Dan Reardon
CEO
North Highland
Q: Can you sum up where the firm is today?
A: 2013 was another successful year for North Highland, especially when viewed in the context of a challenging economy. We expanded our footprint with four new offices (Seattle, Washington; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Seoul; South Korea; Hobart, Tasmania), expanded our business intelligence division, Enfathom, into the UK, grew our client base, increased our employee base by more than 10 percent, were recognized as a Best Firm to Work For, and delivered tremendous value for our clients. To summarize, we invested in capabilities and expertise so that we can continue to drive real value for our clients.
Q: How would you describe your firm's outlook for 2014?
A: Entering 2014, I am more excited about the work we are doing with clients than at any time in our firm's history. This is due in large part to our ever-increasing role as strategic advisor and thought partner to clients. Our consultants have grown quickly in order to continually exceed the high expectations we have and to keep ahead of the fast pace of change in our industry. We anticipate significant growth at North Highland in 2014 through our suite of diversified services.
Our strategic marketing agency, Sparks Grove, to cite one example, achieved 50 percent annual growth during the past two years, and is bringing new innovations to the table for our consulting clients. We expect another 50 percent in 2014 for Sparks Grove. Globally, across all areas of our business, we are looking at double-digit growth in 2014. Looking ahead, we see significant growth for clients in several industries, including Financial Services, Healthcare, Retail, and Public Sector, among others.
Q: What specific signs are you seeing that suggest an increase in demand?
A: In the last quarter of 2013, we saw a significant uptick in demand for multi-disciplinary solutions. At the same time, across our industry, there is a move to a managed services approach for the more basic type of work. This is driving more consulting firms to move aggressively into strategy work. Many of these firms say they do strategy work and only a few of us do. This creates additional opportunity for North Highland as we are able to provide a full spectrum of consulting services in a very unique integrated way, through our local office model.
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