February 2022 | Resource
Extending our mission of building the next generation of leaders to our clients
At West Monroe, we bring our whole selves to work each day in an enjoyable and fulfilling setting. That helps our clients achieve their goals, too.
Extending our mission of building the next generation of leaders to our clients
Not everyone considers work to be “fun.” But when you’re genuinely excited about your career like Madeline Verbeten, that’s exactly what work is.
“Everyone is really passionate about what we do, whether we’re doing client work and helping them solve challenging problems or working on a set of cultural initiatives,” she said.
Having colleagues who are passionate about the work we do isn’t just for personal morale—it improves the work we do for our clients. West Monroe employees receive fulfillment and inspiration each day in working with clients who want to drive progress and deliver results.
Building a more human world
Elli Rader is a partner in West Monroe’s Product & Experience Lab. She helps clients build digital products that introduce new methodologies and a new way of thinking. But a digital world doesn’t mean less of a human element—just the opposite, actually.
I get to spend my days doing what I love to do the most: train people, teach them how to grow their skills, and teach them how to grow their careers and have fun at work,” she said. “For me, personally, what drives meaning and fulfillment in my work is personal connections I make with my clients.
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The meaningful connections she makes during her projects is evident in the client's success . For example, when she was working with a client who came in as a director of an innovation lab, the lab was new and no one was sure if the role or the lab would even last. But after working with him over the span of several years, her client became the company’s chief strategy officer and partner.
“A lot of the work that helped him get promoted was work that we did together: experimenting, bringing new concepts into the organization, figuring out the best way to bring new ideas to market and bring new ideas to life to better serve their customers,” Elli said. “And it was really challenging work, but my favorite moments are when all of your hard work turns into a lot of success for the client, when they can really shine in their organization and be recognized for the work that we did together.”
Contributing to engaging, innovative projects
The client-consultant relationship doesn’t fade overnight. Madeline, a manager in our Mergers & Acquisitions practice, spent 11 months helping a client consolidate software platforms.
The client acquired one of its competitors and needed help figuring out how to combine two separate software platforms into one so they could operate as one company and provide a streamlined experience for their own clients.
“What we were able to do,” Madeline said, “is come up with a plan for consolidating two very different platforms into one technology, minimizing the impact they were having on customers switching from one to the next. And then we helped build their culture internally into an organization that took the best of each into one that would continue to last after the consolidation.”
Helping clients find successful solutions to their problems is only made possible by having supportive colleagues you can bounce ideas off of or working with a teammate who can help change your perspective on a certain project.
Collaborating across time zones
Having a supportive culture where everyone comes together as a team proved extremely pivotal during one of Dean Konick’s biggest client success stories. Dean, a senior principal in our Financial Services practice, and his team were tasked with helping an East Coast bank figure out why their business was slowing. West Monroe knew exactly what to do.
Dean and his teammates, who are based in Chicago, worked with colleagues from the Los Angeles and New York offices to help. Though they don’t normally work together, Dean recalls how three teams came together as one cohesive unit and were able to identify the bank’s problem—their frontline sales people were spending most of their time not selling.
The solution? Dean and his team realigned employees’ roles to make the best use of their skills and resources and introduced a standardized methodology for the bank’s sales team. The result? Increased profitability by 30%.
A meaningful career change with growth opportunities
West Monroe also brings success stories to local communities and small businesses that need help.
After spending 15 years at a different company, Tanya Sukhu was searching for a more meaningful career she could grow in while still having time for her family and two kids—she has a 12-year-old and 14-year-old and wants to be around for pivotal moments in their lives.
She joined West Monroe in 2020 and works out of the Los Angeles office, helping to lead and grow the Dental and Ancillary Plans consulting team. It was exactly what she was looking for.
Tanya’s first project at West Monroe was to help a smaller dental plan client implement a new claims platform and replace its outdated system. She and her team collaborated with the client’s executive board and helped pair them with a vendor that could expedite their claims so they wouldn’t spend as much time on them and could free up resources for other tasks. During Tanya’s project, she was also able to work closely with executives to help them come up with a new executive summary.
“They came back and said: ‘West Monroe, we could have never done this with this speed or this quality without your support and guidance,’” Tanya recalled. “West Monroe does an excellent job in the healthcare industry helping to do things like vendor selection and claims platform modernization, and it was interesting to see how efficient and effective we are and the depth of knowledge and industry expertise that we’re able to bring to the table. It made me really proud to be part of the team.”
