Management consulting firms turned in another solid year of growth in Orange County.
Local consultancies increased OC staff by 5% to 1,043 workers during the past year, according to this week’s Business Journal list. The consulting firms recorded a 4% rise in companywide employment.
Five of the 10 management consulting firms on the list reported an employment gain in OC during the past year. One posted a decline, two had no change and two others were Business Journal estimates.
The past year’s gain is short of the 14% jump last year’s crop of management consulting firms recorded.
One big change on the list this year: three of the top four firms were transferred to the management consulting list from the accounting list, which now only includes firms certified by the California Board of Accountancy.
The shift included No. 2 Resources Connection Inc., No. 3 Jefferson Wells International Inc. and No. 4 Goetzman Group. The trio provides accounting and consulting staffers on a project-by-project basis.
BearingPoint Inc. in Costa Mesa grabbed the No. 1 spot on this year’s management consulting list.
The company boosted its OC operations by 20, or 7%, to 295 employees during the past year. BearingPoint recorded companywide employment growth of 6%.
A year earlier BearingPoint’s OC unit added 50 people, a 22% increase.
“The market is still extremely strong,” said Michael Surface, vice president of BearingPoint in Costa Mesa.
The consulting firm specializes in two broad areas: technology consulting, which makes up about 70% of BearingPoint’s work, and operations, or services to help clients manage manufacturing and product distribution.
Surface said both areas have performed well.
“We don’t see (business) slowing down in 2006 and for it to continue in 2007,” Surface said.
The firm is seeing strong demand to help companies install software programs that touch every area of the business, including sales, manufacturing and finance, he said.
BearingPoint clients are looking to boost these programs with customer relationship management and other software.
On the operations side, BearingPoint has helped more companies figure out how to best shift manufacturing to China.
Costa Mesa-based Resources Connection notched the No. 2 spot despite a 3% dip in OC employment to 240. The company saw 17% growth in total employment.
Resources Connection, which provides accounting staff for the financial services, technology and healthcare industries, has offices in Sydney, Brussels and Tokyo, among others. It has seen higher demand for workers for Sarbanes-related jobs.
Brookfield Wis.-based Jefferson Wells International Inc. was at No. 3 with an estimated 175 employees in Irvine. The Business Journal estimated no change in Jefferson Wells’ local employment.
Woodland Hills-based Goetzman Group recorded the No. 4 spot on the list. The company has an estimated 70 workers in Irvine.
No. 5 Profit Recovery Partners LLC grew employment by 31% to 64 workers during the past year.
The Irvine-based firm specializes in helping companies cut costs on the products and services they buy. Profit Recovery only charges clients if they save money.
The real estate sector continues to be strong for Profit Recovery. It’s also grown clients in the legal and retail industries, said Teresa Madden, vice president of operations at Profit Recovery.
At No. 9 was Stamford, Conn.-based Towers Perrin, which added a couple of employees to its staff of 30 in Irvine during the past year.
The firm, which focuses on human resources consulting, saw strong demand from companies looking to save money on benefits programs, said Michael Fox, managing principal.
Towers Perrin also provides compensation program consulting, which includes stock options packages.
Fox said the firm has a “number of clients that are trying to go figure out what to do with their options programs.”
Regulators are looking at whether companies used illegal strategies to backdate stock options they awarded executives. Under backdating schemes, companies pick dates when stock prices were low to grant options.
Backdating instantly gives executives a paper profit on the options.
