Vault’s Verdict

Mansfield insiders note that their firm offers a strong culture, good quality of life, and plentiful career development opportunities—all features that make it a perfect match for young, ambitious consultants with a passion for the healthcare industry. 

Partners are intentional about remaining accessible and fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment, while work life balance is also a priority, with limited travel and flexible working arrangements. 

It should be noted that compensation and advancement opportunities may be a concern for some. While bonuses seem to be above industry standards, insiders note that base pay and pensions may lag the competition. Additionally, a fairly rigid promotion schedule may not always reflect an individual's capability and lead to slower compensation growth than elsewhere in the industry. All told, however, if you're interested in healthcare and looking for a supportive, entrepreneurial work environment, Mansfield Advisors may well be a good fit for you.

Firm Culture

“Be prepared to take on responsibilities above what would be expected of your grade at different (larger) firms, but with the trade-off of experiencing greater senior client exposure. If already experienced, negotiate terms for promotions/progression up-front, based on measurable criteria which can be evidenced through formal feedback.”

“Good place for someone entrepreneurial, lots of opportunity to learn but you must be prepared to be self-motivated and be willing to be thrown off the deep end sometimes.”

“Healthcare is the focus, so you have to be interested in that industry. There's a great culture here, made up of ambitious young people, and guided by founding partners that are succeeding in their mission to make a happier, but respectable, consulting firm.”

“The exposure to managers and partners is unrivalled. I can chat to/call any of them easily, and they are intentional about remaining accessible. The Senior Engagement Manager has 20-30 years’ experience as an EM, which is invaluable for juniors.”

“We are passionate about our sectors and believe we can make a positive impact on the world by continually striving to improve care delivery, but our culture really sets us apart. We are fostering a culture of genuine diversity and inclusion to enable everyone on the team to feel able to offer their opinions and ideas. Our passion for healthcare and innovation remains stronger than ever. We recognise that in order to innovate, we need to foster the right behaviour within our teams – continuous development, creativity, building a work environment in which the team is most motivated to thrive and push the business forward.”

Quality of Life

"Best: Although we work for demanding PE clients, teams are well-staffed and therefore there's a good work/life balance. Minimal travel (this being best is subjective) Very easy to take time off.

Worst: None.”

“Excellent quality of life. We work hard when that's the priority, but there's also an emphasis on work/life balance, including taking time off. Flexible about working from home, even when 'home' is away from London.”

“One of the founding principles of Mansfield was to create a work culture that wouldn't burn consultants out. The partners remain committed to this ten years later. They genuinely care about us and our quality of life, which is truly unique in the industry. They put people over profit. Travel is limited especially since most client interactions now happen over Zoom calls etc., but client site meetings still do occur. It's very easy to take time off when requested. HR is very friendly.”

“Quality of life is excellent - much better than other consulting firms. Partners actually make a conscious effort to make sure work hours are reasonable (6 or 7pm most days) with no weekend work.”

“The team's formal requirements for regular check-ins and communications, lunches etc. are quite detailed and expectations are high. In return, there is little chance of one being bothered on holiday or in the evenings without a good reason. Booked time off is always possible if scheduled well in advance. Travel requirements are light for a consulting firm. Partly because of Zoom calls, but mostly because most of our clients are London based. Some international travel to Spain, Italy etc. depending on the project.”

“Work/life balance is generally excellent. Extended busy periods are usually followed by quieter periods to prevent burnout. Work from home policy is generous and travel requirements reasonable. Taking time off is straightforward and policies are also reasonable.”

Compensation

“Base and bonus is decent, slightly below competitors; bonus has a retention element (employees have to pay back GROSS if they leave within 6 months) which is odd and should be scrapped.”

“Best - higher than average bonuses compared to industry standard.

Worst - sub industry standard base pay; slow to respond to and implement market increases in salary.”

“Progression of salary is good; however, firm generally lags behind competition due to reactive salary reviews. Partners are open to salary benchmarking which is a strong plus, but tend to implement changes after a delay which is likely to outdate said benchmarks. Pension package is also far below market, and promises to check this have not yet been followed-up.”

“The firm's packages were updated and improved and increased earlier this year to be completely competitive with the top firms. A higher variable element, but certainly last year that worked to make it higher.”

“Total compensation is appropriate for a firm of its size but needs to be more flexible about balance of risk and reward. Some people need less risk, even if it means accepting lower total compensation.”

Career Development

“Best - client exposure at a junior level, opportunities to take on higher level responsibilities.

Worst - rigid promotion schedules which do not always reflect individuals' capability.”

“Best aspects - frequent on the job training by very approachable partners and project managers. Great, collaborative analyst team.

Worst aspects - limited international opportunities (though on the plus side it means less travel away from home).”

“Clear development and promotion structure within the firm. Very good training opportunities, keen to ensure all employees have a breadth of skills.”

"Good: Training has generally improved with internal and external subject-experts regularly arranged to speak with the firm. Client-exposure is also good, there are frequently opportunities to gain experience speaking with senior teams. Quarterly reviews also a plus, granting the opportunity to speak with managers and partners regularly.

