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BY THE STAFF OF VAULT

© 2002 Vault Inc.

EMPLOPROFILVAULT EMPLOYER PROFILE:

MARAKONASSOCIATES

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Marakon Associates

INTRODUCTION 1

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Marakon Associates at a Glance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

THE SCOOP 3

History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

ORGANIZATION 11

Key Officers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Departments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Office Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

VAULT NEWSWIRE 15

OUR SURVEY SAYS 17

GETTING HIRED 23

Overview of the Hiring Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

To Apply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

Questions to Expect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

Questions to Ask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

Table of Contents

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ON THE JOB 33

A Day in the Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

Job Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34

Career Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38

FINAL ANALYSIS 41

RECOMMENDED READING 43

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Overview

Marakon Associates, founded in 1978 and today one of the world’s premier

strategy consultancies, applies one overriding principle to its practice: that

management’s governing objective should be to maximize a company’s long-

term value for shareholders. Rather than offering “best practices” advice,

Marakon instead rewrites clients’ strategies and management processes to

help them achieve top-quartile shareholder performance. To accomplish this

lofty goal, Marakon consultants identify value-creation opportunities by

relentlessly delving into strategy, organization, finance and any other

pertinent aspects of management. Approximately 30 percent of the firm’s

business comes from financial services, 20 percent from the consumer

products industry and another 20 percent each from the retailing and

manufacturing/industrial products industries. The rest of Marakon’s clientele

hail from a variety of industries.

Introduction

Marakon Associates


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The Scoop

proved that a meticulous working method reaps great rewards: The 10

companies with which Marakon has worked the most have seen double the

shareholder returns of their peers during the time they worked with the firm.

(The typical Marakon client outperforms its peers in total shareholder returns

by five percentage points over a 10-plus year period.) Marakon does quitenicely for itself as well – it maintains a revenue-per-consultant rate of

$476,000, earning it a place as one of the three highest-paid consultancies on

Consulting Alert’s Global Leadership Index in 2001. And since its founding,

Marakon has boasted a 27.5 percent annual revenue growth rate, more than

double the industry average.

Up with people

According to the firm, its approach to employees, the so-called “people

model,” focuses on three themes – learning, leading and living – and, at leastin theory, the firm puts a premium on a healthy life/work balance. Marakon’s

quarterly meetings, planned and run by consultants and staff, are one- to

three-day events that incorporate activities like treasure hunts and talent

shows. As with most firms, Marakon expects its consultants to report to their

client sites typically three or four days a week, but the firm keeps careful

track of hours and lifestyle conditions. And, like all good consultancies,

Marakon tries to keep a handle on employee satisfaction through internal

surveys.

Marakon maintains a tight watch on its consultants’ performance, including biannual performance reviews and ongoing, informal feedback. And

consultants at all levels participate in training programs in general business

and consulting skills. Consultants who plan to attend business school receive

application coaching, and top consultants often receive full, up-front tuition

reimbursement if they decide to return to Marakon afterwards. Those who do

return – and many do – stand a good chance of making partner within six to

seven years, one of the fastest tracks in the industry. According to the firm,

employees whose performance is “on track” can expect their salary to double

about every three years. In 2001, Marakon underwent a “redesigned

consultant compensation” project, which included increases in equity, base pay, annual bonus and the overall bonus range for consultants.

Thinking value

The fundamentals of the Marakon shareholder-value strategy are outlined in

the firm’s 1994 book, The Value Imperative. Written by James M.

McTaggart, Peter W. Kontes and Michael C. Mankins, the book is more than

© 2002 Vault Inc.4 C R E E R

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The Scoop

just self-hype – it not only explains what shareholder-value strategy is, but it

outlines how successful strategies are crafted and how they can be integrated

into corporate structures.

Like many strategy firms, Marakon also publishes a series of occasional

white papers on its web site as a way to highlight its intellectual capital.

