Interbrand Reviews

Pros

culture; Intelligence of work; ability to try new ideas

Cons

Hours; pay; ability to teach others at a reasonable pace - most new hires are thrown into the deep end on day 1

Pros

Design staff there is amongst the best... Very international with team spirit. Opportunity to create innovative solutions is high.

Cons

High management turnover, bad morale at times. Very political.

Advice to Senior Management

See the staff as an asset, not overhead expense.

Pros

international opportunities and lots of travel, wide range of activities and skills, high quality client base with long term projects to learn on

Cons

process driven, lack any from of senior talent management. Promotions are gievn without merit- resulting in a yes-man cutlure at the top

Advice to Senior Management

recognise talent is your core asset not the process. Stop promoting people who are yes-men to you and think about the longer term future of the business

Pros

Extremely smart people
Little internal politics
Supportive culture - colleagues want you to win
High quality standards
Great clients

Cons

Not a place for people who watch the clock

Pros

In every department your peers will be very intelligent and passionate about brand.
Because it is a global firm, there are opportunities to work in other countries. The firm is looking for consultants who are willing to do a stint (usually one year) over seas.
It's a known firm that will look good on your resume.
You will get a lot of experience in a very short time; it may not be exactly the kind of projects you want but you will learn.
Free breakfast (when you're not earning all that much that counts), pizza lunches once a month and beer/wine on Friday.
If you have a clear goal for your career Interbrand can help get you there although chances are you won't achieve your goals there. It's a stepping stone.

Cons

Incredibly, almost laughably political in New York. (Very different in other offices.) The degree varies by department but everyone agrees Strategy is the worst when it comes to the importance of playing the game. People handle this differently - some become relentless self-promoters, some turn to credit-grabbing and back-stabbing, some just keep their heads down. It makes for an unhappy group.
Promotions are ad hoc at best. In all the years I was there about half the promotions made no sense whatsoever. People who deserved to be promoted where held back for reasons that were impossible to quantify ("she doesn't own the room") or people where promoted for jaw-dropping reasons ("he won't grow unless he's given a big challenge").
Notice the gender in the examples above because it matters. Strategy at IBNY and IB in general is a male domain. Tall, foreign-accented male too an alarming degree. Women succeed if they are perky and compliant. It's like Mad Men without the cool fashion.
The hours are insane. There's no way around it. It isn't about "clock-watching" it's about having a life outside the office. In Strategy the official line is 45 billable hours a week minimum. That means any new business, internal meetings, training etc is in addition the the 45 hours. The reality is that anything less than 50 billable hours/week counts against you in your review.
The salaries are barely competitive. There is a strong feeling that "this is Interbrand, we don't need to pay well." Put the salary against a 60 hour week and ask yourself if it's what you want. Bear in mind that the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow isn't all that big either. Nobody in senior management is making millions or anywhere near that.
Bonuses are hit or miss and the process is not transparent.
Because it's a global network, your pay and bonus are dependent on the performance of the rest of the firm. If Europe has a bad year, you won't get a bonus and you may not even get a salary increase. But senior leadership will still get flown to Rio business class for an all expenses paid global meeting/extravaganza.
Typical salary increases are 3-4%. Make sure you're happy with your salary when you accept the offer because you won't see a significant increase until you're promoted.
When you are promoted, or otherwise given a higher than usual salary increase, you won't be eligible for another salary increase for 18 months. Since salary increases are done once a year an off-cycle promotion can equal 24 months without a salary increase.
For all it's claims to the contrary, Interbrand is not a consulting firm. It's a branding agency that is becoming more and more like an advertising agency. Strategy is filled with more "brand planners" and "account executives" than actual strategists.

Advice to Senior Management

Interbrand New York has had the same problems for ten years. It's viewed as a "revenue machine" so as long as the money keeps rolling in, Interbrand global won't change a thing. Turnover ranges between 50-75% for IBNY which would be cause for alarm at any other firm is just business as usual. If global senior management cared they'd start holding their "stars" accountable for real results and clean out the dead wood that hangs on simply by bad-mouthing and taking credit from others. There are some petty, even nasty people in senior positions at IBNY, if you want to reduce turnover improve morale, start by eliminating them. Then celebrate, appreciate and compensate the people doing all the hard work.

Pros

Lots of great projects to work on and with. Fast and you've got to be on it or it'll eat you alive!

Cons

The hours are horrendous and crazy!

Advice to Senior Management

Have to realize that people can't work these crazy hours day in and out. It's OK to give encouragements and thank people once in a while for their hard work!

Pros

Free breakfast, some nice and smart people, several years ago, felt like a laid-back, fun environment.

Cons

As Interbrand has grown, it has become more corporate -- while professionalism is good, a very corporate, dog-eat-dog culture, lacking a life/work balance is not. Global management often treats people without respect, taking credit for others hard work. They are also prone to taking long sabbaticals, which makes it frustrating and demoralizing for lower, mid, and senior level employees who can't even get their basic time off. There's too much work and not enough people. The company is cheap and can't seem to hire people quickly enough to meet the demands of clients and the workplace. The company needs to better align vacation time, life/work balance, etc.

Advice to Senior Management

New York in general needs to address why there has been so much turnover and begin focusing on treating their employees with more respect. People with a life outside of work make for better workers -- they have more creativity, more joy, and as a result, they can offer more to their assignments. The company needs to realize this and stop treating employees like slaves. Everyone is spread far too thin. Additionally, they need to step up hiring to get more people in to ease the workload. Either that, or they need to pay their current workers A LOT more and offer them more vacation time. If people are expected to work the hours they do, they need more compensation.

Pros

Good Benefits
Predictable
Decent Pay
Some Smart Co-Workers
Some Fun Events
Free Breakfast (although it's not exactly great)
Free Coffee (also not exactly great)
Occasional free Lunch (sometimes delicious, sometimes disgusting)
Beer on fridays if you are into that sort of thing
Relatively Laid Back all things considered

Cons

Not Creative
B2B Clients
Clients are mismanaged
Lots BS Business Jargon
Conformity to
Very Corporate
Very High Turnover
Clients are not creative
Lack of understanding of technical landscape
IT is for sh*t

Advice to Senior Management

Try New Things, Don't Just Talk About It
Manage Client Expectations
Push Creative Ideas

Pros

- Free breakfast and occasional lunch/snacks
- Free beer on Fridays
- Decent holiday schedule
- Great people to work with and learn from

Cons

- Long hours
- Little to no recognition/reward
- Terrible pay
- Toxic environment/terrible culture
- Only B2B clients

Advice to Senior Management

Interbrand would NOT have such high turnover if they paid their employees above market value. People don't mind working the hard, long Interbrand days if they are compensated for properly.

Pros

Great perks (free food, coffee, guest speakers, team outings)
Fast-paced
Big machine, with many resources (workforce, monetary, locations etc)
Well-paid as a freelancer

Cons

Staff was generally unwelcoming and impersonal
Management was disconnected with most projects
Corporate atmosphere

Advice to Senior Management

Passion for design integrity/concept needs to be increased
Personally involvement in projects overall should be increased.