Having worked with ATK as an independent associate and then later (when with another firm) as a partner, I think both the last two comments can be accurate.Generally at the more senior end, there are some long-serving, very comfortably-placed people for whom anything post-EDS is bliss in relative terms. Because they are so comfortable they can be easy to work with, but can also be very complacent about quality and sales, appearing unambitious to outsiders; patronage to long-serving client contacts is more important than client service per se; if pushed to move outside their comfort zone, they can use their internal connections to make your life hell. They don't tend to get involved in partnering, because they don't see the need to mix with anyone outside their old network. They keep overall turnover down.On the other hand, there are some more recent hires who are much more antsy. Typically MBB-rejected recent MBA graduates, they are very insecure about the firm's declining prestige. Although they are more au-fait with customer-service and sales as principles, they lack leadership role-models or experience to put this into practice, so put as much energy into fighting furiously with each other as they do into productive work. They can be very opportunistic, which leads to both high turnover and partnering in order to try and win more work. In front of partners, the insecurities come to the forefront and they tend to act very aggressively, pretending to be working much harder than anyone else - it is not unusual for them to have a relatively empty diary during regular working hours, but set their emails to be sent overnight and schedule their meetings over the weekend.While I would work as a contractor for ATK again, I wouldn't join as a permanent employee and certainly wouldn't partner. Some smaller firms think it will improve their credibility to partner with a more established brand. However, it doesn't seem to work well. The quality of ATK work (which isn't fantastic at the best of times) falls apart when all the staff are too busy scheming. Your own firm's staff can't even make up for the shortfall and fix the deliverables because their time is tied up providing surrogate leadership/parentage to ATK consultants and mediating their internal battles; since the ATK leaders don't buy into either the need to partner or to look after clients, they aren't much use in these situations either.
