The Hackett Group Reviews

Pros

Consumate professionals who are always willing to support their fellow colleagues.
Good brand name and unparalleled reputation in benchmarking
Supported my career development based on proven track record within the firm

Cons

Challenging given work ethic to manage the work life balance

Advice to Senior Management

Protect your assets, ensure that you motivate them and reward them as they are integral to the sustainable future of the company

Pros

There is a level of intelligence, intensity, teamwork and commitment that is hard to match in more traditional consulting firms. The company maintains a sense of entrepreneurial spirit that is manifest in each individual's ability to drive and impact quality, value and growth. Many of the regional and practice leaders are the finest you will find anywhere in this industry, period. Even better, they don't carry the ego baggage that often accompany the former partners from the "white shoe" firms or the Big 4. Net, while Hackett's IP is a differentiator, the real secret sauce is in its people. There has been a significant effort to hire more "A" players and manage out the "C" players, and it shows.

Cons

Like any smaller firm (or big ones for that matter) there are some "warts" but no show-stoppers. More frequent technology refreshes and following best practices in some of the administrative areas (eat your own cooking) would be welcome. Given the transient nature of the work where so many of the employees are on client sites 4+ days/week, it's very hard to get a strong sense of culture outside of the handful of dedicated office sites. The individual lines of business are not always working hand-in-hand - which results in missed opportunities more than channel conflict, although both are not uncommon.

It's a place where field personnel need to be self-motivated, self-starting professionals - not a place for people who need a ton of day-to-day guidance or an office to report to everyday (unless you are taking a support position in ATL or MIA. ) Very senior people are expected to (and do) get their hands dirty on on consulting pursuits and delivery engagements. If someone else did your PowerPoints for you or if you relied on a bunch of junior people to do all the heavy lifting while you golfed with the client, you may not make it here. Everyone pulls on the oars.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus less on the quarterly results and create a compelling, long term vision for the firm where individuals and the various lines of business understand what's in it for them, how they can impact the picture and how they can drive results working in concert.

Pros

People who stay are great
Intellectual Property is well defined
Empirical Data is unique
Opportunity to help clients in multiple ways

Cons

Lots of work
Always want more

Pros

Niche expertise
Low cost operations

Cons

Poor management
Lack of career opportunities

Pros

Smart coworkers and honest people

Cons

Overworked, not sure if only due to economy

Advice to Senior Management

Allocate more time for the projects/tasks

Pros

The way this company is set up provides some level of freedom and autonomy.
The recognition of the brnad in the market is strong which provides the imagination to be proud to work for Hackett.

Cons

They walk into some different direction every year and they call it strategy?!?
Even if you do a great job, they find enough (corporate) reasons not to pay the promised bonus.
Global management is blaiming the Europeans for not beeing able to apply the tactics that have been defined for the US business. Asking questions is not appreciated by global management.

Advice to Senior Management

Do not fool around with your employees! The team is the most important asset! The competition is valuing that more than The Hackett Group itself.

Pros

Great work environment before rebranding from Answerthink to The Hackett Group. Interest for new technologies. Spirit of innovations. Free soft drinks and Friday breakfast.

Cons

No pay raise for 4 years despite great performance reviews. No training for years. Development innovations were limited by the skill level of the off-shore programmers.

Advice to Senior Management

Establish a program for employee skills development and 360 degrees reviews for the managers. Introduce peer code review practice and TDD.

Pros

Generally wide industry vertical exposure opportunities as well as access to benchmark and research information.

Cons

Increasingly focused on financial transformation and enterprise performance management with other transformation activities acting as support.

Advice to Senior Management

Be less obvious in prioritizing your own incomes and high-cost purchases over the employment of staff.

Pros

Excellent project management. Every project I worked on finished on time and on budget, with high customer satisfaction. The project managers know what they are doing.

Cons

Poor marketing. Senior management (CEO, President) shifted strategy away from project work to subscriptions, leaving a lot of good business on the table. The senior folks were rigid when reviewing some very worthwhile projects, losing them to other companies even though the projects would have produced significant cash flow.

Advice to Senior Management

Set up a structure to take advantage of the opportunities in project work.

Pros

Best practices methodology, Fortune 100 clientele, global presence, experienced leadership who focuses on only bottom-line results (at the expense of field staff)

Cons

Leadership blinded toward activities in the field that affect employee morale and turnover. Giving "credit where credit is due" is not a prevailing philosophy among Senior Directors and Vice Presidents - - consulting managers and directors continually thrown under a moving bus. Feedback for improvement is not appreciated by leadership. Intimidation is common and professional behavior absent. The PMP program is ineffective and is not taken seriously by those who are responsible.

Advice to Senior Management

Take a hard look at the Senior Director and Vice Presidents - - most do not practice the Company philosophy and are only interested in billing the client for as much as they can get away with.