Kalypso is no stranger to the pages of Consulting magazine. Named one of Consulting 's Seven Small Jewels in 2011 in large part for its explosive growth, the firm has no plans on slowing down as it celebrates its 8th anniversary. Founding partner Bill Poston is committed to continuing the firm's growth with the "4X4Y" plan—a plan to grow by an additional 400 percent over the next four years, increasing its current billable consultant headcount from 125 to 300 by 2015. Poston recently spoke with Consulting about this strategy, the secret to hiring like-minded employees, and why Stephen Colbert would be his ideal celebrity spokesman.
Consulting: Talk a little about Kalypso's "4X4Y" strategy.
Poston: After 8 years we felt like we had laid down a solid foundation and built a team and a client portfolio and reputation in the marketplace that allowed us to scale dramatically. When you think about it in percentage terms, it may not be faster than we had grown in the past but obviously on a much larger base. With that foundation we put a growth strategy in place to increase the size of the firm by 400 percent in the next 4 years. Revenue and headcount correlating with that. The 4X4Y plan really only represents about a 45 percent cumulative average growth rate over the next 4 years, it actually is aggressive because the absolute numbers get bigger and bigger but on a percentage basis it's a little lower than our historic growth rate.
Consulting: Can you talk about some of the firm's client work in innovation? What are they demanding?
Poston: As organizations are looking beyond the financial crisis or just growing weary of the recession they're turning their attention to growth from innovation. Unfortunately, while they're investing in innovation they are not adding the fixed cost and headcount to drive that. So it's creating a need for them to be much more efficient and rigorous in their evaluation of their investments in new products and innovation, and that need to be both more efficient and rigorous is causing them to evaluate how their needs to transform how they innovate and develop new products. We're helping them across the spectrum of what is required to drive that engine of growth. That means aligning business strategy with innovation strategy, helping them on the front end of innovation, improving the investment allocation disciplines of portfolio and pipeline management and improving engineering effectiveness and R&D effectiveness to shorten cycle times and get to market faster.
Consulting: What's the future of the innovation consulting market?
Poston: I think you're going to see more and more global collaboration and the need to tap into the skills and expertise of individuals around the world. That is going to consequently drive an investment cycle in technology that enables that smooth collaboration of experts from around the world. And as that evolves you will begin to see even higher levels not only of global collaboration but global multi-enterprise collaboration where we not only need to collaborate within the four walls of the company but across company lines.
Consulting: You have said your ideal celebrity spokesman would be Stephen Colbert, why is that?
Poston: Aside from being one of my favorite shows on television, I think the beauty of what he does is point out the differences between what people say and what they actually do. It's a good consultant that can point out the differences between a client strategy and what they're actually doing in operations and having that be motivating for them to change without upsetting them. Our role is to get our clients to look in the mirror and truly evaluate how they're doing in product development and innovation—look past the rhetoric and their messages to Wall Street and truly evaluate how they're doing in that capacity. In most cases they find themselves lacking or in need of incremental or substantial improvement.
Consulting: Is there a secret to hiring like-minded people to round out a firm like Kalypso?
Poston: I believe that the secret to building an organization like Kalypso really revolves around a very well articulated and defined set of core values and what we have learned over the years is if you screen tightly on values and cultural fit in the hiring process that your success rate with those individuals is improved dramatically, so we actively promote and sell those values not only internally but in the recruiting process to make sure people understand what the expectations are, what behaviors we value and what will not be tolerated. We're not the traditional "wine you and dine you at the expensive steakhouse and then stick you in a motel once you get hired" kind of firm. My partner tends to hold his candidate interviews at Steak and Shake just as a way to gauge their reaction, which can be a pretty good sign they're not a fit for the organization.
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