A Family that Acts Like a Business From Time to Time
With a steady adherence to its culture and credo, Cogent Analytics has built the relationships that fuel its soaring growth.
By its fifth year of operation, Greensboro, North Carolina, business management consulting firm Cogent Analytics had grown 20-fold, from a staff of six to nearly 120. “Then we ran into the Covid wall, as many businesses did,” says Rob Braiman, senior partner and president of the firm, which is marking its fifth appearance on the Inc. 5000. “We went to a fully remote company for almost a year and had to completely reimagine our business model.”
Caleb Connerty, Cogent Analytics partner and vice president of operations, adds: “Covid really forced us to reflect on what went well and what didn’t and to innovate at the same time.”
Those adjustments helped Cogent Analytics increase its revenue from $15 million to $25 million and add nearly 100 employees between 2021 and 2022. The current staff now stands at 211 employees, including representatives in 36 states.
The employees’ embrace of Cogent Analytics’s mission and its ability to excel in the corporate culture the company’s leaders have created are the biggest forces behind the firm’s accelerated growth, Braiman and Connerty say.
VALUES ALIGNMENT
When Braiman and Connerty drew up the Venn diagram that represented their vision for Cogent Analytics, they decided the company’s motto would be “raise others up and you will rise” and that its single mission to do well by helping their clients first would be driven by six internal values: honor, courage, wisdom, faith, perseverance, and loyalty.
From the beginning, Cogent Analytics has sought out employees whose own values align with the firm’s. Braiman observes that 21st-century workers expect that type of matchup with their employers. “They are looking for that place where they are vested in the mission,” he says.
FAMILY ENVIRONMENT
Cogent Analytics provides employees with a robust training and continuing education program. Most new hires go through a two- to six-week training period, depending on their role. That orientation often includes attending lunch-and-learn sessions and partnering with more experienced staffers who show them how to work face-to-face with clients before they go solo.
Cogent Analytics leaders also support their employees’ interests outside of work. A wedding, a new family addition, or the purchase of a home is as much a cause for celebration as the acquisition of a new client. Through the firm’s charitable program, Cogent Cares, employees can raise and direct funds to support the causes they care about. With the company matching whatever employees generate from fundraising projects, the soon-to-be 501(c)(3) nonprofit has helped organizations like the American Heart Association, the Make-a-Wish Foundation, and the American Cancer Society.
“Cogent Analytics is a family that acts like a business from time to time,” says Braiman, using his favorite distillation of the workplace environment. “Our superpower—our ability to continue to scale at the rate we’ve been able to scale—is definitely based on people who have embraced the culture.”