Some recent papers include

• “At Christmas Time, Don’t Spare the Needy,” by Mike Baxter. This paper

argues that as CEOs need to resist the pressure by business units to grow

costs in 2003, regardless of financial forecasts, because the lesson of the

last five years is that only strict fiscal discipline will ensure efficiency.

• “How ‘Shareholder Value’ Let Shareholders Down,” by Ken Favaro.

Marakon’s CEO defends the shareholder value concept in light of investor

backlash. He argues that many companies applied it incorrectly byfocusing too narrowly on share price and not enough on increasing their

firm’s intrinsic value.

• “The Four Disciplines of Superior Value Growth,” by Ron Langford and

Richard Steele. In light of post-recession growth strategies, Langford and

Steele outline the four principles that management must keep in mind to

ensure that revenue growth and shareholder value growth are aligned.

• “Overcoming Value Barriers,” by Lee Mergy. One of the most important

things Marakon emphasizes to its clients is the need to leave nothing

untouched in realigning operations to maximize shareholder value. In thisarticle Mergy looks at the types of sacred management practices that often

hold companies back, whether they be preferred metrics or marketing

principles.

• “Solving Problems on the Inside,” by Peter Kontes. This piece, which ran

in the April 30, 2002 issue of the Financial Times, looks at how proper

financial accounting is crucial to maintaining shareholder value.

• Growth Traps: Lessons from the Go-Go 90s,” by Michael Mankin. How to

improve a company’s market performance while avoiding the obsession

with revenue growth that drove, but inevitably sank, the late 1990s boom.

• “The Value-Based IT Model,” by Lee Mergy and Andy Simonoff. As

technology continues to play an increasingly valuable role in organizations,

it is important to keep the “line of sight” between investments in

information technology and shareholder value.



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• “What’s the Right Back-Office Solution?” by Joe Shalleck and Mark

Underwood. Though this piece applies specifically to banking, it is a good

case study for how Marakon views operations questions in light of

shareholder-value considerations.


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Locations

New York (headquarters)

Chicago

San Francisco

London

Singapore

Key Officers

Ken Favaro: Chief Executive Officer

Favaro is the first non-founder to run Marakon, though he is hardly an

outsider at the firm. Favaro joined in 1984, and he was a co-founder of the

firm’s London office. He holds a B.S. in civil engineering and an MBA (as

an Arjay Miller Scholar), both from Stanford University.

Peter Kontes: Co-Chairman and Co-Founder

Jim McTaggart: Co-Chairman and Co-Founder

Bill Alberts: Co-Founder and Partner

Ownership

Marakon is a privately owned company.

Practices

Recently Marakon has been saying it wants to shed its “boutique” image as a

value-enhancement shop and become a top-level, general-interest strategy

firm. Nevertheless, with only 375 employees, 250 of them consultants, the

firm is unlikely to take on the likes of McKinsey, and the firm has yet to move

away from value management as its bread and butter. So while the firm lists

a number of different areas of focus in its press material, the name of the

Organization

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Marakon Associates

Organization

game is still asset-value maximization, or what Marakon calls “Managing for

Value” (MFV).

But what does that mean? In short, asset-value maximization means

realigning a company’s operations – sometimes radically – to produce the

highest returns for its shareholders. On the simplest level, this is a two-step

process: First, Marakon identifies its client’s optimal configuration, then it

helps the client restructure itself along those lines. To do this, the firm will

analyze everything from the client’s marketing strategy to its consumers’

behavior to its competitors’ own strategies. This may mean, for example,

recognizing that a company marketing high-quality soaps could capture a

large share of the shampoo market, or that a company with offices spread

throughout North American could increase profits dramatically by

consolidating its operations. In either case, the company may lose profit

initially. The key is Marakon’s long-term approach, which looks not to solvespecific problems or address particular aspects of a client’s business, but

rather to makeover its entire corporate structure, if necessary. As Co-

Chairman and Co-Founder Jim McTaggart told the Economic Times (of

India), “Instead of just looking at a company’s financial statements, MFV

looks outside the company to ask two important questions: What’s the pool

of the economic profit in a given marketplace, and how competitively

advantaged or disadvantaged is a certain company’s position within that

pool?”


