5. Cask
For three years running, Cask has been a top performer on the Best Firms to Work For list. In fact, the San Diego-based multi-service firm has never been ranked outside the Top 5. Liz Guezzale, the firm's Founder and CEO, says the sustained recognition provides awareness and reinforcement of the direction the firm's heading as well as encouragement to continue what it's doing, not only internally, but externally with its clients.
"Our employees are the reason we achieve this award year after year," she says. "The passion they have for their job extends to the services provided to our clients to create a constant need for our expertise within their organizations."
Guezzale says the culture and morale at Cask is one of success, satisfaction, and well-being. "We call it 'mojo'—it permeates everything we do," she says.
She says that much of the foundation and continued nurturing of the firm's culture can be credited to Bo Burlingham and his book Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big. "We give the book to every prospective and new hire so that they understand that our culture is based on core values and behaviors, which represent a conscious decision to do things different," she says. "We have intentionally built Cask to maintain a goal of being great at what we do, not just growing."
Of course, growing is nice, too. And Guezzale says she sees lots of opportunity in the current economic environment. The firm's Collaboration and Social Business practice is very exciting, she says "as more and more organizations are trying to harness the collective intelligence and decision making of their organizations to achieve greater agility and better decision making," she says.
"Seeing collaboration and social business really empower organizations with real results beyond marketing functions is both powerful and a huge growth opportunity."
Internally, she says her focus is on continuing to shape the firm's unique culture as it continues to grow, keeping it a "small giant" among consulting organizations. "We continue to expand the reach of our company through new services and capabilities to provide more opportunities for our staff to grow," she says.
"We operate with many initiatives that map to and support our strategic goals around human capital management and organizational culture."
Over the next year, Guezzale says Cask will be focused on "maturing the organization, its systems and processes, our people, and our opportunities in the market place," she says.
WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE REMAINDER OF THIS YEAR AND 2014, WHAT EXCITES YOU?
Liz Guezzale, Founder and CEO of Cask, says: "Cask strives to be a leading small business that provides our associates with the necessary resources and tools to be successful consultants. We push associates to adapt—to use the benefits and options they have to create a healthy work environment, to advance their knowledge in both their core disciplines and tangential bodies of knowledge, to expand their networks with clients, partners, competitors, and others not directly related to this business at all. Enhancing one's capabilities and environment not only increases the capabilities and satisfaction of our consultants, but it also allows Cask to offer a higher degree of expertise to our customers. The benefits Cask provides are critical to the success of our company as well as our associates and their families.
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