| | By Mick James
Around 18 months ago
I interviewed a
relatively new
consultancy called
Molten, and patted
myself on the back for
spotting a trend. A new
breed of small firms,
made up exclusively of
very senior consultants,
were successfully
winning projects from
big international
clients, and achieving
very rapid growth on the
back of this.
Nowadays, "small
teams doing big things"
is more or less a
consultancy cliché, and
the sort of senior
consultants who can
successfully deliver
this kind of work are
fought over more eagerly
than the latest
diffusion range at Top
Shop. So I thought it
might be a good idea to
revisit Molten, as an
exemplar of the
paradigm, and see how it
is progressing.
With the recent
opening of an office in
Hong Kong, and with
recruitment ongoing in
Molten's other offices
in Moscow, Bahrain and
London, what joint MD
Irene Molodtsov
describes as "phase one"
of the plan is well on
course.
"Phase one is to get
presence in the core
centres for our
sectors," she says.
"Hong Kong has financial
services, the Middle
East has financial
services and energy, the
UK has telcos, financial
services and energy,
while Moscow has great
financial services and
oil majors."
Molten has now grown
to 50 people, growing by
100%, 100% and 70% over | |
| |
| | says. "In the US that
would be very risky."
Molten's Russian move
has paid off, with 15
consultants now
generating positive
cash-flow: "When we went
to Russia people were
asking ‘why?’. They said
the money just burns up
in Russia. People there
aren't sophisticated
enough for your
offerings," says
Molodtsov. "We said,
people are people, and
communications and
engagement plus
programme management
underpin every
engagement."
Molten's success has
come without great
promotional activity
but, according to
Molodtsov, word of mouth
has been enough to
continue to win
engagements with "tier
1" organisations such as
BP and RBS. The major
constraint on growth is
recruitment, but Molten
would rather be
constrained than dilute
its offering.
"The difficult area
to quantify in
consultancy is quality,
so we're very cautious
while talking about it,
but it's something we
live and breathe," says
Molodtsov. "We don't
have the brand of an
Accenture so if we hire
one person without the
quality we're gone. It's
so seductive to speed
people through and our
growth could be bigger
but we rely on getting
the best people."
The result is a firm
that is "completely
obsessive" about
recruitment: "We have
made mistakes," she
says. "What we assumed
when we started was that
people with a high | |
|
| | degree of expertise
in-house could come
across with 15 years of
experience and fit in a
financial services
practice, but the skills
required in-house are
very different to those
needed to consult with
clients."
It's a mistake she
sees being repeated
across the profession:
"Good luck to the firms
that want to do that,
but it's a career
change," she says. "I
would not expect to go
from being a banker to a
lawyer overnight – it
requires a completely
different set of
skills."
Molten's reaction has
been to make a rule that
it will only take people
without consultancy
experience at the most
junior level. Despite
its exacting standards
Molten is confident that
it can continue to
acquire the people it
needs to underpin its
ambitious growth plans.
"Like breeds like,
and we have a very
strong story to tell,"
says Molodtsov. The firm
pays above market rates,
and also has a
twice-yearly appraisal
and bonus system.
"We also offer people
opportunities that
others don't," she says.
"A lot of firms have
quotas attached to
grades, but we don't, we
ask for every single
person who joins Molten
to have the potential to
become a director. The
world's your oyster –
you could head a sector
such as financial
services, or a region,
or manage an account."
Part of Molten's
growth strategy is that
no office should grow | |
|
| | beyond 60 staff:
"We're not building a
pyramid, we don't want
to become a me-too
organisation," says
Molodstov. "Also we
don't want to take our
eyes off the market to
build processes and
systems that are not our
core. We're consultants,
we should do
consultancy, and that's
what a limit in size
gives you."
She also believes
this is making firms
such as Molten more
attractive to clients:
"There are great
benefits in going to
smaller consulting
firms: they're very
client-focused, you're
not overwhelmed by the
numbers," she says.
Molten will continue
to grow however, and
will follow "phase one"
with the opening of
satellite offices –
again following clients
– in its operating
regions. The firm would
also consider adding
another sector, provided
there was an "excellent
and robust business
case" – and that the
work was rewarding
enough to motivate the
sort of consulting
talent Molten attracts.
"Our current sectors
– telecoms, energy and
financial services –
offer sophisticated
clients that challenge
us to be better all
time," says Molodtsov.
"We learn as much from
our clients as they do
from us – it's arrogant
for consultants not to
admit this."
| |
|
Previous Page 
