'Nowhere have I seen such Lions led by such Lambs.'
Pros
When times are good, Navanti is great and can provide a nurturing, cohesive environment where young talent thrives. Stimulating projects and interesting clients, bright -- and some brilliant -- analysts, management support for independent research, diverse workforce, talented middle management, hands on training, Flex Fridays. Excellent middle managers. Great opportunities to develop expertise and develop contacts. I never saw any evidence of racism among management - senior or middle level - as is described in other reviews and the company was extremely hospitable to minorities, including myself, the entire time I worked there. Middle managers always had analysts' backs, especially if analysts made their best effort and did good work, and some times even if they didn't. The analysts are some of the best in town on the most obscure subjects that few competitors can match.
Cons
When times are bad, Navanti is bad. Business development focuses on short term, rather than long-term, sustainable growth. A lack of focus on maintaining existing work and securing long-term contracts exposed the company to extreme risk which led to enormous lay offs with little obvious accountability. Navanti is the exception to the rule that you should judge a CEO by the people he hires -- there are great people at this company led by fools. Failures come from the top, CEO and upper management have no vision and are out of touch with employees' work and client needs. The trend has continued as the company chases after short-term work the company is ill-suited for that turns analysts into temps. While flex Fridays are great, the work from home policy is an excuse for middle managers to micromanage and verbally torment employees on snow days, holidays, sick days, and weekends. Some middle managers lack boundaries, disrespect employee work/life balance, and belittle employees without remorse, and treat employees like property Senior management ignores staff concerns. Managers often fair, but some play favorites and keep dead weight around. Too much focus on over promising to clients and with nonsense jargon about big data and expensive multi-year projects that waste company money and employees' time while under staffing, under funding projects and devaluing employees. Incompetent employees are hired and kept on for opaque and incoherent reasons. People with good ideas get caught in the cross fire between the egos of people only concerned with their own position. Real struggle to get fair compensation. No coherent company culture.
