Orange County management consulting firms ranked on the Business Journal’s annual list reported a 1.7% increase in staff consultants to 1,959 in the year ended May 31.
The numbers don’t indicate a fast-growing industry, but executives said they’re experiencing demand in sectors such as banks, construction and healthcare.
“All the industries seem hot” for consultants, said Roger Weninger, managing partner at Seattle-based Moss Adams LLP’s Irvine office.
• Moss Adams ranked 15th with 39 consultants, down one from a year earlier. Weninger called the decrease an anomaly and not indicative of what he’s observing.
• While second-ranked Deloitte LLP reported its number of consultants unchanged at 279, the Costa Mesa office is getting a lot of interest.
“There is pent-up demand” for consulting, said Tim Brandt, Deloitte’s managing partner in Orange County. “There is a lot of optimism in Orange County, based on what we see with companies willing to move forward with projects.”
• In another example, No. 29 Lyndon Group LLC in Newport Beach cut its number of consultants from 16 to nine. Two lists ago in 2016, the Newport Beach company ranked No. 16 with 22 consultants.
The reason is that Lyndon Group has become more of a cloud-based company in recent years and doesn’t need to hire locally, founder and Owner Ken Jones said.
The company still employed 36 people, down from 38 a year earlier and 34 two years earlier. The firm installs SAP SE’s Concur system, which facilitates corporations’ expense reporting.
“It’s not necessary for my consultants to be physically in Orange County,” Jones said. “Most of the work is done remotely. I have people all over the country and in Europe. I hire based on the skill set, not the locale.”
Jones said he plans to keep his company’s headquarters in Newport Beach.
This week’s Special Report features a list of the 42 largest management consulting firms in OC, ranked by local employment.
The companies grew their overall local employment at a faster clip than OC consultants, 3.1% to 4,618, compared to 1.7%. Overall firmwide hiring rose 6% to 1.28 million.
Fourteen firms added consultants, 12 reduced their counts, and the remainder made no change or didn’t report numbers for the prior year.
Among notable changes:
• Dublin-based Accenture’s Irvine office remains atop the list, the perennial No. 1 with 305 consultants, down 1.3% from a year earlier.
In October, Trey Thornton left Accenture’s top executive post in Southern California and is now an executive director in Ernst & Young LLP’s advisory power and utilities practice.
Accenture’s new Southern California boss is David Wolf, who also leads Accenture Digital for the West.
• Tevora Business Solutions of Lake Forest continued its torrid growth, adding 16 consultants for a total of 40. Two years earlier, it employed 16 consultants. The provider of security to computer networks expanded into New York this year and has boosted companywide headcount 45% to 77.
• Another fast grower was the Irvine office of Willis Towers Watson (Nasdaq: WLTW), where the number of consultants climbed 63% to 65. However, it reduced its OC employee headcount 5.7% to 132.
• The list has three newcomers: No. 32, Davis Farr LLP of Irvine; No 35, Crowe LLP of Costa Mesa; and No. 39, Macias, Gini & O’Connell LLP of Newport Beach.
