The 2024 Best Firms to Work For: BRG

CLIENT INDUSTRIES SERVED: Cryptocurrency & Digital Assets, Construction, Energy & Climate, Financial Services, Government Contracts, Healthcare, Higher Education, Insurance, Legal, Real Estate, Retail & Consumer Goods, Telecommunications, Media & Technology

CONSULTING SERVICE LINES: Consulting, Strategy

Berkeley Research Group, LLC (BRG) is a global consulting firm that helps leading organizations advance in three key areas: economics, disputes, and investigations; corporate finance; and performance improvement and advisory.

Headquartered in California with offices around the world, we are an integrated group of experts, industry leaders, academics, data scientists, and professionals working across borders and disciplines. We harness our collective expertise to deliver the inspired insights and practical strategies our clients need to stay ahead of what's next.

CMAG: What characteristics and elements would you attribute to your firm's inclusion as a Best Firm to Work For?

We view any acknowledgment or accolade as a reflection of the general sentiments of our people and/or our clients. Our firm culture is entrepreneurial and collaborative, bolstered by high-caliber colleagues at every level of the organization. Our flat structure and integrated teams mean that every individual has a direct impact on client engagements from the beginning of their careers.

We are focused on developing and retaining a workforce and leadership team that is representative of minority and diverse backgrounds; fostering a stronger organizational culture that promotes inclusivity; identifying, understanding, and reducing unconscious bias; and developing outreach programs that focus on supporting, enabling and doing business with diverse communities.

CMAG: In describing your firm, what would you say sets it apart from other consulting firms?

• Our people. BRG is home to some of the most talented, knowledgeable, and creative professionals in the world.
• Collegiality. Our focus on collaboration and removing barriers is very different to the realities of many other firms.
• Entrepreneurialism. The entrepreneurial spirit of our founders is something we work hard to ensure remains, especially as we grow. This means checking ourselves on barriers to innovation and flexibility.
• Our clients tell us that our blend of deep expertise, rigorous analysis and first-hand industry experience sets us apart. We have the best experts and professionals, backed by the most sophisticated data and analysis, and hands-on experience in our primary industry sectors.
• We stress the concept of community, not corporation, at both a specific business area level and, collectively, as one master community.
• Because we take stewardship seriously, we're more focused on long-term than short-term results and can take a long-term focus.

CMAG: Where your workforce is concerned, what would you say your priorities look like for the upcoming year and beyond?

Our firm is growing across all of our practice and industry areas and across the world. Ensuring we continue to provide an unparalleled environment for professionals and leaders to build their careers and businesses is critical to our continued expansion and success.

To continue to recruit and retain the best talent we will remain laser focused on ensuring our reward structure, learning and development opportunities, diversity, equity and inclusion policies and programs and our culture and values surpass expectations.

CMAG: What opportunities do you see as the most promising?

With growth forecast across all parts of the firm, an exciting focus is our expansion in Europe – and in antitrust and competition and international arbitration service lines especially. Over the past twelve months we have added offices and teams in Rome, Milan, Paris and Brussels and expect to announce further additions during 2025.

CMAG: What market forces do you see as the most challenging?

As an event-driven consulting firm, economic volatility and disruption creates the type of complexity which our clients depend on us to address. Balanced with our 'non-distressed' consultancy services, this means we are fortunately well-balanced in terms of our performance across economic cycles. The essence of what makes BRG successful is captured in our brand statement 'intelligence that works' and this has to apply to all forms of intelligence. We have experts who are at the forefront of developments in artificial intelligence ensuring that we embrace new possibilities within our own firm and are able to advise and support clients around the world on both the challenges and opportunities that AI and other innovations bring.

CMAG: What impact do you think Best Firm to Work For honors will have on your employees? The firm overall? Clients?

• We hope it reflects back to our employees the pride they have in the firm and the place they have made it. It's confirmation and affirmation and cause for celebration. It's external acknowledgment of the things we know internally are special.
• Clients want to know we share values and that we nurture and reward our people in order to continue to bring the best talent to their most complex problems. Accolades like this are an important reflection of those attributes.