Pros
The company is located right off the Chicago UP West Metra line. Located in a smaller downtown area in a suburb with a selection of nice restaurants around. There are some really great people who work in the trenches trying to make a difference.
Cons
The CONS outweigh the pros. There is a sense of frustration and disillusion that underlies the whole atmosphere of the company. At one point the company was over 60 people and now is down in the neighborhood of 20 because of several rounds of layoffs and employees finding other jobs. Of those 20 many of them are down to partial hours. There is a mantra of "Ideas from Anywhere" but the reality is management doesn't seem to listen to those outside of the leadership team. The management style is reactive rather than active. They are more involved with trying to manage crisis rather than having a cohesive plan for growth. Management communications is usually carried out at a morning meeting called the 9@9, and consists minor things that are good news, but rarely are the dire situations the company is facing brought out during this time. If there is bad new to be had, then either a company meeting is called, or people are told in private meetings. MD is a management heavy company, with more senior leader people on the roster. In the past few years there has been much churn in upper management. MD fired the president of the firm over a year ago and replaced him. This hasn't seemed to have helped the company situation. There also has been lots of turn over in other areas. Employees where told that because of the current financial situation they would be required to "wear many hats" which means they would need to work harder, on things they weren't originally hired for, with no pay raise, because the company doesn't want to take on more overhead. MD began it's life as a boutique branding and marketing firm, and then tried to morph itself into a innovation firm based on their "Mind to Market" philosophy where they would come up with new ideas and products and take the project through till the end and help produce the advertising collateral and branding. In reality this rarely happened, tho MD still touts this idea on its website. They still hold on to one or two companies who are branding and marketing clients. The company has very little sales outreach at this point and has no real dedicated sales staff. They are trying to rely on their "Thought Leadership" as a sales engine by speaking at various events to bring in new clients. On the process side of things expect to work long hours putting together PowerPoint decks. This is because there is no project management in place. Deliverables are usually finished at the last minute. You will encounter team imposed deadlines that have no reality based on the client's timeline and if the client's timeline changes the internal deadline usually doesn't move. This boom and bust cycle isn't new, and has been happening on a regular basis, however the current down turn has been the worst one in its history. Because of the company's current financial status, its continuing talent drain, and the inability of its management group to admit that their decisions have put them in this situation, makes it difficult to even recommend MD as a good candidate for a career option. According to Glassdoor, Maddock Douglas is an engaged company here which means they look at this site. However the information listed in the information is off. They list 51 to 100 employees which is less than they have at this point. Their yearly revenues do not seem to reflect the prior 2 years of financial issues.