The 2023 Best Firms to Work For: MorganFranklin

Client Industries Served: Financial Services; Aerospace & Defense; Technology, Media, Telecom; Retail & Consumer; Private Equity; Healthcare & Lifesciences

Consulting Service Lines: Accounting Advisory, Risk & Regulatory, Technology Enablement, Cybersecurity, Transaction Advisory Services, Strategy & Transformation, Supply Chain & Retail Management

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

The embodiment of our Guiding Principles brings the MorganFranklin Way to life for our teammates, clients, and our firm. Our number one Guiding Principle, "Play for Each Other", has helped foster an environment that encourages and promotes teamwork, collaboration, and accountability. We all share in making MorganFranklin a great place to work, and I am truly humbled by the commitment, the passion, and the engagement that our team exhibits every day.

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

A fundamental part of our culture of excellence is The MorganFranklin Way (MFC Way), our trademarked, unique approach that brings consistency to how we engage with our clients and colleagues. We embrace a set of Guiding Principles that encourage collaboration, diversity, empathy, client delivery excellence, and hard work, among other behaviors.

Employee Experience: Our DEI groups, 1:1 check-in with all employees, focus/working groups, and regular highly transparent Town Hall meetings demonstrate to our employees our commitment to developing and sustaining workplace excellence and employee satisfaction.

Flexibility: MorganFranklin has a hybrid approach and offers flexibility regarding how, when, and where our people get their work done.

Employee Groups: Our "Connect.Learn.Grow" and Women's Initiative hold regular firmwide meetings where they spotlight DEI and professional development topics important to our employees. This is a great way to connect our employees, learn together, and most importantly, keep the conversation going to advance understanding, promote inclusive environments, open our minds to enable action, and drive change.

Rewards & Recognition: We leverage our "Thnks" platform, which enables leadership to send their employees an unexpected gesture of gratitude easily. Additionally, we have our internal MFC Awards, which are awarded to employees who have been nominated by their peers.

Manageable Work Expectations: MorganFranklin's billable hours baseline targets were recently lowered, while increasing the target bonus opportunities for performance. Our leadership team has avoided creating rewards for exceptionally high billable hours that would encourage individuals to overextend and burn out.

Our core-hours policy gives employees flexibility over how they manage their day-to-day responsibilities. Generous leave provides team members the ability to balance challenging and rewarding work with well-deserved time off to rest and recharge.

CMAG: What's unique about your firm? What sets it apart?

We are an entrepreneurial firm of diverse professionals passionate about delivering value to the clients we serve. This includes establishing "cross solution" teams bringing a variety of capabilities together on engagement teams for the benefit of our clients. The pedigree and precision of our people enables us to bring a unique blend of strategic thinking and tactical execution to every engagement.

Over 80% of our leadership team has been promoted from within the organization. This creates a level of connectivity and awareness between leadership and our people that is hard to duplicate in the consulting environment. Leaders have helped establish the culture which helps them embrace the importance of coaching, mentoring and developing people at all levels in the organization.

We believe in developing our employees through education, training, and certifications so that they may maintain and improve skillsets, feel challenged to grow, and pursue career advancement opportunities. We also encourage a collaborative, highly motivated environment where each employee can play an integral role in the larger team.

Employees have the opportunity to further engage and collaborate through involvement in various communities such as our Diversity & Inclusion Initiative, Veteran's Initiative, and our Women's Initiative. We leverage our annual engagement survey, other ad hoc surveys, and focus groups to ensure our employees' valuable feedback is heard, and that information is disseminated in a timely fashion throughout our ranks.

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

Continuing to refine our approach to serving the Private Equity eco-system and leveraging our known differentiators.

Developing further refined programming to leverage the Business Development engine enabled by our parent company, Vaco, as an incremental complement to all other channels for BD.

Continuing to expand our awareness, value creation and relationships to help drive the most strategic initiatives with our existing client base.

Doubling down on our Technology alliances and partnerships:

• NetSuite
• Microsoft
• SAP
• Blue Yonder
• OneStream

CMAG: When you look at the remainder of this year and 2024, what excites you? What opportunities do you see in your markets?

Growing alignment between our Risk & Regulatory Compliance offerings and our key industry focus – specifically Financial Services and A&D. The convergence of the shortage of accountants, reports from the PCAOB and increasing prevalence of MW / Restatements – we are unconflicted advisors that can help our clients with audit readiness and support. Integrating our supply chain planning and blackline capabilities (both new acquisitions) into our existing client base and net new clients. Transaction uptick – early indications that transaction activity (IPO/M&A) could be picking up

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

It has an incredible impact on the firm. It recognizes the hard work that employees and leadership put in to support and enable our culture. It reinforces that our people embrace our guiding principles and underscores how we engage with colleagues, clients, and the market. Being named a Best Firm to Work For boosts employee morale, engagement, and excitement, increasing productivity and retention. It enhances our employee branding. Candidates want to work for firms that take pride in their culture and are employee centric. Clients can also rest assured that they are working with a company that supports its employees and values innovation, collaboration, dedication, and transparency.