The 2021 Best Small Firms to Work For: Exavalu

Client Industries Served: Financial Services, Insurance, Healthcare, Life-Sciences and Non-profits

Consulting Service Lines: Strategy and IT

CMAG: How would you say you've managed to stay among the industry's Best Small Firms to Work For amid these unprecedented times?

The pace of digital transformation across industries has accelerated greatly over the last year that has created opportunities for Exavalu as a firm to help our clients on Digital programs and for our associates to develop their careers around Digital skills and technologies. We're providing a platform for associates to collaborate with clients to help advise them on digital strategy, solutions and roadmaps that deliver meaningful value around improvement of customer experience, deliver operational efficiency, and satisfy compliance and privacy needs. We're also investing heavily in ongoing Digital technology training and certifications for our people so that they can continue to sharpen their skills, acquire new skills, and translate their knowledge to great solutions for our clients. We've continued to acquire senior leadership talent that provides an opportunity for most of our associates to receive better career guidance and mentorship. Finally, our culture and values based on professional expertise, mutual respect, integrity, accountability, entrepreneurship, collaboration, and community development serve as a magnet for high-quality talent.

CMAG: Were there any specific programs or initiatives (internal or external) that contributed to you being a Best Small Firm to Work For?

We kicked off several initiatives last year. One of them was around establishing Exavalu Academy to formally deliver ongoing training and skills development for our associates through curated learning paths. The Academy is expected to play a big role in hiring and training new university grads into a variety of Digital technology tracks through our internship programs. We're also investing in industry certifications for our associates and mentoring and coaching them in the process. Another initiative was around creating a window for our associates to interact with industry executives and leaders. We launched a "LeaderSpeak" series to help our associates directly hear from senior industry leaders (most of them external speakers) on topics of relevance to Digital transformation or Leadership development. All of these tie into a superior career experience and leadership development for our associates. We've also invited our associates to participate in various firm development activities including marketing, partner alliance management, sales support, internal communications, finance, and operations. This enables our associates to understand and support our enterprise functions and participate in firm growth and development.

CMAG: What is unique about your firm? What sets it apart?

We're a high-growth company so we really encourage entrepreneurial thinking and action leading to the profitable growth of the company that helps meet our goals while still staying within the overall vision and strategy. We have consulting leaders who've built and managed consulting businesses in the past and they're actively mentoring and developing our associates to help them become leaders of the firm in the future and develop entrepreneurial skills. Secondly, we're unique in the way that we bring professional advisory expertise to deliver strategic clarity to our clients on their problems and solutions especially within the vertical industries we serve, while also helping execute flawlessly with technology solutions delivery. This combination of strategic clarity with flawless execution sets us apart within firms of our size. Third, our integrated workforce model is unique where we collaborate and integrate remote associates and sometimes even our client folks to work as teams in fast-paced programs delivering meaningful results for our clients. Lastly, our relentless focus on client value and employee value enables us to create a strong affinity with clients and employees.

CMAG: What's the top priority over the next 6 to 12 months?

While the market is buoyant and the pace of digitalization is increasing, the labor market this year has been tight, especially for digital skills. Talent acquisition and development will be a high priority over the next year. We'd be looking to add talent through creative ways while also developing talent internally through training programs. We've set a 3-year growth target, so taking the right steps to meet those targets will be a priority. This will include the addition of new leaders, building out our practices, strengthening our corporate functions, focusing on partnerships, and developing our clients and associates.

CMAG: When you look at the remainder of this year and 2022, what excites you? What opportunities do you see in your markets?

The demand for consulting has been strong this year and I'd expect it to continue over the next year. Clients are looking for business and technology expertise on digital transformation that they don't have internally, so this presents a great opportunity for us to develop strategic partnerships and relationships with clients. Our consulting and delivery model is unique, and we pack a lot of expertise within a relatively smaller firm and that's differentiating for us. Insurance, Financial Services, Healthcare and Life-Sciences are the key verticals of focus for us, and there's rapid disruption happening in all these vertical markets so digital transformation will be key to survival and growth.

CMAG: What impact do you think being a Best Small Firm to Work For has on the firm? Employees? Clients?

This is great for both our employees and clients. It's assurance and confidence for our new hires that we're up there with the best in our peer group. For our clients, it signals we have a happy and stable workforce and we're a magnet for talent that's important for them to see in a consulting partner. Ultimately motivated employees drive better engagement and value for clients.