The 2023 Best Small Firms to Work For: ARTEFACT

Client Industries Served: Luxury, CPG, Wellness Tech, Finance, B2B Service

Consulting Service Lines: Data & AI/ML Strategy and Implementation

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

I think that all of the credit goes to the team who has steadily delivered stellar work to our clients and consolidated our emerging reputation on the market, which has helped us expand commercially. Most importantly, as a management team, we are able to spend the time on talent well-being and development.

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

At Artefact, we strongly believe in 3 essential pillars that contribute to employee well-being and our reputation as a great employer: (1) Transparency. Company information and latest news and updates are always available to everyone and constantly shared. (2) Learning & Development. We invest a significant amount of time every year on training programs, tech demos, internal sharing sessions amongst consultants, research & innovation groups. (3) Mentoring & Coaching. We take mentoring very seriously and have internal processes that favor career counseling and advisory outside of project work, to make sure people reach their best potential.

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

As in every company: its culture. Collaboration is deeply rooted in our ways of working -not only in the Americas, but globally. We love to be challenged, come up with innovative approaches and we're not scared to fail. And lastly, we love to walk the talk. Unlike many advisory firms, we are excited to deliver what we've designed or recommended and love going beyond the slideware.

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

We want to continue to attract the talent that best fits our company at our current stage of development: entrepreneurial and curious people who love to take initiative and have grit. People who are helping us grow our North American presence. From an external standpoint, we want to continue to author large-scale events around Data, machine learning and AI to keep democratizing these concepts to our clients.

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

Despite some economic slowdowns overall, Data and AI are still at the forefront of most clients' agenda. Recent announcements in the Large Language Models (LLM) and Gen AI space have triggered accrued interest around these topics. Ambitious clients and prospects are coming to us to strategize and deploy these methodologies in areas that can positively impact their brands and businesses. There are exciting times ahead!

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

Being nominated as a Best Firm to Work For is an amazing recognition and it proves to current or future employees or clients that we do consider employee well-being as a priority. It also reminds us that we have a great responsibility as an organization and a leadership team that we need to stay focused on that objective and maintain, or even enhance, the standards that have led us there as the company continues to grow in future years.