Spencer Stuart

Based in Chicago, IL, Spencer Stuart is one of the world’s premier consulting firms focusing on the areas of executive search and leadership. While the firm offers a variety of services, Spencer Stuart management consultants focus primarily on helping organizations make better talent-related decisions in the areas of recruiting, hiring, promotion, and development, especially at the executive level. Spencer Stuart also helps companies improve the performance of their executive-level teams and boards.

Table of Contents:

1. Firm Key Stats
2. Spencer Stuart History
3. Spencer Stuart Careers
4. Spencer Stuart Internship
5. Practice Areas
6. Industries
7. Spencer Stuart Locations
8. Career Path
9. Exit Opportunities
10. Diversity Programs
11. Spencer Stuart Culture
12. Spencer Stuart Interview
13. Spencer Stuart Salary

Firm Key Stats

Firm Website: www.spencerstuart.com/
Firm Headquarters: Chicago, IL
Firm Number of Employees: 2,200
Firm Number of Locations: 70
Firm Chief Executive: Ben Williams
Firm Revenue: $850 million (2021)

Spencer Stuart History

The Spencer Stuart history begins with its founder of the same name, who worked as an executive search consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton in the era of international corporate expansion following World War II, when companies increasingly looked externally and globally for executive hiring decisions. Stuart founded his own firm in 1956. The firm’s operation quickly spread to dozens of countries and particularly expanded in the 1970s, concurrent with the rise of management consulting more generally. While Stuart retired in 1974, his firm continues expanding, with offices now in 70 locations across 31 countries, helping the world’s most important companies and governments search all over the world for top talent.

Spencer Stuart Careers

With its global reputation for excellence in the area of executive search consulting, Spencer Stuart careers are highly sought after. The firm advertises the diversity of its workforce and hiring practices, with firm locations all over the world.

Spencer Stuart Internship

There is a Spencer Stuart internship offered for the Analyst position. The firm identifies its interns as “naturally curious, team-oriented, and driven.” The paid internship position lasts for 8-10 weeks over the summer. Spencer Stuart Analyst Interns work formally with teams of Spencer Stuart analysts, consultants, and associates.

Spencer Stuart interns also receive regular personalized guidance from assigned mentors. Additionally, the firm offers training to help interns develop “new skill sets, industry knowledge, and familiarity with leadership consulting.

According to Glassdoor, Spencer Stuart interns receive an average salary of $44,000.

Practice Areas

Spencer Stuart practice areas encompass virtually every dimension of helping companies build and improve executive teams and boards. Spencer Stuart services and areas of focus include:

• Executive Search
• Board Services
• CEO Succession Planning
• Executive Assessment
• Leadership Consulting
• Digital Transformation
• Sustainability
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
• Employee Experience & Engagement

Spencer Stuart also offers specialty services to assist both Chinese companies operating in Europe, as well as family-controlled and -influenced businesses across a variety of sectors and revenue scales.

Industries

Because Spencer Stuart offers services relating to acquiring and enhancing talent, which virtually every kind of company needs, the firm also serves a wide variety of industries. The most important Spencer Stuart industries can be broken into the following categories:

• Technology, Media, and Telecommunications (which includes those three industries as well as BPS Legal and BPS Strategy/Management Consulting)
• Consumer (including Consumer Products; Hospitality & Leisure; Retail, Apparel & Luxury Goods; and Sports Business)
• Financial Services (including Asset Management; Consumer Financial Services; FinTech; Impact Investing; Global Banking & Markets; Insurance; Private Wealth Management; and Real Estate)
• Education & Social Impact (including Academia & Research; Arts & Culture; Associations; For-Profit Education; Global Development & Social Enterprise; and Government)
• Healthcare (including Biopharma; Healthcare Services; and Medical Technology)
• Industrial (including Aerospace & Defense; Agriculture & Commodities; Automotive & Mobility; Aviation; Energy; Engineered Products & Solutions; Industrial Services; Industrial Technology; Infrastructure; Process Industries; and Transportation & Logistics)
• Private Equity
• Professional & IT Services (including Digital Services)

Spencer Stuart Locations

There are over 70 Spencer Stuart Locations spread across 31 countries worldwide. These are divided into four categories: Asia Pacific; Europe, Africa, & Middle East; North America; and South America

