12. Infinitive
Headquarters: Ashburn, Va. Number of Billable Consultants: 130 Client Industries Served: Media, Publishing, Financial Services, Travel + Hospitality, Education, and Customer Packaging Goods Consulting Service Lines: Operations, IT
It's been a few years since Infinitive ended up on the best Small Firms to Work For list, but it's back. And that's great news for the firm, but perhaps even better news for Infinitive's clients, says Denis McFarlane, Founder & CEO.
"It surprises people when I tell them our clients like to know we win this award," he says. "It gives them confidence that our folks are happy and less likely to leave mid project. They know it also makes it easier for us to hire great talent."
And hiring that great talent is something McFarlane and Infinitive have always been laser focused on, he says. "Honestly, and to be blunt, we don't hire jerks," he says. "If it happens inadvertently, we get rid of them quickly. Everybody's smart and capable… and everybody must be easy to work with both from the Infinitive side and the client side. Life is too short to work with jerks."
It's hard to argue with that. McFarlane says the firm has great people and awesome clients. "And we want to hire more great people and get more awesome clients," McFarlane says.
One area where the firm is investing heavily is in the Technology practice, he says. "We are also deploying some very cool data and analytics solutions, which is providing incremental revenue opportunities for many of our clients."
If you ask McFarlane about his top priority over the next 12 months, he'll say it's growth, plain and simple, both at the Infinitive level and at the Infinitivian level. "We want to grow our business and want each of our folks to grow their skills constantly," he says.
On the survey, the firm excelled in the areas of Career Development and Culture.
"First, it is great to hear this," McFarlane says. "And I'm proud to hear it as we have purposefully invested heavily into these two areas over the past year."
Each Inifinitivian has a coach (including McFarlane), and the firm encourages everyone to learn new skills and earn a certification every year. And Infinitive leaders are pushing consultants to stretch themselves on every project. "And this doesn't help just Infinitive, it helps our clients," he says. "We embrace our Core Values and measure folks against them constantly."
Are there any specific programs or initiatives you think contributed to being a Best Small Firm to Work For?
McFarlane: To be honest, I feel like most everything we do is around creating a great environment where our folks can thrive. However, recently, we promoted one of our consultants to the position of "Champion of Infinitive Experience." As a direct report to me, her sole role for the company is to focus on developing and maintaining an awesome culture here at Infinitive. We chose someone who has been in their shoes before and could relate to the many issues they have. In addition, we have also enhanced our benefits package, created more fun company-wide events to connect, and put even more focus on growing our Infinitivians with education.
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