Control Risks reviews about "team"

47% positive business outlook

Reviews by job title

96 reviews
4.0
Oct 7, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Varied and complex work and great team spirit. Stimulating and effective career booster for junior staff; great place to retire as a senior manager

Cons

Not innovation-driven; only a few senior managers have effective business skills. Compensation, bonus and perks can be really cheap.

4.0
Jul 22, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Business sector is very interesting; flexible working practices; pension is good.

Cons

Very regionalised business , struggling to have global view for clients; executive team (apart from 2) have not worked in senior positions in other organisations and so lack strategic leadership - still very reactive and tactical. With proper investment could have a business twice the size and twice as profitable.

4.0
Jul 12, 2012

Dynamic, ethical and an extremely interesting place to work

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Most consulting teams advice clients on very interesting niche topics: political risk, kidnap & ransom, maritime security, fraud investigation and complex litigation support Work is very diverse, staff very friendly and atmosphere is very positive Strong financial performance in last 5 years

Cons

Very poor HR processes Little or no career planning done by managers salaries are lower than industry standard for many London-based positions

3.0
Oct 20, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

+ The work the company does is fascinating - working with the biggest firms in the world, in some of its most exciting locations, advising on massive projects and high-profile controversies + Being the biggest and best-known company in most of its fields means good access, good profile and peer respect. A lot of doors are open to CR, and by extension its employees, that its smaller and less multi-faceted competitors can only dream of + The different workstreams mean your colleagues can come from a hugely diverse array of backgrounds: journalists and academics, ex-police officers and spies, former military employees, auditors, IT specialists. That makes for pretty interesting conversations + A truly international company - lots of employees will have the opportunity to travel (as I did) and movement between different offices is encouraged + Given the potential reputational challenges of much of its work (man-guarding, investigations, kidnap response...), the company does strive to have a strong culture of responsibility and ethics - and will say no to projects that don't fit that culture + The company has really tried hard to professionalise - from its client relationship management software to its human resources function to its travel function - every year, it seems to be behave more and more like a blue-chip firm and less and less like a quirky employee-started and -owned business, and that's overwhelmingly a good thing

Cons

- It's still a security company first and foremost: the other parts of the company do have to play second-fiddle, receive less management attention accordingly, and the business will always chase the fat physical security contracts first, often to the detriment of the other business lines, its own reputation, and frequently confusing large revenues with small margins - This is also reflected in a management structure in which "old(er) white men" are still massively over-represented, and a services background and time spent in "dangerous places" are both more highly prized than business acumen - This in turn leads to a steady exodus of talented mid-level staff, who simply cannot see long-term opportunities when the same old/entrenched faces are likely to continue to fill the upper roles forever - regardless of how well they actually perform - The company's strong market position, and the neverending shortage of geopolitical crises and criminal actions boosting its sales - as well as the absence of anyone from outside the privately-owned company really asking the management team any difficult questions - make it a little lazy and complacent. The sales and marketing functions are both way weaker than they should be as a result, reflecting a belief that "the clients will come to us; we don't have to go to them", enabling inferior competitors to take away more business than they really should - Standards of output can vary by location and function; the company's heavily regional model does lead to different parts of the business competing with each other rather than collaborating, and doing things for clients that would probably be best done by others elsewhere

2.0
Oct 19, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Usually has decent working hours, small team so there is a decent variety of work, opportunity to take part in each stage of the project life cycle.

Cons

Poor management, lack of real expertise, sales focus, not family friendly, inconsistent goals that change with changes in leadership, poor staff retention, brain drain. I did not feel I learned that much from the people I worked with, there was very much a "work it out for yourself" mentality.

Viewing 28 - 30 of 96 Reviews

Glassdoor has 771 Control Risks reviews submitted anonymously by Control Risks employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Control Risks is right for you.