Hitachi Consulting Reviews

Pros

- Reputable name
- Able to be work on range of projects
- Varied client base
- Some capable and smart people to work with

Cons

- Fallout from catastrophic acquisition of Edenbrook: very poorly managed
- Management distant and out of touch with consultants
- Instability with frequent changes in leadership
- Atmosphere in office (London) like a morgue
- Low morale
- Terrible work/life balance: worst in my career by far
- Minimal prospects for training or any development
- Favouritism rampant: never made to feel part of anything unless your are pals with the 'right' people

Advice to Senior Management

Start over and remember that the consultants that work for you are people.
Stop pretending that you are a direct rival to Accenture, IBM or Logica etc. You are nowhere near and won't be for a long time.

Pros

Good teammates
Real solutions, projects
Most VP's care about people

Cons

Comp is light
Variable comp is very light
Positioning is way ahead of capabilities and overall losing differentiation as firm moves up-market

Advice to Senior Management

improve variable comp and meritocracy vs. time-at-level
figure out what "there" looks like as you rush toward it (what do you have to offer vs. Big 4 when you are global, full-travel, fat-bottomed pyramid...)

Pros

Great people who are passionate about technology
Provides very good training opportunities
Aquisitions will provide excellent opportunities for the future

Cons

Poor internal systems, especially timesheet system (Portera) and intranet
Lack of internal marketing
Poor collaboration between global teams (e.g. where do I find someone with experience in X)
Dreadful IT infrastructure

Advice to Senior Management

Replace tired internal systems
Get rid of "Front Porch" & replace with more collaborative systems
Improve IT infrastructure
Improve collaboration between teams using technology

Pros

Incredible group of peers to both support and sharpen you
Proven path of succession and high ceilings
Competitive salaries and benefits

Cons

Fast growth can be overwhelming
Long term but small projects can leave you feeling isolated and out of touch

Advice to Senior Management

Keep the career and performance management (CPM) a priority and well managed
Keep the social calendar full and open for those in the field

Pros

Great environment. Ok place to work

Cons

pay based on level, not technology/team

Advice to Senior Management

base salary on team not level.

Pros

The company has a strong commitment to serving clients with strong industry and solutions skills. They make an excellent effort had providing good work for a fair price. The people here have top notch skills and are often recruited to the top tier consulting firms.

Cons

Compensation and recognigiton while fair should improve for more employee satisfaction.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to work with nationally recognized clients and to improve brand awareness in the marketplace. Add more management consulting skills to the the firms so that we can serve all of our clients needs.

Pros

Smaller management consulting company where experience can be gained. A pretty good springboard to the larger management consulting companies. Some great comraderie among the working teams who are typically younger consultants.

Cons

Have - have not culture where you are either a consultant working long hours for below industry pay, or you are an executive working banking hours for a healthy paycheck. High level of office politics at times as some consultants manuever to become executive favorites. Not an environment for the timid.

Advice to Senior Management

Temper the general opinion of favortism in the performance review by making that an objective and open process. Allow employees to formally review their managers to identify management issues. Close the wage inequity gap between consultants and management.

Pros

There are some fantastic and incredibly hard working people there. They give it everything they got to deliver successfully to the client.

Cons

Experience depends on who you report to. There are some great managers and then there are others who need to learn how to better treat and respect employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to employees and be sure to recognize employees for their efforts. A simple "thank you" goes a long way.

Pros

work, smart people, good learning

Cons

no policies, each case is treated differently
behaviour towards employees is very very rude
employees are simply treated as resources and never supported. the HR attitude is very arrogant
the focus is just on running the show instead of showing any future growth or leadership
middle level management is totally incompetent and probably performing the role for the first time in their careers. dont know how to treat employees respectfully.
no need to risk your career into the hands of totally incompetent and arrogant leaders. they are not going to trust you.

Advice to Senior Management

learn basic courtesy and professionalism. employees are not the labourers. they are smart professionals and more often than not smarter than you. trust your employees. get new competent middle manaegment..that is the least that you can do to make it atleast okay to work.

Pros

Great people to work with, large intellecutal property available

Cons

Can be hard to get promoted