Alvarez & Marsal
Tom Elsenbrook
Managing Director and SBU Head of Business Consulting
Consulting: As we close out 2015, where is your firm today?
Elsenbrook: Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) experienced our most successful year ever. We hit the $1 billion mark and grew the top line 14 percent. Currently, A&M has 2900 employees in over 45 offices across 18 countries and four continents. This year, we saw strong performances from many of our business units. Our corporate performance improvement practice experienced their best year ever fueled partially by our growing corporate transformation practice. In the energy sector, we experienced a great demand for our restructuring services.
Consulting: How would you describe your firm's outlook for 2016?
Elsenbrook: We have a positive outlook for 2016 and expect to again deliver double-digit growth and will continue our commitment to delivering value to our clients and to hiring the best talent available to cultivate those relationships. While the landscape is changing for many industries, we expect that continued M&A activity will fuel our Corporate Performance Improvement and Private Equity business lines. Second, a rise in corporate defaults will drive growth in our restructuring business. Third, a combination of low GDP growth and tension from activist investors will put pressure on corporate executives to improve their company's financial and operational performance in an urgent time frame.
Consulting: How do you see the profession evolving in 2016?
Elsenbrook: The evolution of consulting demands for results that create value. Ideas for improvement are good, but an idea that fails to be implemented is not worth much. It is a seamless execution that creates the value. A&M is the execution firm that solves complex problems. I believe the market will continue to demand demonstrable results from consultants, and the market is moving towards expecting the caliber of results that we deliver.
Consulting: What do you see as the biggest opportunities in 2016?
Elsenbrook: Most companies will have to make significant improvements to create value in this low-growth environment. Business as usual is unfortunately not good enough. A&M's corporate transformation group combines the best of our restructuring and consulting expertise to transform global companies at faster rates than most thought possible. Traditional consulting firms are typically too polite with management to bring about change of this magnitude.
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