Smart consultants paired with management that cares
Pros
Slalom is purpose-driven and it shows. Management is invested in the personal and professional development of consultants here. I’ve been given so many opportunities to learn and grow while working at Slalom, from informal brown bag lunches with consultants from practices other than my own, to actual technology training and conference opportunities that were paid for by the company. Everyone from the market lead down to my people manager all seem to care about my well being. I know this isn’t the case in every market (see one of my negative reviews below) but in my market we are asked if a project is interesting to us before we are assigned. And we can say no! Demand for our services is such that consultants are allowed and encouraged to choose projects best suited to their interests/skill sets. And, of course, Slalom famously has its no unwanted travel policy, which is very real and much appreciated. Its also worth noting that clients seem to have a very high opinion of Slalom, which in turn helps me take pride in our product and our company. In consulting, reputation is everything and Slalom’s is rock solid. I’m not saying folks don’t make human errors or projects never go off the rails because of course they do, but on the whole I believe Slalom produces smart, compassionate and purposeful consultants who do right by the client and genuinely look out for each other. This is a good place to be.
Cons
No place is perfect, and neither is Slalom. My cons are twofold: 1) The market-centric design creates a fragmented organization and the services delivery can vary greatly between markets, which will confound national or global clients that interact with more than just one Slalom market. As a consultant, the market-driven approach is my friend: it’s what ensures that I can sleep in my own bed every night instead of a Hyatt Place every Monday through Thursday. But it undercuts the strengths that come with being a large organization. It’s hard to leverage what teams in LA or Boston have done, for example, because there is poor infrastructure set up to surface our work to the entire organization. The company seems to recognize this and lately we’ve been getting more communication about breakthrough projects and case studies from around the Slalom network, but I think more could and should be done to create a ‘one Slalom’ culture. 2) The firm’s rapid growth rate risks diluting its awesome workplace culture. They are recruiting so heavily from Accenture and Deloitte that I absolutely fear that we will become more like those forms and less like Slalom. I’ve seen practice leads from Accenture come in and run people like Accenture consultants which spells trouble to me, especially since Slalom prides itself at being different from its consulting peers. I generally suspect that growing larger will come at the cost of preserving the Slalom values that have propelled this firm to the forefront of professional services, but is like to be proven wrong.