Bad: There is a gap in formal training opportunities for 3-5 years' experience staff members, which would include training to transition from an analyst skillset to a manager skillset. Sometimes it requires significant effort to receive this training.

Promotion policies are also non-transparent, and sometimes frustrating. Progress recognised, and development goals set, can be inconsistent between reviews. There doesn't appear to be effective communication between managers and promotion decision-makers, meaning good project performance may not be relayed upwards. Provided 'standard promotion skill guidelines' are not indicative of being promoted or not.”

“"There is a very clear and predictable hierarchy, which contributes to high employee retention. You can trust that, if your performance is good, you will be promoted after a 12-month period with some certainty. A lot has been invested in training in the last year and I now believe it is on-par with the industry standard.

International opportunities are increasing, with a new 'alliance' formed with other healthcare-focused strategy consulting firms in mainland Europe to begin secondments and exchanges (see: curisalliance.com).”

Community Engagement

“2 members of the team are involved in LGBTQ+ activities as Director of Strategy for National Student Pride and another is a volunteer. There is an active outreach program to attract more women and minorities, including targeting women in consulting and women in business societies at universities, sponsoring them and hosting dinners on campus. One of the Senior Engagement Managers is a former naval officer. I have never worked for an organisation that is so inclusive to ethnicity, race, colour or religion - it is about delivering a high quality product for the client and doing that is a supportive but challenging environment where people can learn and advance.”

“Firm is making clear effort to hire more women by increasing exposure to women-only groups at universities. LGBTQ+ individuals are strongly represented in the team.

Project and promotion opportunities favour clinicians, likely as part of the firm's positioning as a healthcare specialist. However, this isn't always communicated clearly to the full team and can create feeling of unfairness.”

“Good push towards hiring and retention of women and LGBTQ+ individuals. A lot more can be done with regard to ethnicity.”

“Historically, the firm has been male dominated, but there are clear efforts to improve this, including recruiting from university women's consulting networks.

DEI for LGBTQ+ individuals is good - there is good support from managers for the LGBTQ+ charity I run outside of work and there is a same-sex female couple in the consulting team that has been comfortable in the office environment together.”

“We are only a small firm, but we pro-actively seek out women and LGBTQ candidates (a staff member runs university LGBTQ). We do not have any physically disabled members.”

Business Outlook

“Employee morale is great and there is fantastic team spirit. We are strongly positioned within healthcare with deep sector expertise within our team.”

“Largest challenge will be employee morale and retaining staff who are experienced with the firm. The leadership are making efforts to diversify the customer base to protect against economic downturn, but appear misaligned on the best approach to growing the firm in new sectors.”

“Macroeconomic environment is challenging. There has been strong growth in the wider market throughout the history of this firm, only time will tell how they respond to the current macroeconomic environment.”

“The firm has real momentum and has grown revenue and headcount, and invested heavily in its employees with the aim of building a high achieving diverse team who are rewarded for their hard work and who feel they play a part in the direction and focus of the company - this was a founding principle of the firm. The firm recently launch a pan-European alliance which will offer people the chance to work in foreign offices and meet a broader group of people.”

“We are being hired for projects against some of the strongest competition out there. We are universally accepted as a leading firm in healthcare, including veterinary and health products. The transaction-based half of our work depends on the external market conditions, including the economy, but the corporate side is growing structurally and predictably. Our brand is, however, now only just short of ten years old. Morale is tremendous - almost no one leaves us and when they do, it's a very difficult decision for them. We are allying ourselves with similar size boutiques in other language markets to be able to offer a (better!) solution than a single big-ticket firm. This new 'Curis Alliance' is really exciting.”

Hiring Process

“Three interview rounds on one day - one case study, one psychometric test, one partner-led interview.”

“Looking for top-3 university graduates, principally from the UK.”

“Our typical hire is a Big Three strategy consultant type, but who lacked some gravitas and didn't make it thru the final round with their partners. Lots of scientists, doctors, vets but certainly not exclusively. Someone who is highly authentic, wears their heart on their sleeve, and whom you would want in your foxhole. Someone who believes it's better to serve clients with 100% of your ability over 55 hours a week, not losing sight of the big picture, than to work at 75% of your ability spread over 73 hours a week, slowly losing it. Someone who understands that structure and process is crucial to achieving that, and it doesn't just happen magically.”

“Our values are transparency, curiosity, collaboration and commerciality and we believe we have a uniquely open and supportive culture. We therefore want people where the chemistry will work with the rest of the team, and we also have a strong track record of taking doctors, vets, dentists and scientist and turning them into commercial strategy consultants. New hires need to be smart, but they need to be people the team wants to work with as well.”

“Rigorous interview process. I think the firm is looking for candidates with strong potential for consulting, good interpersonal skills and good critical thinking skills.”

Interview Questions

“Assess the economics of a new flight between Brussels and Pretoria, based on this data.”

“For me it was really focussed on revenue generation and how I could deliver on that in the short term.”

“Market size of American footballs worldwide.”

“We do something similar to every other firm in interviews. We are a little easier to get an internship than the Big Three because the partners are softies, but no easier than the rest. We are not any easier to get a final offer from, but we work hard to help people develop anyhow, and especially if they are borderline.”