The best review you’ll read about SKP in the US
Pros
- Very friendly and collaborative culture, especially at the base of the pyramid - Consultants will learn quickly and develop a skillset that can be transferred to the industry. - Great exit opportunities - Company is always growing, so you’ll grow together. You earn trust and responsibility early on. - Time to partnership is fast if that’s a track you’re trying to pursue. - Opportunities to spend time internationally (prior to covid)
Cons
- Base salaries and bonuses are lower than those of 2nd and even 3rd tier consulting firms. - Benefits are subpar and old-school (for example, only 15 days of PTO) - Company is growing without control and doesn’t have consultants to staff on projects. This model benefits partners only, as consultants are facing mental distress for working long hours, partners are too busy and can’t provide guidance and Directors and Senior Managers are promoted too fast and don’t have the required expertise to lead teams and projects. - There’s almost no opportunities to learn outside of project work. Conversations about career with coaches and partners are very rare and evaluation process is a scorecard that doesn’t provide a lot of insights. Many times the feedback won’t be helpful either. - Lack of diversity. - As consultants get to Manager and Director level, they start managing two or more projects simultaneously and are also required to work on Business Development initiatives (gotta keep selling). This leads to even longer hours at these levels, and it becomes nearly impossible to deliver projects with the required quality. - Turnover is extremely high. Young consultants leave left and right and now Managers and Directors are also leaving given the long hours and fast growth environment. At the same time, the company hires many MBAs at Manager level with no previous experience in Pricing and/or consulting. - Projects are strategic and consultants get exposure to senior stakeholders on the client side. However, SKP does not work with the top firms in the US. For example in tech, SKP has almost no experience with top tech firms. The company does really well when advising startups, but typically struggles to deliver when clients are a bit more sophisticated. For example, the typical client won’t have any Pricing expert or Pricing team. When they do, and when challenges are more complex, SKP’s typical cake recipe does not fit in. Teams will need to recreate the wheel and work even longer hours. - Senior leadership knows about all these problems and does very little to address them. Now, readers will ask: if quality of projects has deteriorated, people are unhappy and leaving, and pay is subpar, how is the company growing still? Demand for pricing work will continue to be high in the next years and SKP will continue to be the “McKinsey of Pricing”. Partners are smart and will continue to sell. Long-term, however, it is uncertain whether the company will be able to continue to deliver at high standards.
