Bart Schwartz started Schwartz Consulting in 2004 after spending 10+ years with a large consulting firm and concluding that the large, hierarchical firm model is terrific for doing projects that require 50+ people and cost millions of dollars; but a small firm model is more effective when a small, highly-experienced team is required and budget is not infinite.
Schwartz Consulting uses teams of 1-5 consultant for most projects. Unlike larger firms these consultants almost always have a significant amount of strategy and operations consulting experience. Bart Schwartz personally leads all projects on a day-to-day basis, whereas in a large firm the senior practitioner would be heavily involved in the selling process but have a minor role in actually delivering the work.
Our fees tend to run 40-60% of those charged by larger firms. This is possible because we can do projects with fewer people (we don’t have to fill-out a pyramid with inexperienced people) and our overhead is virtually non-existent.