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November 2002: Hired guns

Marakon has established a board of advisors comprised of five heavy-hittingformer executives, including Arthur C. Martinez, former chairman and CEO

of Sears; Lewis E. Platt, former chairman, president and CEO of Hewlett-

Packard; and Frank G. Zarb, former chairman and CEO of the NASDAQ

(Zarb had recently turned down the opportunity to become head of the

Security and Exchange Commission). The board was formed to help

Marakon consolidate its claim to the high-end strategy market.

September 2002: Top of the mountain

In its third-quarter issue, Bank Director magazine named Marakon to its listof eight top consulting firms. The list includes McKinsey & Company, Booz

Allen Hamilton and First Manhattan Consulting Group.

May 2002: Booked

According to Consulting Alert, Marakon was the only major strategy firm to

be operating at full capacity. The newsletter reported that the firm had

increased its client list by 40 percent over the previous nine months.

November 2001: A new face

At big firms, adding a new partner is hardly news. But at a firm with fewer

than 400 total employees, a new face in the leadership is a big deal. This

month Marakon added Sandeep Malik to its roster, bringing the partnership

level to 32 members. Malik came to the firm in 1994 as a senior manager

after spending several years at Cincinnati Milacron. Malik was integral in

opening Marakon’s Singapore office.

March 2001: Expanding overseas

To get its Asia-Pacific efforts rolling, Marakon announced the opening of its

Singapore office. For the time being, the office will concentrate on helping

current U.S. and European clients with their Asian operations, rather than

establish new, local business.

Vault Newswire

Marakon Associates



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Working for a living

Across the board, consultants describe working for Marakon as intense.Weekend work is a given, and while consultants are supposed to put in an

about 65 hours per week, that can quickly spike during crunch times. Says

one Marakonite, “You will work hard if you join Marakon. Most people

probably average around 70 [hours per week], with significantly higher hours

quite often.” But while this kind of work isn’t for everyone, insiders believe

that working at Marakon is rewarding for those willing to put in long, hard

hours. The same consultant adds that “Although you do work hard, it is a

great experience, and I genuinely believe you learn more than at any other

firm as a recently graduated 22-year-old.”

On the other hand, the flip side to working for an elite, focused firm is the

lack of opportunity to take on projects beyond the immediate needs of the

firm, a problem many respondents say is rampant at Marakon. Notes one

consultant, “The heavily quantitative nature of the work and the focus on

certain approaches limits the potential variety of projects done.” And,

decrying the firm’s laser-like focus on improving client profit, another

respondent says there is “the feeling that you have to ‘drink the Kool-Aid’ of

Managing for Value,” providing “no opportunity to really specialize if you are

interested in a particular industry.”

Life in the balance

Many firms, of course, boast about their commitment to a work/life balance,

but in many cases that dedication is more talk than reality. But insiders say

Marakon is more serious than other firms about its employees’quality of life;

as one consultant notes, “Compared to my peers at other consulting firms, my

hours are very reasonable. Marakon doesn’t value ‘face time’ for the sake of

it, and allows considerable freedom, as long as the work gets done.”

Ultimately, of course, balancing work and life is up to the individual, and at

Marakon “the hours can creep up if you don’t actively work to maintain a balance.” Though the hours “get more predictable and manageable as you

progress within the firm,” the workload can sometimes be overwhelming.

One consultant notes, “The only problem I have is that it is constantly

challenging and whilst that is good, it is also quite exhausting.” Not

surprisingly, many people who come to work for Marakon find themselves in

over their heads, and as a result the firm has only an average retention rate.

Our Survey Says

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Our Survey Says

A nice place to work

The majority of Marakon respondents praise the firm for its professional,

collegial atmosphere and well-managed structure. The partners “really make

an effort to ensure people are happy and satisfied with the job,” says one

consultant. Another adds, “One of the things I value most about the Marakon

culture is the absence of intellectual arrogance. People here are extremely

bright and share a commitment to intellectual curiosity, which supports a

culture of approachability at all levels.”

