The 2020 Best Small Firms to Work For: Acquis Consulting Group

Consulting Service Lines: Strategy, Operations Management, IT

Acquis Consulting Group brings culture and creativity together on every engagement, striving to be a little bit better each and every day. The firm tries to take care of the community within and around the firm, including taking special care of its client partners.

Anybody can espouse their commitment to culture during easy times, but seeing how that plays out in the hard times shows how big a priority it really is. Through a trying year, Acquis has doubled down on their culture.

"We have kept our cultural values close and maintained our focus on delivering creative services to the market. When we bring culture and creativity together, we find ourselves getting a little better each day. It's amazing what can be achieved via video conference and other new forms of collaboration when shared values are present," says Doug Locke, President and Managing Partner of Acquis.

The pandemic forced a lot of companies to fight to keep their heads above water, but Acquis managed to take this time to make real progress on some of its most important internal and external-facing programs.

"We are standing up new programs to challenge ourselves and the team has responded if not extended these efforts. We have made progress in our Diversity and Inclusion programs, advanced new custom training events, expanded philanthropic work, initiated some creative coaching programs, and have added employee and community facing programs. I am blown away by the team's collective throughput," Locke says.

Even looking beyond the crisis, over the next 6-12 months that's bound to bring some uncertainty, Acquis has worked to keep an eye on its near-term goals.

"We need to build a few new go-to-market practice areas, onboard new creative partners, and expand some of our Adjacency efforts. We are talking to an impressive group of future leaders and exposing them to new possibilities within our model. This includes classic practice area builds, profit participation in newcos, efforts to engage new customer sources, and trial of new revenue models.  We also need to think of creative ways to engage our team from a culture and talent management perspective, given the extended remote-environment," says Locke.

As for the impact winning a Best Small Firm to Work For award, Locke says it's a point of pride for the company.

My partners and I want to thank Consulting Magazine's Best Small Firms for this platform. Our great COO (Joanna Sears) has been helping drive progress via key performance indicators – a focus at least partially due to our 'Best Firms' intentions. Our leadership team knows the importance of this recognition for internal and external facing programs. On a personal note, I feel a sense of pride when conducting a meeting in our conference room with the Best Small Firms plaques on display.

How would you describe morale at your firm? Why?

Locke: "Morale is in a great place. We feel a bit guilty being celebratory given today's environment and of course there are areas we can improve. We are mindful of the many challenges facing the industry and broader societal pressures of today and feel privileged to be in this position. We are looking to take care of the community within and around the firm including special care of our client partners. We are grateful about the good things happening at Acquis."