19. Caiman Consulting
Headquarters: Redmond, Wash. Number of Billable Consultants: 72 CLient Industries Served: High Tech, E-Commerce, Healthcare Consulting Service Lines: Strategy, Operations Management
After a brief hiatus, Redmond, Wash.-based Caiman Consulting is back on the Best Small Firms to Work For list. "We are incredibly happy to be a Best Small Firm to Work For – our employees are proud and excited, and our clients love that we are recognized for our workplace culture and benefits," says Raazi Imam, CEO of Caiman Consulting. "They want to partner with a consulting firm that treats employees as people and helps them reach their career goals, and so awards like this help every aspect of our business."
Imam says Caiman's employees are highly engaged and company morale is high. "We believe strongly in transparency and sharing the ups and downs of our business with our employees," he says. "This can sometimes mean morale can ebb and flow with the sales cycle, but the important thing is that we're all pulling in the same direction and building trust. When we succeed, everyone feels like they contributed to that success and the long-term effect is a consultant team that feels personally invested in the success of the overall company."
And there's been quite a bit of success and still plenty of opportunity on the horizon. "We're really interested in the opportunities posed by artificial intelligence and decentralized networks as we help our clients with their business challenges," he says. "Our focus for the last several years has been on digital transformation and helping clients really reap the benefits of modern technologies without having to build cumbersome IT organizations, and we see those technologies becoming easier to engage with as we move into the 2020s."
Ask Imam what's unique about his firm and he'll say Caiman approaches internal engagement and client engagement in a more scientific and methodical manner with a defined process that has been tested and refined over time. "We work harder than other firms to build the sense of community that holds our consultants together even though they're working for different clients and across different geographies," he says.
Speaking of different geographies, each year Caiman has an annual meeting in a tropical location. "A little beach time does wonders for employee satisfaction," he says. "We also have our Caiman Leadership Academy to nurture and develop the next generation of managers."
On the survey, the firm excelled in the areas of Work/Life Balance and Career Development. Over time, as the firm's millennial demographic has increased (Caiman is nearly 50 percent millennials today), the firm has had to rethink Work/Life Balance, Career Development and Engagement.
"Caiman fundamentally believes in people first, both in terms of encouraging a healthy work/live balance as well as in supporting their desired career development," Imam says. "We've successfully implemented initiatives and policies such as: flexible working/commuting arrangements, sabbatical, and the Caiman Leadership Academy to deliver against these priorities. We are constantly looking for opportunities to evolve the programs and benefits we offer to our employees in an effort to promote work/life balance and career development."
What's your top priority over the next 12 months?
Imam: We're working hard on our Diversity and Inclusion initiative to help emphasize the importance of bringing together people from different backgrounds and empowering them to be their best selves. We recently published our "state of diversity at Caiman" and are working on expanding programs and content that help push diversity through the organization.
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