Though some respondents say that Marakon project teams can be overly

hierarchical, in general they characterize the firm’s management as friendly

and easy to work with, often “making the rounds on Friday afternoons with a

beverage of choice.” “Virtually all partners have an open-door policy,” says

one consultant. “I have found the vast majority of them very approachable

and genuinely concerned about the people that work for them.” Adds another,“Obviously treatment by executives depends on the individual, but over the

course of my two and a half years here, I have worked one-on-one with the

partner on nearly every project. I [am] always treated with the utmost respect

and [have] learned a great deal.”

Marakonites also gave high marks to the firms’ offices. One respondent told

us that “all managers and higher have their own offices everywhere. In some

offices, consultants have their own offices as well.” Another notes that while

“I still only have a cube, the office is so gorgeous, I don’t mind,” while a third

even goes so far as to say that “the San Francisco office is the nicest officeenvironment I have ever seen.”

Up and away

Marakon consultants travel almost every week, with a Tuesday-through-

Thursday away schedule as “the standard travel model for the firm,” though

“there are always exceptions, a good example being international travel. That

typically results in a two week away/one week home travel model.” The

travel can be “intense, at times. It seems almost everyone has some form of

elite status with the airlines. We do have local projects, but our smaller number of offices tends to increase our frequency of travel.” Nevertheless, for

domestic projects, Sunday travel is rare, and travel loads lighten after the first

few years.

At the same time, some respondents note that the firm is very accommodating

when it comes to personal needs; for example, one consultant who needs to

spend time with his children notes that “I quite often leave early but work at


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home, because the company will give me a fax and a scanner and set me up

with a broadband at home.”

Marakon also makes it easy to transfer between offices – though, unlike in

some firms, it is by no means an unwritten rule that career-building requires

working out of multiple offices. Nevertheless, many American consultants

like to put in a year at the London or Singapore offices, to get a feel for the

company’s overseas work. “In fact, most partners, once they’ve gotten to that

point, have spent time in most of the offices,” one respondent notes. “It’s

very common that people spend six months to year in another office in a

career.”

Good rewards for good work

Consultants at Marakon may be asked to give 110 percent, but their efforts

are reimbursed with top-notch compensation packages. Salaries are “equal or

above top-tier firms,” with bonuses often 20 percent of yearly base pay or

more, though they are tied to firm performance and thus can vary greatly from

year to year (2001 bonuses, for example, were in the 10-15 percent range).

The firm offers stock ownership and profit-sharing plans, and has a tuition

reimbursement program for top consultants returning to school for an MBA

or another advanced degree. Added benefits include free food and drinks in

the offices, gym membership discounts, Palm Pilots and in-house massage

therapist visits.

Training days

While in recent years Marakon has cut back its employee training program,

respondents tell us that it is still one of the best things about working for the

firm. “Marakon invests a huge amount of time and resources into training,”

one consultant says. “I don’t remember the exact statistics, but I believe the

number of hours the average Marakon consultant spends in training during

the first two years is one of the highest in the industry.”

Marakon’s training system is called the ACT Program; new consultants enroll

in ACT I, and further ACTs (II-IV) follow every six to nine months. “There’s

a very strong Marakon framework in terms of how to view a business and

how to create value,” relates one insider, “so a lot of the ACT I training is

around learning all the intellectual capital that Marakon has developed over

the last 20 years. There’s a lot of emphasis on what we’ve learned in the past,

to make sure that everyone knows that and can apply it in their client work.”

ACT I gets high marks from respondents; one notes that “the training



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provides a good balance between theory and practice. It is much more

‘usable’ than training I have seen in other firms.” Further ACTs deal “more in

terms of management training and how to manage clients.”

