Let's face it: Most of the news in this profession is driven by a few dozen enterprise firms. There isn't really a way around that. The Bains, IBMs and Deloittes of the world will engage much of the editorial focus of this publication.
However, we've made a significant effort to reach out and cover the smaller consulting firms as much as possible. One, they often become the rising stars of tomorrow. (Huron Consulting was a Small Jewel back in 2004. In 2012, Huron made $626 million and had 1,500 billable consultants.) Two, these firms are an absolute blast to cover.
Many of them are run by folks who used to be at much larger firms and left so they could run a consultancy a little differently. For starters, these firms are always focused on a passion of the founder—whether it's strategy, IT or operations in healthcare, financial services or the public sector, they exist because an entrepreneur had a desire and a dream.
Secondly, these firms enjoy some of the best employee satisfaction rates in the profession. (This is backed up, by the way, by the results of our annual Best Small Firms to Work For survey where small firms' overall scores outpace the larger firms.) People simply love working for these Seven Small Jewels.
And that level of employee satisfaction brings me to my third point: These firms focus more on culture than revenue. The owners love making money, of course, but they sure sound to me like they want to run a place where people love to work even more. They're laser focused on employee recognition; they have miniscule attrition rates and they hire almost exclusively by referrals. Boy, what large firm wouldn't kill to be able to say that?
And finally, they have fun. And maybe, more importantly, they never miss a chance to tell me about it. So be sure to read their impressive—and often inspiring—stories in this issue.
And one more thing: This year, we're hosting the Consulting magazine Achievement Awards: The Profession's Best Small Firms dinner, which includes the 2013 Seven Small Jewels, on April 18 in Chicago. And I have this crazy feeling they'll be even more fun in person.
Joseph Kornik
Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
jkornik@consultingmag.com
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