Spencer Stuart Asia Pacific Locations

• • Spencer Stuart Melbourne
  • Spencer Stuart Sydney
  • Spencer Stuart Beijing
  • Spencer Stuart Hong Kong
  • Spencer Stuart Shanghai
  • Spencer Stuart Bangalore
  • Spencer Stuart Mumbai
  • Spencer Stuart New Delhi
  • Spencer Stuart Tokyo
  • Spencer Stuart Singapore

Spencer Stuart Europe, Africa, & Middle East Locations

• • Spencer Stuart Vienna
  • Spencer Stuart Brussels
  • Spencer Stuart Warsaw
  • Spencer Stuart Copenhagen
  • Spencer Stuart Paris
  • Spencer Stuart Frankfort
  • Spencer Stuart Munich
  • Spencer Stuart Düsseldorf
  • Spencer Stuart Dublin
  • Spencer Stuart Milan
  • Spencer Stuart Rome
  • Spencer Stuart Amsterdam
  • Spencer Stuart Oslo
  • Spencer Stuart Johannesburg
  • Spencer Stuart Barcelona
  • Spencer Stuart Madrid
  • Spencer Stuart Stockholm
  • Spencer Stuart Geneva
  • Spencer Stuart Zurich
  • Spencer Stuart Istanbul
  • Spencer Stuart Dubai
  • Spencer Stuart London

Spencer Stuart North America Locations

• • Spencer Stuart Calgary
  • Spencer Stuart Montreal
  • Spencer Stuart Toronto
  • Spencer Stuart Mexico City
  • Spencer Stuart Atlanta
  • Spencer Stuart Austin
  • Spencer Stuart Boston
  • Spencer Stuart Chicago
  • Spencer Stuart Dallas
  • Spencer Stuart Detroit
  • Spencer Stuart Houston
  • Spencer Stuart Los Angeles
  • Spencer Stuart Miami
  • Spencer Stuart Minneapolis/St. Paul
  • Spencer Stuart New York
  • Spencer Stuart Philadelphia
  • Spencer Stuart San Francisco
  • Spencer Stuart Seattle
  • Spencer Stuart Silicon Valley
  • Spencer Stuart Stamford
  • Spencer Stuart Washington, D.C.

Spencer Stuart South America Locations

• • Spencer Stuart Buenos Aires
  • Spencer Stuart Sao Paulo
  • Spencer Stuart Santiago
  • Spencer Stuart Bogota
  • Spencer Stuart Lima

Career Path

Spencer Stuart career paths include five different categories of position: Consultants, Associates, Analysts, Executive Assistants, and Business Functions. Spencer Stuart career paths include numerous opportunities for professional development through ongoing education in developing new skills and gaining new industry knowledge.

The typical Spencer Stuart career path involves hiring at the level of Analyst, with opportunities for promotion to Associate, then Senior Associate, and finally Consultant.

Exit Opportunities

Due to the fact that Spencer Stuart has such a high reputation and works with leading clients across such a wide range of industries, Spencer Stuart exit opportunities are typically quite positive. Departing employees can pursue positions with other firms in executive search-related areas, or they can pursue other consulting or business positions related to the industries and practice areas in which they gained expertise while working at Spencer Stuart.

Additionally, Spencer Stuart exit opportunities include many resources from the company. Spencer Stuart encourages departing employees to seek letters of recommendation from colleagues and superiors, and to negotiate the use of company facilities through their transition.

Diversity Programs

Spencer Stuart diversity programs begin with its hiring and management practices, as the firm is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer.

Spencer Stuart identifies Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion as forming part of its core values, and the firm both works to advance these values within its own ranks and offers services to help external clients build DEI initiatives and lead with these values in acquiring, developing, and promoting talent.

In order to uplift team members within the firm, Spencer Stuart offers several “affinity groups,” which include:

• ASAPI: The Asian, South Asian, and Pacific Islander Affinity Group
• B-IDEAL: The Black and African American Affinity Group
• EMBRACE Affinity Group (for ethnic minorities and people from underrepresented backgrounds)
• LGBTQ+ Affinity Group
• Neurodiversity Affinity Group
• Unidad: The Latin American and Hispanic Affinity Group
• Veterans Affinity Group

Spencer Stuart Culture

With a global presence, Spencer Stuart emphasizes their promotion of diversity and authenticity as core values to the Spencer Stuart culture. The firm also highlights the values of relationships, collaboration, and discretion, which drive the Spencer Stuart culture both within the firm and in their dealings with external clients. Spencer Stuart deliberately works to empower employees to maximize their potential in terms of competency, leadership, and professional status. Simultaneously, the Spencer Stuart culture embraces the need for sustainability, innovation, community, and consideration of all stakeholders.

