Kurt Salmon Associates Reviews in Atlanta, GA Area

Pros

There were a lot of great people at KSA from whom I learned a lot. I was able to get a broad range of experience with a number of different clients all over the country.

Cons

Like any other organization, politics sometimes got in the way. And there wasn't much focus on making sure people had projects anywhere close to home, but that comes with the consulting gig.

Advice to Senior Management

Not really much to say. They've been doing what they do for a long time and it mostly works. Keep it up.

Pros

Client work is always leading edge - the retail industry specialty is a big plus. The people here are great to work with. Good diversity of project types with very quick growth opportunities at all titles.

Cons

Like all consulting firms travel is a real part of the job every week and work life balance can be a challenge

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to recruit at all levels - campus and industry even in a difficult economy. Now may be the best time to build for the future even if that requires a near term investment

Pros

The people and the high caliber clients we get to partner with. Very collaborative, team oriented environment.

Cons

Due to the economy, retail is hurting thus we feel it at KSA. However, it's in times like these that corporations show their true colors. Nothingwithstanding some very difficult decisions, KSA seems to be coming through the tough times with great client relationships who believe we can help in both good times and bad. KSA brings industry knowledge and intregrity and clients are appreciative of both.

Advice to Senior Management

The more information you can give as to what's happening both internally and externally with our clients, the better.

Pros

Kurt Salmon Associates is an excellent firm to make a career out of consulting. KSA hires consultants for the long term which has done a lot to develop a family like atmosphere at the firm. The company is small enough for one to easily get to know most other consultants yet large enough to maintain a large range of talents and backgrounds.

As a new hire, I was amazed at the amount of responsibility placed on me. KSA sets its consultants up for success and lets them work independently with the appropriate level of direction. Consultants are given the opportunity to work on numerous internal initiatives as their time allows (e.g. recruiting, business development).

One of the best parts of KSA is the exposure you get into the retail sector. KSA provides the opportunity to work with the big names in the industry and provides exposure to senior management at the client site very early in your career.

Cons

KSA recently merged two groups of the practice (Growth & Profitability and Supply Chain); however, there still remain large cliques between the two former groups. KSA is also poor at communicating the annual review process. While the process is fair, it is often a headache the figure out when all the deadlines are and the requirements.

Finally, now that KSA has been sold to Management Consulting Group, there is a level of strategic vision that isn't communicated as well.

Advice to Senior Management

Strive to seek more opportunities for work beyond the same XX number of clients.

Pros

Kurt Salmon Associates is a firm replete with friendly, intelligent and humble people, probably owing to the small size and generally laid-back and unforced culture. As a recent college graduate, I was wary of the claims that KSA and other firms made about their culture and staff, thinking that it was all a disingenuous facade that would collapse once work started, but I decided to try them out anyway and am happy and thankful that I had the foresight to do so.

From a professional development standpoint, the distribution of skills and experiences is so great that egoes are never really an issue, and titles melt away as lower-level employees are given great responsibility and have access to the tutelege and mentorship of senior staff. Work is diverse and challenging, even within the singular (albeit broad) field of retail.

Cons

As KSA makes no secret of telling its prospective hires, travel is 80%+ of the workweek. If you are well-suited to this type of lifestyle, it's great (by some estimates, it will save you $10,000 a year in expenses and earned perquisites), but even then you have to live the life of a normal person (e.g. social life, love life, appointments, errands, housework, etc.) in 2 days' time.

Additionally, KSA is very narrowly focused on health care and retail; while these foci allow for expertise and depth, they also expose the firm to greater highs and lower lows than other, more diversified firms.

Advice to Senior Management

Strive to be more transparent with regard to the health and direction of the firm.

Pros

Working for KSA provides incredible opportunities for career development and personal growth. The clients are some of the biggest retailers in the world and the projects are challenging, exciting, and cutting-edge. Not to mention, the people at KSA are great to work with. The atmosphere is very collegial and supportive... "externally competitive but internally cooperative". There is never a shortage of opportunities to take on new challenges, learn new things, and advance in your career.

Cons

The biggest downside to working for KSA is the toll that it takes on your personal life. Consulting is a stressful career, requiring long hours and many days on the road. Most managers are very flexible about taking time off and even encourage you to do so. However, it is still easy to find yourself putting in too many hours and not taking enough time for yourself.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't forget that it is your responsibility to grow the firm internally, not just externally. Although it is most important to have a thriving client base, don't forget that you need great employees to do this! And great employees will not stick around very long if they don't feel as though the firm values and invests in them. KSA could stand to spend more money on employee development and other internal initiatives (such as improving technology, admin processes, or office spaces).

Pros

KSA is the leading Consulting firm in the Retail Industry, offering great career opportunities. Consultants have exposure to many different types of projects, from IT to Product Development to Strategy and everything in between. One of the things that I appreciate the most about KSA is that Consultants have opportunities to voice preferences and interests during the staffing process, and those preferences and interests are truly taken into consideration when staffing decisions are made. Additionally, KSA has a great culture - very collegiate and supportive. KSAers not only work together, but know how to have fun together as well.

Cons

The economy hits the retail industry the hardest!

Advice to Senior Management

More visibility to the pipeline would be nice.

Pros

KSA has a fairly good reputation in the Retail space. They claim to be "the Best" and after you join, especially if you worked in other consulting firms, you will realize that statement is very arguable.
In terms of perception, though, the reputation is out there and you will have the chance to work for big Retailers names to put on your resume.
Culture is also a big factor (positive or negative it depends on your point of view): most people have been at the firm for all their career, and this created a collegial environment. The flip side is that there is little change across the organization, as they defend the status quo in every circumstance.

Cons

Quality of work, intellectual acumen and pay.
1) Quality of work is pretty low, with some and sporadic exceptions. You will see that they tend to use benchmarks for store ops or merchandising planning that have little to do with any sense of urgency Retailers face today. KSA is the company to validate management assumptions, and put a stamp on an already developed plan, rather than meaningfully impacting client's needs with aggressive and concrete implementation ideas.
2) Intellectual acumen: KSA tries to use fancy mathematical models or regression analysis when they can make the slides pretty and impress the client. However, they often misinterpret basic statistical concepts. You will not be pushed in your thinking, and you will likely lag your peers at school in terms of development.
3) Pay: to put it simple, it's lower than in other firms. They will tell you the quality of the work makes up for the difference, but then you should refer back to points 1-2 above.

Bottom line is that you will not be doing quality cutting edge work (despite what they like to tell their recruits), and you will do it at a lower salary than other competitor. Draw your own conclusion before joining it...

Advice to Senior Management

3 things:
1) Be honest in your communication process with the staff. Say it the way it is, or don't say it all. No need to pretty it up.
2) When you decide to lay off people, do it once, not in phases.
3) Have a hard look at the principals' pool. They are not as good as you think they are, and certainly not as motivated as practice leaders should be (again, compared with other consulting firms)

Pros

The felxibility in career definition are amazing. The meaningful interaction with senior level KSAers and clients is challenging and encouraging.

Cons

Career flexibility comes at a price, the self-motivated don't last long. You need to be smart and control your own career path. The "small firm" feel and lack of strict policies is liberating, but can work against you, ie work life balance changes dramatically project to project.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay attention to your best performers, and reward without being asked. A voluntary pay bump would go along way to solidify loyalty, rather than having to badger for it.