Mars & Co reviews

Where Mars & Co excels in analytical work, its leadership and project management are extremely disappointing. It is difficult to understand how severe of an issue this is until you have experienced it. The root cause of this problem is that success is generally measured at Mars by how many hours you work and how technically complex your methods are. Unfortunately, these are essentially the metrics a good manager should try to minimize. All senior employees at the firm have been promoted from within, as is Dominique Mars’ prerogative. This has distilled the poorest management to the top of the organization. With a few very notable exceptions, most of the managers at Mars & Co perform analyst roles and grind their teams with a fickle, unorganized approach. As a sole proprietorship, the organizational structure of the firm is very abnormal. In Greenwich, one person has complete control of most decision making. Unfortunately, this person only works part time and has a tendency to lash out in grammatically incorrect and thoughtless memos. Progress to modernize and improve the firm has been all but stopped by the laziness and ego of the final decision makers. In my opinion, nearly all of the challenges faced by Mars & Co could be solved if the administrative leader would allow for an open an honest culture where feedback was considered and a sincere effort was made to reduce the turnover burden that is put on the business. During my time at Mars, I saw some extraordinarily ugly situations that crossed my ethical and professional boundaries. An example of one of the many cultural shortcomings that exist is Mars’ stance on women consultants. Only one female currently works in the Greenwich office. The official answer written in the employee recruiting handbook to the question “why aren’t there any female VPs?” is “We have one in Paris. In the US we’ve had women making it to PMs (project managers), but it seems that their desire for motherhood and home life took precedence over their careers.” Mars & Co is truly culturally backwards and my experience at other companies confirms my belief that these issues have significantly eroded Mars’ workforce.

- little opportunity for career growth - painful hours with little visibility / control over work/life balance (managers might call you at midnight to do work, and be angry if you do not respond) - unmotivated, negative attitude among consultants - poor project management - little/no culture - lack of solid HR / recruiting teams - bad location (unless you enjoy living in Connecticut)