Vault’s Verdict

As a strategy shop born in India, Avalon is a firm with “doing things its own way” built into its DNA—which turns out to be a very good thing for its consultants, who love the culture, support and can-do attitude of their firm.

On a day-to-day basis, this is a firm that will give you as much responsibility as you can handle, backed up by regular support and training from partners. Of course, as a smaller firm, there are tradeoffs around work life balance, firm processes and compensation. But, all things considered, Avalon represents a great opportunity to make a mark not just on the firm, but on the consulting industry in APAC as a whole. 

Firm Culture

“Ability of the senior management to convince clients and bring out solutions customised to their problems.”

“Being a boutique firm and a smaller brand, being self-driven, self-motivated and entrepreneurial is important to do well whereas in established firms the structure takes over after a while.”

“Great culture and team to work with, with immense learning and growth and industry best compensation.”

“If you enjoy learning and shouldering a lot of responsibility, this is the place. As they say, you really learn swimming when you're in the deep end. The firm will give you the opportunity to dive in and will give you the occasional float. You have to make the most of it. When you swim to the shore, they will be cheering you on for the next one. Culture is solid.”

“The company has a fantastic body of work built over 30+ years across Asia and Africa. The firm has also made a transition from the founders to a new leadership team that has grown from within the firm. There is now a very strong foundation for the company to grow in India and internationally. It’s a great company for young professionals to join to build a long-term career.”

Quality of Life

“Being a boutique consulting firm, the effort being put in by each member is much higher compared to other larger firms, but it reflects in the work output.”

“Best: High responsibility allocated and if you've worked hard on something, you are expected to deliver it to the client with support from partners. They are engaged too to a great extent on the project, but they encourage you to present to clients. Even in internal conversations, they are patient and open to ideas. Very impressed with the humility and intellectual property here.

Worst: Can't blame the firm really but work hours, like any consulting firm, are on the higher side. Sometimes, weekends get consumed with work too. There is no mandatory requirement but if there is work, the sheer amount will mean, we have to work on weekends too sometimes.”

“I have total flexibility because of our weekly roster system to work from any office in Mumbai and for the rest of the time I can work from home or do a work-cation. Travel has dropped drastically after we found ways to work online. As long as client deadlines are met, I can choose my hours.”

“Quality of life is good. Good exposure to client interaction and the diversity of projects. Working hours are, however, on the higher side for me.”

“Working hours are aligned with other firms in the industry. Travel requirements are as per project requirements. Taking time off is easy (No questions asked. In fact we are encouraged to explore hobbies beyond work and even have a book reading club).”

Compensation

“At higher rungs, compensation depends a lot on entrepreneurship.”

“Compensation is better than Big 4 consulting firms. Bonus % could be better though.”

“Compensation offered is commensurate with the value delivered and industry trends. Firm shows flexibility to structure the compensation in a win-win model for both sides e.g. offering contract arrangements instead of salary options.”

“Salary is way lesser than competing firms. I know peers who receive at least 15% more than what I get.”

“The compensation is very transparent and there is pay parity across designations, genders, locations. The year-end bonus is well appreciated and consultants working on long-term engagements in the middle east also get additional compensation for the difference in working hours and working calendar.” 

Career Development

“Best - Good learning and mentoring available. Firm takes keen interest in personal development of the individual. Worst - Long work hours.”

“Best aspects – Provides exposure to international projects, diverse sectors, and solutions. It's an open culture and much less bureaucracy. Steep learning curve and a very good learning culture in terms of critical thinking and strategy. 

Worst aspects - Some of the projects are operational in nature and hence act like demotivation for consultants who aspire to be on a fast learning curve.”

“Promotion and increments are reviewed carefully by a committee which reviews individual performance across longitudinal performance data on the individual as well as across peers to rule out reviewer bias.”

“The career development opportunities are focused on converting employees into entrepreneurs with a clear customer and business development focus as they climb the rungs. This suits some employees and does not suit others.”

“We do not follow a period grid for promotions. I have seen people get promoted 2-3 consecutive years. We are focusing on diversity extensively now and the needle has moved already. There is a lot of freedom given and they appreciate initiative taking.”

Community Engagement

“In my view the firm tries to do its best to embrace diversity and equanimity in culture. We are a relatively small team so pure numbers may be sometimes misleading, but the culture and approach is very open and transparent.”

“Organisation tries to bring in as much of diversification, but due to the small size it hasn’t seen much of it in the current structure, but makes sure that everyone is made aware of its stance.”

“Regular training and sensitization sessions are conducted with external non-profit non-governmental organizations. Throughout the time that I have spent at the company, I have never experienced any sort of discrimination or bias towards race, gender or age. The firm runs on a merit driven culture where meritocracy is rewarded and promoted.”

“The firm has made efforts to organize pride sessions and talks from senior folks in the LGBTQ personalities. But it is a small firm. For diversity to truly start reflecting, it might take a while.”

“Ways to make the workplace more equitable to women can be considered in the form of restricting meetings within work hours, continuous conversation to understand issues faced by women and how the firm can help in addressing them.”

Business Outlook

“Firm plans well in advance the complete loading of all employees and assigns responsibilities accordingly.”

“It has been actively supporting clients from various industries and from multiple verticals and makes sure to publish industry opinion and whitepapers regularly on some of the major topics.”

“Our business outlook is very positive and our growth rate is among the best in the industry. We have repeat business coming from existing/past clients as well as inquiries from new clients. Our value proposition has been intact over the years and is a competitive advantage. Our team strength expansion over the past 12 months is testimony.”

“The firm's business outlook is decent. However, the majority of the revenue comes from a Saudi-based client for which the top line has grown in recent years. Domestic market is has grown but it's not that great as compared to how the overall business landscape has thrived in India in recent years.

The worst aspect is that the firm is not really big enough to invest very heavily in off-work client engagement which helps during bad times but it makes up by being very client focused during engagements, bespoke and innovative in solutions.”

Hiring Process

“Extremely efficient. Being a relatively smaller firm gives the agility and the nimbleness that it needs to execute and implement decisions quickly.”

“Fair process that cannot be questioned. The communication channel could be formalised a bit more. They are seeking candidates who don't back down. Even if you don't know the answer, they will give you the means to find one but then the onus is on you to utilise the means that they provide.”

“Interview and call back process compares well with the best practices in the industry. The ideal candidate is a self-starter who thrives in uncertainty and learns quickly, has his/her eye on implementation aspects.”

“Process is rigorous, covers multiple angles, strong emphasis on personality and attitude for consulting.”

“The firm is looking for a critical thinker with high customer centricity and who can be developed into an entrepreneurial spirit.”

Interview Questions

“Critical thinking extensive testing.”

“Example: diagnose the reason for the drop in sales for an FMCG player where there is no change in processes set for the sales distribution, trade promotion and logistics.”

“Falling revenue for a newly launched product - question was how to revive it.”

“Live industry case studies are provided to the candidates (varied industries like consumer durables, automotive, agribusiness, etc.) to solve.”

“We have extensive interviews with analytical cases.”