Consultants also praise Marakon’s internship program. “I had a great, meaty

role on a strategy project,” one reports. “Marakon also provided an extensive

training week and social calendar to ensure we met not only fellow summer

interns, but also full-time Marakon consultants at every level.” The program

“exceeded my high expectations,” says another. “I worked on real work – not

‘make work.’ I dealt with clients and participated in meetings and

presentations. I saw the Marakon consultant lifestyle with minimal sugar

coating.”

Each of Marakon’s offices also participates in a number of community-

involvement activities. The New York office participates in “tutoring of

underprivileged students on an ongoing basis. We also volunteer at nursing

homes, soup kitchens, and participate in events such as the Revlon Run/Walk

for Breast Cancer.” The firm offers pro bono consulting for nonprofits, and

“if anyone has a desire to set up additional charity-based (non-billable) work,

this is always welcomed and encouraged.”

Marakon? Who’s that?

As a small firm, the lack of name recognition is a constant problem for

Marakon. CEOs and industry insiders recognize and respect it, but

respondents say the company could do more to get its name out. While this

is hardly a hindrance to Marakon’s top-level work, it “can make things like

outplacement slightly more challenging.”

Nor is Marakon the most diverse of firms. While the firm hires a good

number of female consultants, it has a hard time retaining them. As a result,

the number of women climbing the Marakon hierarchy is small. “Very few

women exist at the senior ranks,” says one respondent. “The larger problem

is that the pipeline is also very thin.” Another consultant adds, “We only have

two female partners, one of whom is not in a client-facing role, and only one

minority partner.” And while Marakon has reportedly expanded its recruitingefforts to bring in minorities, at present there are very few at the firm.


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Marakon offers prospective consultants a variety of ways to enter the firm. It

recruits from undergraduate institutions, U.S. and European MBA programs

and advanced degree programs in the States. For students, Marakon has a 10-

week MBA internship program in all offices as well as an eight-week BA

summer program in its London office.

Marakon typically limits its recruiting to the Ivies, Stanford and a few other

top-notch undergraduate schools, as well as the top MBA programs. We hear,

however, that its selectivity isn’t as narrow as those of other top-shelf firms;

as one respondent tells us, “it’s no McKinsey. We do not have 300

applications at every campus, nor are we as selective.” At the same time,

Marakon does not cast a very wide net, as it’s rarely looking to hire more than

a relative handful of people. “It’s much more focused on the people that they

[recruiters] think would be appropriate for Marakon and would be interested

in Marakon, rather than a broad recruiting effort,” said one insider.

The interview process at Marakon involves two to three rounds, with two to

three interviews in each round. “You meet with everybody from the level you

would start at through partner,” reports a senior analyst. For MBAs, the

process is relatively quick, with interview rounds on consecutive days and

offers made a few days later. At the beginning of each process, one

respondent tells Vault, “Usually there’s a breakfast, or a couple of get-to-

know-you activities before the interview process. We came into the office for the first round of interviews. We did three interviews in the first round with

three different people; I think two out of three were cases. Then you get

called back to the final round the next day; you meet with two other people,

usually all with senior managers and partners. One out of two are cases on

second day, but that changes from year to year.”

The case interviews are pretty conventional, we hear, drawn “right out of our

client work, so they’d typically be something we dealt with in a client

situation or very similar to that.” While cases may involve anything from

cost-reduction strategies to marketing campaigns, keep in mind that Marakonis keen on shareholder value, so a brief mention of how your solution can help

the stock price wouldn’t hurt. “I’d say they’re very high-level strategy-

oriented questions in terms of looking at the overall picture of a company,

looking at how they can increase the value,” notes on insider. “Marakon’s

focus is maximizing shareholder value, so the cases are going to look at how

you create value in a business.” Be careful, though, not to make too much of

shareholder value – otherwise you’ll come across as artless and incapable of

Getting Hired

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Getting Hired

thinking on your own. Says one Marakoner, “I wouldn’t recommend them

specifically to say this [shareholder value] is the most important thing,

because it will look like they’re being too specific. But I would recommend

them to have an awareness of the driving ethos of the firm.”