Spencer Stuart Interview

Landing a job at Spencer Stuart can be a rigorous and competitive process. Let’s take a look at the Spencer Stuart interview process.

Firm Interview Process

Current and past Spencer Stuart applicants describe an interview process that unfolds over several escalating rounds. The firm interview process typically begins with a short phone call with a recruiter, followed by a more in-depth Zoom interview, often with that same recruiter. Following that, applicants move on to a one-hour Zoom interview with a Team Coordinator.

The initial Spencer Stuart interview questions typically involve gaining a broad sense of the employee’s background. These include fairly common inquiries inviting applicants to explain certain items on their resume, their familiarity with and interest in the company, as well certain past experiences of working in teams and navigating conflict.

Further questions continue the Spencer Stuart individual style assessment by seeking to understand the applicant’s personal working style, subject-specific experience & competency, and team fit in greater depth. Spencer Stuart individual style assessment questions include:

Tell me about a time when you had to deal with failure.
What would get you excited to do a particular job?
Why are you interested in Spencer Stuart and executive search consulting?

Previous applicants and hires report that the firm focuses on individual behavioral questions, with occasional questions relating to competency and expertise, but there are reportedly no case study questions.

Further information on the thinking behind the Spencer Stuart leadership capability assessment can be gleaned from a list of 15 questions the company has developed for helping clients in the search for executive talent. These Spencer Stuart executive assessment questions are designed for companies and recruiters to ask themselves about potential hires, but they still offer important insights into what Spencer Stuart values in searching for talented leaders.

Spencer Stuart Interview Questions

These questions are:

1. Do I trust this person’s judgment in complex, ambiguous situations?
2. Has their decision-making been tested when leading a team outside of their area of expertise and in situations of great complexity and ambiguity?
3. How effectively does the executive read and respond to interpersonal dynamics in sensitive, high-stakes and complex situations?
4. Does the individual understand the power of his or her words and actions on others and quickly create alignment among stakeholders with divergent interests?
5. Can he or she successfully navigate politicized situations where personal relationships and a cooperative style are not sufficient?
6. Does this person have a track record of building high-performing teams?
7. Is he or she willing to hold people accountable when they fail to meet objectives?
8. Does this person create an environment where people feel motivated to contribute, while also holding others to high standards?
9. Does the individual show the mental flexibility to quickly evolve their thinking based on others’ inputs?
10. How does he or she react to feedback or criticism of their ideas?
11. Does he or she really listen to substantive input from people who know? Does he or she seek it out?
12. Is talent development a priority for this executive? How has he or she demonstrated that it is a priority?
13. Are there a number of individuals in the organization whose careers have been shaped through their relationship with this executive?
14. What are this person’s strengths? Does he or she come up with the big ideas? Are they most skilled at executing an idea from elsewhere?
15. In past situations of change, what was the individual’s role in developing the vision, influencing and motivating others to embrace the idea, and driving to a result?

Spencer Stuart Salary

Of course, if you’re interested in applying to Spencer Stuart, one of the most important considerations is the Spencer Stuart salary. Let’s take a look at the numbers, broken down by position.

• The average Spencer Stuart analyst salary, according to Glassdoor, is $90,000, including bonuses and additional compensation.
• The average Spencer Stuart associate salary is $103,000.
• The average Spencer Stuart consultant salary is also $103,000, though this includes a higher base salary than the associate position ($88,000 vs. $75,000).
• The average Spencer Stuart partner salary is $226,000.

These figures make the Spencer Stuart salary fairly competitive, though it is significantly below the average consultant salaries for top firms, with MBB consultant salaries averaging over $130,000 in total compensation.

If you’re interested in learning more salary information about Spencer Stuart and hundreds of other firms, click here to view our full salaries report.

Conclusion

While the compensation for Spencer Stuart management consultants does not quite equal what consultants earn at other firms, the Spencer Stuart company is still a highly desirable place to work. The firm works with premier companies across the world and is unique in its focus on executive search. This means Spencer Stuart consultants gain experience working with premier talent at the top level, drawn from all over the world. Further, Spencer Stuart management consultants have the ability to gain experience in a variety of industries at once. If you’re interested in launching your consulting career with a position that puts you in conversation with the world’s top executive talent, Spencer Stuart is a great to apply.

 

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