's list of The Best Firms to Work For in 2011. Consulting caught up with Roth recently to discuss the last 10 years, and what the next decade holds for the firm.
Consulting: What were some of the biggest challenges when you started back in 2002?
Roth: One of the biggest challenges was just getting out of the box. We had a whole series of different practices we started Huron with and weren't sure which ones would take and which wouldn't. It was a pleasant surprise that things evolved as quickly and well as they did. I think we were cash flow positive within three months, and in some respects, we've never looked back. We were fortunate to have a bunch of talented people who were very respected and relevant in the market and I think we quickly got a name for ourselves on a couple of key projects.
I think we entered the economy at a good time. For me personally it was only the second job I had, it was my 22nd year in my career and the second job I had, so it was exciting to start over again. Since then for us it's been a question of continuing to home in on those practices where we have the strongest presence in the marketplace: healthcare, education and legal consulting. Those industries have gone through continual change, and in some cases turmoil, so in some cases it was the right place at the right time for many of the core parts of our businesses.
Consulting: How has Huron been able to adapt to roll with changes in those up and down industries?
Roth: I think of it in three distinct areas: by providing value for our clients, creating an internal environment that tends to attract and retain the best people, and continually anticipating where our clients are going. The markets have changed and remain in a state of change. It was not going to be sufficient just to treat the current issues and challenges our clients have, we've also got to anticipate where they're going and work with management to get them there. We also spend a lot of our time and energy focused on our markets and the value we provide and a lot less time worrying about ourselves internally and that's served us well.
Consulting: In the last 10 years you've gone from an employee roster of 200 to 2,000, is that where you want to be in terms of headcount?
Roth: We have very strong growth expectations. We have opportunities to expand new services into our existing businesses, we have opportunities to take our existing businesses and expand them to new geographies, particularly on a global level which is something we've been doing over the last 3 to 4 years. I see very few restrictions in our ability to continue to grow, I suspect this year we'll easily hire between 200 to 300 people.
Consulting: What do you think the next 10 years hold?
Roth: I couldn't be more excited about where we're going. We're in some very dynamic environments right now, you read about many of them on the front page of the paper every day. It's fun to see the changes happening up front and personal with a lot of our clients. We're an aggressive group of people and pay a lot of attention to the market and are excited about how our business will transform as our clients' business transforms.
Consulting: Can you talk a little more about Huron Helping Hands?
Roth: Our people work really hard and are a lot of our clients in healthcare and education are very community-focused service oriented, so it shouldn't be a surprise the people we hire are interested in doing those things as well. Helping Hands is something we established a while back to help our people contribute back to the communities in which we serve.
We thought it'd be a great thing to organize around our 10th anniversary. It kind of reflects who we are and what we're about: we work hard, but we also realize there's a lot more than just business and doing well financially. Our people take involvement in their communities very seriously and we share the same view as a company.
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