Questions to Expect

1. Case: You are the head of a large corporation. Your company must

build a new paper plant. You must decide which country to build the

plant in. What factors would you consider?

This case is a pretty generic one, and you’re just as likely to encounter it in a

Marakon interview as anywhere else. The key is that Marakon will approach

the question with shareholder value, and how to optimize it, in mind – sogiving a nod to shareholder interests in your answer will help out immensely.

As with all case interviews, keep in mind that you are expected to ask the

interviewer questions to obtain additional information before answering the

case. Some questions to ask for this case would be: “What does the

corporation I head do? What does the company plan to do with the paper

produced by the plant? Use the paper in its own manufacturing process? Sell

it to other companies? Do we even need to build the plant? Can we satisfy this

need in another way?” Factors to consider in answering this case: each

country’s labor costs, political stability, government treatment of foreign

investments, price of raw materials, proximity to raw materials for the plant,

relevant shipping costs, tax laws, skill and availability of local labor force,

and access to local capital markets. As the interview goes on, the interviewer

will typically add information or constraints to the case (for example, he

could tell you that you must decide only between Brazil and China as a paper

plant location).

2. Case: The XYZ Corporation has cornered the market in widgets, and

yet its stock price is depressed. What are some reasons this might be

true, and how would you address it?

First, find out what else XYZ does. Are widgets its only product? What is the

financial state of its other divisions? Second, establish what the market in

widgets is like. Is it a booming market, or one on the decline? Third, ask how

the firm got to its dominant position – through acquisitions, increased

marketing or an exodus of other manufacturers? If the market is declining or

companies are leaving the market, that might be an indication that widgets are

no longer the way to go, and that XYZ should get out of the market as well.


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If the market is booming, perhaps the low stock price is a signal that investors

think the company has spent too much on its market-dominance campaign.

3. What is it about consulting that interests you?

Expect this sort of question in the fit interviews. Be honest, but try not to letthe dollar signs in your eyes shine too brightly.

4. Why would you be a good fit at Marakon?

All the big firms are going to ask you this, but at Marakon, a small, tightly

knit organization, it’s particularly important.

5. Case: You are a manufacturer of laundry detergent and thinking about

shifting into the dry-cleaning business. Decide if this is a feasible and/or

lucrative option.

Marakon wants to know if you fathom the many factors that go into making

such a momentous business decision. Here are a few crucial questions you

need to ask your interviewer: Can the assets be transferred from business to

business? What is the determined location – both geographical and on an

operational level – of this new dry cleaners? Will it be accessible to a

necessary number of customers? Is building a new brand in dry cleaning

going to be important or can we depend on an existing clientele? Obviously,

there are dozens, if not hundreds, of other factors to take into consideration –

so avoid overkill. Just naming a few will suffice.

6. Case: You are in the trash collecting business in a town with a

population of 25,000. Everyone – from the municipal level on down to

the citizens – is losing money. Why? What can be done to change

profitability?

7. Case: You are a gumball manufacturer in Cleveland. Business has

declined for the last five years. What are some things you can do to

improve growth?

You need to assess what has halted growth during the past five years. The

two vital elements of profit, revenues and costs, also need to be evaluated.

8. Case: You are an automobile manufacturer and you want to move intothe luxury sector. Do you build your own brand or buy an existing one?

Remember, consider the question in light of shareholder value.



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Questions to Ask

1. How solid is Marakon’s acceptance rate into business school? How

helpful is Marakon in placing its analysts into graduate school?

Obviously, this question is for associate consultants only. Given Marakon’s

four-star reputation, an interviewer won’t have any trouble expounding the

firm’s impressive business school stats. However, by asking these questions,

a candidate opens up the floor for the interviewer to discuss related perks.

2. Please describe how Marakon evaluates promotion at the firm.

3. Why would a prospective client choose Marakon over another

consulting firm?

Go on – give your interviewer a chance to brag.

4. How much responsibility will I be given in my first year?

Both analysts and associates are given a considerable amount of independent

work their first year at Marakon. Your interviewer will likely reiterate this

fact and cite the tasks typically completed by incoming consultants.

