It doesn’t take long to discover that The Revere Group www.thereveregroup.com is not the typical high-pressure, straight-laced consulting firm. Witness a typical example: managing director Michael Horne, is informed that one of his sales representatives has shaved his head. While some in the consulting game would instantly fret about corporate image, Horne offers only  momentary glance of disbelief, and then matter-of-factly states, “that’s just Greg.”

      However, don’t be mislead into thinking the firm’s refreshingly laid-back, less-conservative style is a reflection of the level of professionalism or the way they conduct business. In fact, the unconventional culture is in diametric opposition to the traditional tactics employed when it comes to operations and strategic planning. While many business and technology consulting firms were caught up in all of the Web-related hype a few years ago and spent aggressively without a business model that was valid or profitable, The Revere Group took a different path.

      “Our strategic approach has always been more conservative. We diversified our offerings so we weren’t reliant on only Web-based initiatives and tried to maintain a 20-25% annual revenue growth strategy, even during the technology boom a few years ago,” explains Horne. “We also steered clear of the dot com firms, and the trading services for equity mentality, which became very common in our industry. Instead we focused on the more established brick-and-mortar companies.”

     Now, the majority of technology-related companies are trying to ride out the economic storm and stay afloat while The Revere Group continues to grow in the Southeast. “Even though we aren’t growing as fast as we thought we would two years ago, our revenue will increase over last year and more importantly our profitability will increase significantly. This at a time when consulting companies are being hit extremely hard (by the economic slowdown) and many IT consulting companies are going out of business,” says Horne.

A Successful Beginning

     A privately-owned firm formed in 1991 by five individuals in the Chicago area, The Revere Group currently employs approximately 400 people in seven cities including Charlotte. The company is headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois, and has been profitable each year in existence.

    Managing director Michael Horne has headed up a staff of roughly 50 in the Charlotte office for the last year and a half, following a stint as the e-commerce CIO at First Union.

     Horne links the firm’s initial success and growth to a strategic initiative focused on the popular human resources and accounting application, PeopleSoft. “We dedicated substantial resources to the PeopleSoft product, and it got really hot in the mid-90’s which fueled a lot of our growth. The five principals have always done a great job of staying ahead of the curve and shifting areas of focus based on the future of the industry,” Horne acknowledges.

      The Revere Group provides business and technology solutions focused within three distinct segments – management, back-office and front-end – which address the critical areas to business success. This all-encompassing, closed loop approach has allowed them to spread economic risk and aided the pursuit for stability in any economic climate.

     Consulting on a management level revolves around helping companies form strategies, manage projects and redesign overall business processes — more or less a “big picture” evaluation of the company.

     Back-office consulting, one of the primary drivers of the firm’s growth, is based on the utilization of technology-based systems, such as PeopleSoft and Oracle, to enhance efficiency within key internal departments.

     Front-end or sell-side, which remains the “sexy-side” of consulting, refers to the implementation and functionality of Web-based applications such as data mining, warehousing and customer relationship management.

     A trendy industry catchphrase the past few years, customer relationship management (CRM), is a concept Horne believes companies are truly starting to comprehend. “One of the positive things I’m seeing this year is the understanding of how to fully utilize the CRM packages. In the past, companies purchased the software, but didn’t focus on the process and concept. Companies didn’t grasp the importance of having accurate customer data and how to link it across their entire enterprise,” advises Horne.

     “Amazon.com is a great example of how to maximize CRM to better target customers. The basic concept of effective customer relationship management is similar to utilizing the financial software, Quicken. If you don’t have a disciplined approach to managing your finances, it doesn’t matter that you have an online checkbook.”

     As a regional player in the consulting industry, The Revere Group’s niche is the mid-market company defined as less than $3 billion in annual sales, although they do consistently compete with the larger firms for Fortune 1000 business. Horne maintains that, “The increased competition from the larger consulting firms is a product of the economic slowdown and need for the Big 5 to expand their market base.”

A Unique Approach

     Many consulting companies, especially the larger regional and national firms employ a high percentage of recent college graduates — capitalizing on the fact that young graduates tend to have less personal commitments and financial demands, and therefore less aversion to excessive travel and long hours.

     Conversely, The Revere Group believes in operating under a more senior employee model. “If you look at the Big 5 and some of the other regional firms, they tend to have a pyramid-shaped resource distribution, some really senior folks at the top, a few more in the middle and a bunch of people they hire right out of school and train,” explains Horne. “Our model is more diamond-shaped — a few at the top and the bottom with the majority of our people in the middle. We try to bring that skill level to our clients and believe they see a different consulting team, a more experienced team.”

     Dave King, vice president of sales and service at Kvaerner Pulping, considers The Revere Group’s experience level unparalleled in this area. “They were head and shoulders above the rest in terms of experience and professionalism. It wasn’t only their knowledge of the product but they also had a tremendous understanding of the manufacturing industry. We went through an Oracle re-implementation to improve our accounting processes and reporting functions, and the Revere team answered questions about the Oracle product that even the Oracle guys couldn’t answer.”

     In addition to the atypical staffing structure, Revere maintains a culture that recognizes life outside of work. “The reality with any consulting firm is some travel is unavoidable,” Horne notes. “But one of the things we have tried to do is have geographic offices that cover different regional areas and therefore, each office focuses on the client needs within the area. In the Charlotte office, we hire, as much as possible, based on projects and clients in the Southeast region, which in turn saves the client money in travel expenses and is easier on our employees, many of who have families.”

     Horned adds, “We use the same approach with our employees that we do with our clients. We want our employees to think we are different enough that they will want to stay with us. As a result, our turnover is low and a lot of ex-Big 5 employees actually want to join us.”

Driven By Results

    The simplistic “back to basics” formula for running a company that seemed mundane in the late 1990’s has proven successful for The Revere Group and Horne in the long run.

     In spearheading the operations in Charlotte, Horne manages under a very simple premise, “When I first took over the branch, I indicated to everyone I would focus on two key areas, the clients and the employees, because if those two things are working everything else is going to fall into place.”

    “Too many consulting companies try to put a square peg in a round hole when it comes to managing clients. They may not have the skill set or resources to manage a certain project but due to revenue concerns they are too short-sighted to understand the long-term implications of selling something they can’t deliver. We build long-term relationships with our clients. We don’t have the brand name or awareness to overcome any bad experiences,” says Horne.

     To that end, a critical factor always at the forefront of any strategy meeting or client conversation is return on investment. “One thing we try to do at a strategy level is make sure whatever investment a client is making has a return. In almost every case, we tie everything a client is considering from a technical standpoint to either a particular customer need that is not being met or a corporate threat or opportunity. So they see the value and there is a direct link to that expenditure,” explains Horne.

     In fact, Horne is confident enough in his team’s abilities to tie billing rates directly to their skills and level of success. “We have some improvement offerings that we bill a very minimal rate upfront and the remainder after the enhancement is evaluated (measured by a survey before and after the project). Our ultimate billing rate is determined by the success of the project and our effectiveness in meeting client objectives. Since we are so results-oriented, we are happy to set up the billing structure that way. What you see is what you get.”

     If his business strategy is any indication, Michael Horne, an avid skier, is the type that prefers to traverse methodically down the mountain instead of racing down with his hair on fire. He may not be the first one down the mountain, but rest assured he won’t be caught ill-equipped in a blizzard.