Vault’s Verdict

Like many firms in the industry, ADL entered 2023 casting a watchful eye at macroeconomic conditions. Having experienced rapid growth across EMEA over the past couple of years, firm leadership is keen to maintain a positive trend throughout the year, even in the face of a potential recession. 

To that end, the firm’s entrepreneurial, startup-like culture will surely be of benefit as it seeks out new opportunities and markets, presenting consultants with the chance to leave their mark on the firm even early in their career. While that can sometimes translate to a fast-paced lifestyle with lots of hours, it also serves as a true career accelerator, making ADL an excellent choice for those seeking to help a global challenger brand to scale the heights of the industry.

Firm Culture

“A startup consulting mindset, in a historic prestigious firm.”

“Ask yourself whether you would 1. be hindered by others in acquiring clients and projects and 2. whether you like to collaborate or compete with your colleagues. If your answer is that you would be able to ‘catch any fish’ and ‘work with anyone’ and like "perform or out" join ADL (as opposed to putting yourself behind the long line of other people before you at several levels that preoccupy and ‘own’ accounts and compete with others in the up or out).”

“Great place to work, amazing culture, good work life balance, competitive package, family size company with strong roots in the consulting services.”

“Strong innovative problem solving skills delivered by great, smart, collaborative and humble consultants.”

“What comes most of the time from our clients’ feedback is that beyond the quality of our deliverables, unlike other firms, we genuinely don't think we are smarter or better than our clients. This translates into our demeanor and how we approach problem solving.”

Quality of Life

“Best aspect is work/life balance in comparison to other consulting companies. The worst I would say is the traveling sometimes, even though I enjoy it.”

“I'm very happy with the opportunities to take parental leave. Even as a male Partner I have been able to take meaningful parental leave with both my children.”

“The best aspect is you can easily take time off if you are not assigned on a project. The worst aspect is work/life balance as in every management consulting company.”

“We never had a culture of face time and now there is increasing hybrid working (from home, client site and office) which works well. But we do like new joiners to spend time in the office working alongside the other experienced team members for knowledge transfer.” 

“You feel considered as individual - I feel quite satisfied with my quality of life at Arthur D. Little (especially compared to my previous employer).”

Compensation

“Arthur D. Little has an uncapped bonus system also on junior levels. In addition to a high fixed salary and good ‘standard’ bonus scheme on all levels there is an opportunity for extraordinary payouts in years with strong financial performance. This has e.g. given 50-100% of fixed compensation in total bonus payments for many of our Consultants-Managers-Principal during 2021.” 

“Best: Unlimited paid vacation days, there is also no grudge or any kind of negative consequences if you use this policy, it is common practice and gets heavily encouraged.

Worst: End of year bonus policy is very complicated and not necessarily up to industry standards.”

"GOOD - With a new salary raise, ADL base compensation is now one of the most competitive in the Middle East region.

GOOD - Opportunities for fast track combined with salary bands at each level mean that salary progression can be very fast.

GOOD - Salary parity is absolute within one level (same career level= same pay regardless of gender, background, age, etc.).

GOOD - Bonus calculation is very transparent with clear targets and formulas.

BAD- New performance targets are very hard to achieve at the manager level and their design can lead to conflict between managers and principals (shared KPIs).”

“The best aspect is diversity/pay equality. The worst aspect is currently not having any gym package.”

“Very competitive package, very attractive bonus driven by personal/office/global performance.”

Career Development

“ADL has a relatively flat structure which means that promotion is based on visibility and ‘being known for something.’ Staffing is mainly by office which means you will have a core peer group you know well. There are career-level week-long trainings (Core Consulting and Advanced Consulting courses) in Mallorca / Vienna / Singapore as well as technical training for analytical skills (we get trained on the Cubicle training platform) and practice specific training (plus the on-the-case-training).”

“Best: flat hierarchies and behavior among each other.

Worst: Informal processes, a lot of processes are not clearly defined and feel random.”

“Fast-track promotion if you perform well. Hands-on learning is great; some more formalized training would be beneficial.”

“Promotion processes and relationship between staff are the best aspects of ADL. The worst aspect is low diversification of practice projects.”

“The best aspect about the firm is the range of opportunities to advance faster (possible promotion every 6 months) than the average of the consulting industry.

The worst part is that it's relatively harder to fast-track (the pre-requisite to move 3 times within 1.5 years is way higher than it is in other consulting firms).”

Community Engagement

“ADL has a meritocratic culture and people are recognized for the value they bring regardless of any gender, race, or disability. However, there are few initiatives designed to actively promote diversity.”

“I think (like much of consulting) we could be more diverse... but once you are in ADL we are a meritocracy and it doesn't matter who you are and what you look like. As long as you are a team player and you perform, you'll get on.”

“Very diversified team, happy place to work for everyone.”

“We did put serious effort into attracting and retaining the target groups of people, we can always do better but overall we are progressing well in this regard.”

Business Outlook

“ADL has a strong DNA on innovation. We have no unique approach and the diversity of profiles is unique to foster a creative and out of the box mindset.”

“Economic outlook is a bit worrying... but company outlook is good and we have ~30% of annual revenue as cash reserves to allow us to weather any economic downturn if needed (or to make investments in expanding in key regions).” 

“The ADL brand is not as strong as the competition's in many respects, which can impede the firm from winning work it is very qualified to deliver.”

“The firm is growing exponentially in the Middle East, in overall revenues and headcount but also in recognition and market positioning. It is solidifying its position as one of the top consulting firms in the region. Managing the fast growth is taking a toll on existing employees, with increased load across all functions, cultural integration difficulties with new hires etc.”

“We are the fastest growing consulting firm in the Middle East and we are recognized by our clients for the quality of our work and also the humble approach we have to dealing with them which will ultimately lead to the continuity of our current momentum.

The only bad aspect about this trend is the potential dilution of the firm's culture that comes due to growth in number of consultants.”

Hiring Process

“Firm relatively quickly calls the candidates who are successful. Candidates who are well prepared and have a successful background and graduated from one of the country’s best schools are sought.”

“Outside the digital practices we have two main types of candidates: 1) someone with a business degree and a relevant Masters 2) someone with a good STEM MsC or PhD and some industry/innovation experience that can be hired and taught business/strategy consulting skills.”

“The interview process tends to be pretty fast with systematic feedback.”

“The ideal candidate for us would present the following traits:

1. Smart, structured, willing to learn, and humble
2. Have a solid track record (academic + potentially work experience)
3. Aligns with ADL's culture.”

“The interviewing process is transparent and fair but can be slow due to the huge volume and backlog. The ideal candidate is analytical, collaborative, and client-savvy with a willingness to learn. He is self-confident without being arrogant (willing to accept other opinions, feedback and client experience).” 

“Very impressive and quick interview/callback processes.”

Interview Questions

“An airline company wants to switch all payments on board of the plane from cash to card/digital payments only. Should they do it?”

“Fit interview plus case.”

“Interviews aim at understanding how a person thinks and approaches problem solving.”

“Market sizing, competitive response, sales pitch.”

“The case part is mainly geared towards assessing how the person thinks in a business set-up.”