5. Please tell me more about the training Marakon provides.

6. How would you describe Marakon’s culture?

7. Will I have the opportunity to transfer to other Marakon offices?

Marakon respondents note that by the time they reach partners, consultantshave worked in at least two offices. But while transferring is encouraged, it

is by no means required.

To Apply

Check with your university’s career office to see if Marakon is planning an

on-campus recruiting visit. If not, or if you are already out of school, you

complete an online form at .www.marakon.com/careers/apply_form.aspx.


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Marakon Associates

Getting Hired

Salaries

Associate consultants: $50,000-$53,000 base pay (2002)

Consultants: $100,000-$105,000 base pay (2002)

Perks

• 401(k)

• Profit-sharing

• Cell phones

• Employee assistance program

• Employee referral bonus

• Free food/drinks

• Laptop computers

• Palm pilots/PDAs

• Sports/theater tickets

• Tuition reimbursement

• Long-term disability insurance

• Gym membership discounts

• Employee lounge area



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Day in the Life

Associate Consultant/Consultant

8:30 a.m.: Arrive at work. On Mondays and Fridays I’m at the office, but on

other days I’m at the client. On those days I might arrive a little earlier,

depending on what kind of hours the client keeps.

8:30-10:00 a.m.: Grab some coffee, catch up on emails and voicemails. If

I’m at the office I’ll do this at my desk; if I’m at the client site I’ll be in the

team room, usually a conference room shared by all the Marakon people.

10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.: Research marketing efforts by the client’scompetitors. If I’m at the office I might also do some firm-building work,

especially on Fridays. If I’m at the client’s, most days I’ll start this a little

later in order to make time for a quick team meeting – though in general,

because I work so closely with my team, most of my interaction with them is

fairly ad hoc.

1:00 p.m.: Grab lunch. If I’m at the office I’ll go out with some of my friends

who work nearby; at the client site some team members and I will treat a few

of our client-side co-workers to lunch (remember: The customer is always

right, and a well-fed customer is always happy).

2:30 p.m.: Back to work. Depending on how much work I have to do, I

might take a very short lunch; I might even get takeout and eat at my desk.

Marakon isn’t an hourly kind of place – you do the work you need to do, and

you set your own schedule. Anyway, back at my desk/team room I finish

answering voice mails and emails from the morning, then get to work on a

PowerPoint presentation due next week.

4:30 p.m.: If I’m at the office I might spend the rest of the day on the

presentation, but at the client site we’ll typically have some sort of sit-down

meeting with our client-side team members sometime late in the day. Usuallythis will involve bringing them up to speed on our project – unlike us, they

can’t spend all their time on the project. These meetings also typically

involve one or two upper-level client members as well.

6:30-7:00 p.m.: Unless it’s crunch time, I can usually ship off by 7 pm. And

if we’re in a real lull, I might leave before 6 pm. But most days range

between nine and 10 hours of work.

On the Job

Marakon Associates



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Marakon Associates

On the Job

Manager

7:30 a.m.: Arrive at work. Marakon is pretty flexible about when I get there,

and sometimes it’s not until 9:30, depending on my work load. Once there, I

check email and voicemail, return a few calls, then head out to the client for

a fact-finding meeting (working out of the London office has the advantage

of proximity to most of the firm’s UK clients, who are mostly based in the

city).

9:00-11:00 a.m.: Meet with client to determine the next step on a cost-

reduction project.

11:30 a.m.: Back at the office, I meet with several of my consultants about

the client meeting, and we coordinate the next round of deliverables.

12:00 p.m.: Return some more emails and voicemails, then head out to lunch.

1:00 p.m.: Back at work, I put the finishing touches on a PowerPoint

presentation created by one of my associate consultants in preparation for a

meeting with several partners visiting from the Chicago office.

2:00-4:00 p.m.: Meet with the visiting partners. By this point it should be

pretty obvious that the life of a manager at Marakon is pretty meeting-

intensive. But it is still focused on the project at hand – as opposed to selling

future work or maintaining client relationships, which are the jobs of the

partners.

