8) Loft9
It's been quite a year for Loft9, the Bellevue, Wash.-based operations management firm. Earlier this year, the firm was named one of Consulting 's Seven Small Jewels and now, six months later, the two-year-old firm makes its debut on our Best Small Firms to Work For list.
"It is an honor to be selected as one of the Best Small Firms just two-and-a-half years after Loft9 was launched," says Mark Birzell, a Founding Partner of Loft9. "From the very beginning, every associate at Loft9 has been passionate about living our values, including a flat feedback culture, collaboration with peers, and true empowerment to recommend and lead change."
Loft9 was founded in 2010 by Birzell and Edward Beals to fill what the two saw as an unmet need in the marketplace for services in project coordination and business analytics. Birzell and Beals were colleagues at Seattle-based Point B, a firm that is known for its culture and often appears on our Best Firms list.
In just a short time, Loft9 is clicking on all cylinders and Birzell says that "morale at our firm is at a historic high."
Of course, business success probably plays a big factor in that morale. At the end of Loft9's third year in business, the firm will have 60 associates, Birzell says. "This growth provides great momentum, opens up internal leadership opportunities, and reveals client facing line-of-service leadership roles," he says.
"The most exciting thing about the next 18 months is that we will be working with another 7 to 10 new clients while deepening our delivery relationships with existing clients," he says. "The ability to be in the service of others, our clients, is truly what motivates our firm to achieve beyond norms and provide exceptional value for clients."
As well as achieve stunning growth rates, somewhere in the neighborhood north of 500 percent by the end of the year. It's no surprise, then, that Loft9 is looking to stretch its wings a bit. The firm will enter the first market outside of the Puget Sound in 2013, although the location isn't public just yet.
"We also look at things a little differently at Loft9," Birzell says. "While most would say that high growth can kill a great culture, we say that our great culture has enabled the high growth."
Q&A: What sets Loft9 apart from its competitors?
Mark Birzell, a Founding Partner, says: "Our key differentiator for both clients and recruits is that we are a people development firm. Clients value our people development promise because we are providing education and training on a wide range of very relevant soft and hard skills. This also reinforces for our clients, that they are getting highly skilled consultants who are by nature curious and life-long learners.
One very unique way in which we support our people development promise is that we offer a $1,000 stipend per year to each Loft9 associate. This personal investment is meant to be used for any type of training, and we encourage them to use it for new skill, such as guitar lessons or pottery classes, for example. We believe learning is equally about life experiences, as it is about classroom and on-the-job learning. Without nurturing the creative side of our development minds, the practical side is held back."
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