Intelligent and hardworking consultants; management and cultural disaster
Pros
I was an employee at Mars & Co’s Greenwich, CT office for about three years and have worked at three very different companies in my career. I have waited some time since leaving to avoid any emotional artifacts in my assessment and have kept in touch with current employees. Writing a review was a difficult decision to make, but I feel that it is ethically responsible to educate college, PhD and business school graduates so that they can make an informed career decision. Nearly every employee of Mars & Co is extraordinarily intelligent and hardworking. However, the organization has momentous cultural shortcomings and a severe lack of leadership which has resulted in significant organizational decay which will continue into the foreseeable future. Voluntary turnover (not up or out) of greater than 20% per year reflects the strain that has been put on the business. Mars & Co offers a unique opportunity to gain substantial experience early in your career. It is not uncommon to be placed on an international assignment within two years’ experience. Promotions are very rapid and it is possible for a college graduate to double their starting salary within three years. This generally requires that junior consultants take on increasing responsibility and be put on “trial by fire.” In my opinion, Mars & Co outperforms most consulting firms in this regard. The project size and revenue generated per employee is very impressive for such a small organization. Most clients are extremely impressed by the work that Mars’ consultants perform. As a result of the rigorous recruiting process, Mars’ consultants are some of the most analytically competent people I have ever met. Most of the Greenwich office’s work is on consumer packaged goods (CPG). It is important to understand that, although the organization does work in many different industries, much of your time would be spent working on CPG projects.
Cons
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.