4:30-6:00 p.m.: Return any remaining emails and voicemails, and beginmaking plans for a visit to the States that I’ll be making later in the month.

Unless it’s serious crunch time, I rarely leave the office after 6 p.m.; Marakon

has provided me with a scanner, fax and broadband connection at home, so

I’ll usually do my last few hours of work in my home office – that way I can

see my wife and kids and enjoy a home-cooked meal.

Project Staffing

Marakon projects tend to run between six months and a year. The firm

maintains a relatively small client list, and so there is rarely an entirely new

project with an entirely new client; most projects roll over both Marakon and

client-side staffs. When consultants do leave projects, they are staffed anew

through two processes. On the one hand, there is a formal staffing system, a

database maintained by staffing coordinators at each office. Managers use

the database to find available consultants and to match skill sets and


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Marakon Associates

On the Job

development needs with their upcoming project. On the other hand,

managers also make use of a “robust” informal network of recommendations

and reviews; after selecting a consultant from the database, a manager will

typically meet with that consultant’s previous managers to learn details about

their skills and performance.

Job Descriptions

Associate consultant

Associate consultants are hired from undergraduate programs, and they

typically spend two to three years with the firm before moving into another

industry or, more often than not, going back to school. Their tasks revolve

around research and analysis, collecting the raw data and crunching it intoforms that consultants, managers and principals can then use in crafting client

deliverables. ACs can work in a variety of industries and rarely specialize, at

least in the first year.

Consultant

While an associate consultant’s work will be primarily analysis-driven, a

consultant’s work will be much more about shaping that analysis into client

deliverables – strategies, campaigns and research reports. The consultant is

the day-to-day face of the firm at the client’s office and is in charge of making

presentations and leading meetings with the client team. “At Marakon we

tend to work very collaboratively with the client,” notes one consultant, “so

often I will have a team of clients I am managing, or I will have a client or

two that I am working with on a daily basis, so we’re doing it together.

Basically whatever piece of the project that I’ve been assigned to, I’m

actually managing that piece.”

Career PathMarakon respondents tell Vault that while many ACs go back to school for an

MBA, there is no imperative to do so – getting promoted from AC to

consultant is “not a once in a blue moon scenario,” says one insider. For those

who rise within the firm, there is usually a two- to three-year period between

AC and consultant, and then another two to three years to manager (though

we hear that may in fact be sped up for those who move directly from AC to



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Marakon Associates

On the Job

consultant). Two to three more years gets them to senior manager, and after

another two to three years they have a chance to become a partner. All in all,

we hear, “coming out of MBA you have about six to eight, six to nine years

to partner.”


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Marakon Associates may not be as well-known as McKinsey, Boston

Consulting Group and other top-tier consulting firms, but its prestige among

Fortune 500 executives is virtually unmatched, particularly compared to other

boutique shops. Marakon’s intense focus on shareholder value may be a

turnoff for some would-be consultants, but the firm offers even freshly

minted BAs unparalleled access to senior executives and strategic planning

decisions that they would never find at a much larger elite firm. Plus, the firm

is looking to expand its operational capabilities and compete more directly

with McKinsey, et al. – meaning that it could be a much larger blip on

corporate America’s radar screen in the years to come.

Final Analysis

Marakon Associates



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Marakon has a host of published working papers

http://www.marakon.com/ideas_list.html.

Also see:

• “Guns for Hire: The Consultants.” Bank Director. October 2002.

• “Marakon Reports Pipeline Getting Crammed Again.” Consulting Alert.

May 31, 2002.

• “Clear Strategy Needed to Create Shareholder Value.” Business Times

(Singapore). July 23, 2001.

• “Marakon: Where Everybody Knows Your Name.” Consulting Magazine.

November/December, 2000.

• “Marakon Runners.” Fortune. September 28, 1998.

Recommended Reading

Marakon Associates



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