Why does Amazon keep hiring QueBIT people???

Today I heard that Amazon (yes, THE Amazon) is hiring yet another QueBIT consultant.

My first reaction was dismay: QueBIT is a 100-person boutique consulting firm specializing in planning and operational analytics that invests heavily in developing and training its people. Most of our consultants are hired straight out of university with no experience and we put them through several weeks of boot-camp, then follow up training, and then non-revenue-generating shadowing opportunities. We assign them mentors who watch over them and invest in creating a culture where everyone makes friends and feels welcome and supported. That is a lot of investment!

How many other 100-person companies go to this trouble? Well – if you do something complex and truly care about quality but you also want to grow, there is no other way but to invest. What QueBIT does requires cross-training in finance, specialized technologies and Consulting Craft – the “soft skills”. No individual has this combination of skills straight out of school: usually it takes years and years of experience, and even that may not be enough! Back in 2010 QueBIT took a chance on the idea of hiring good raw talent, and then putting together a training program to create consultants with the skill combination we need at an accelerated pace. By 2012 the average age of our team dropped from 40 years to the mid-twenties! Today we can consistently create a strong Consultant in under 2 years, and a top-notch Senior Consultant in fewer than 4.

If I sound passionate about it, it is because this whole program is “my baby”. I had support from the Senior Management team, and lots of help along the way, but I made it happen. I defined the vision, delivered training for the first few years, designed the organizational structure to support the effort, created the plan and executed on it. It took long hours, sacrificed billings (which are sacred to a consultant!) and a willingness to keep pushing for continued support. Ultimately it was successful, and I am incredibly proud of the team we have built and the amazing work we do to delight our customers every day.

So – and forgive me for venting - when Amazon comes in with its deep pockets to lure away 10% of our team in under a year, it is hard to take. If Amazon – a trillion-dollar company - is so starved for talent, why is it not developing its own? Does Amazon not invest in its people? Why can’t Amazon do what we do, and train people from scratch? It’s hardly because they can’t afford it!

And is it fair to self-funded job-and-opportunity creators like QueBIT for the likes of Amazon to snap up our people just as we are starting to get a return on our investment? Have we inadvertently landed in the startup “kill zone” which has us headed towards an Amazon-Google-Microsoft dominated economy? And by the way: we pay our people well by any normal measure. We are just not in a position to match 6-digit salaries and signing bonuses for people in their mid-twenties!

Phew. It’s good to get that off my chest!

Fortunately, I have a second reaction which is ALL about the silver lining!

Amazon hiring people WE have trained and developed is pretty amazing! It’s a great testament to what QueBIT has achieved as a self-funded, organically grown 100-person company! How can I be anything but proud that after just 2-3 years with QueBIT, a young person would have the opportunity to go on to a promising career at Amazon. It says a lot about our fantastic people, but also about the training program and environment we have created.

And it is not like we don’t know how to keep creating great consultants: for every person who left, we have 2 to take their place. The departures open up opportunities within QueBIT for those who remain, and anyone who loves the variety and high pace of the consulting life does find it worthwhile and fulfilling to stay. QueBIT has just that balance of being big enough to have resources, but small enough so a motivated innovative person can make a real impact. I doubt Amazon – or any other company of that scale - can match QueBIT on this front.

Meanwhile those who have left for Amazon or elsewhere go forth as ambassadors for QueBIT, and for our mantra that you can prosper in business by focusing on quality, empowering your people, taking the ethical high ground, genuinely caring about customers - and having fun. We wish our alumni all the best: their success is our success.

Furthermore, Amazon’s action has validated key aspects of QueBIT’s strategy, which feels good. All the consultants Amazon has hired from QueBIT were Experts in Financial Planning and the IBM Planning Analytics technology, also known as TM1. IBM Planning Analytics is a powerful platform for building multi-user enterprise-scale planning solutions that gets you way beyond Excel and enables you to truly model your business and manage your financial data efficiently. What’s great about Planning Analytics though is that you can start small, but then grow as big as you want. QueBIT has advocated for IBM Planning Analytics for many years, often pushing against the mainstream. Amazon’s interest in hiring experts in this technology reinforces our belief in it, and its potential.

Last but not least: what does Amazon hiring QueBIT people say about QueBIT itself? Our people are in demand – not just by Amazon – but also by our customers! Despite the title of this post, we have very little staff turnover relative to our industry, and I think it safe to say that QueBIT is a GREAT place to work. Amazon may have hired some of our people, but our bench is deep, and we never stop training, developing and learning. Everyone at QueBIT knows that we can always get better.

And we do.