N2Growth Acquires Data and Analytics Firm Q5 Division
April 16, 2018 – King of Prussia, PA-based N2Growth, a global leadership and talent advisory firm focusing on human and organizational performance, has acquired an interest in Q5 Division, an Indiana-based predictive data and analytics firm.
Q5, which was founded five years ago, has established a global reputation for unlocking hidden value and providing new consumer/market insights through intelligent data modeling and predictive analytics. “What I like most about Q5 is their culture and approach to doing business,” said Mike Myatt, chairman of N2Growth. “Put one part Wall Street, two parts software development firm, three parts Los Alamos National Laboratory and four parts Tony Stark’s garage in a blender and you have the culture at Q5.”
“The Q5 acquisition is a testimony to our commitment to further expand the N2Growth digital transformation practice,” said Mr. Myatt. “Q5 has served a broad array of Fortune 500 clients across healthcare, banking and insurance, retail, technology and education segments.”
A Women-Owned Firm
Effective immediately, Q5 will operate as “Q5, an N2Growth Company,” which will preserve the firm’s women-owned status. Q5 is one of the only major data and analytics firms to hold this status.
Maria Marsala Herlihy, Q5’s CEO and founder, will now serve as N2Growth’s global head of data and analytics. “We are thrilled to have found a global partner that mirrors our culture and values,” she said. “The synergies between N2Growth’s digital Transformation practice and our data and analytics capabilities were so clear from the outset that it was a natural evolution for Q5 to merge with N2Growth.”
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Big Data is changing business everywhere. The explosion of available information in the past few years has created a seismic shift in how companies now operate and go to market.
Prior to founding Q5, Ms. Herlihy served as vice president of strategic analytics at Humana, chief analytics officer and senior vice president of analytical strategy at KnowledgeBase Marketing (A Wunderman/Young & Rubicam/WPP company), and vice president of advanced analytics and database marketing at the Home Shopping Network.
A Competitive Advantage
Ms. Herlihy earned a bachelor of science degree in applied math & statistics from State University of New York at Stony Brook’s College of Engineering and a master of science degree in statistics and operational research from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business.
“From its founding, N2Growth has had a focus on intellectual property, and the acquisition of Q5 adds to our IP portfolio in a significant fashion, further enhancing our competitive advantage in the marketplace,” said N2Growth’s CEO Mike Kerouac.
“N2Growth has a strong digital/cognitive offer, and I’m excited to enhance our suite of Digital Offering (DigitalClarity, Cognitive TotalFit, and i6 Digital Framework) with the incredibly strong data and analytics IP that Q5 brings to the table,” said Jean-Louis Nives, N2Growth’s chief digital officer.
Global Leadership
N2Growth is a global leadership consultancy with practice areas in executive search, culture shaping, leadership development, strategy, organizational design, risk, digital transformation and executive coaching. It has more than 40 locations across the Americas, Europe, MENA and APAC.
The market for Big Data and business analytics is expected to grow to $203 billion in the next three years, according to the International Data Corporation, a marketplace intelligence provider. It only makes sense that analytics should become an increasingly vital component of the executive search process.
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“Clients have forever been longing for better, more concrete, evidence about whom they should hire and why,” said Scott A. Scanlon, founding chairman and CEO of Hunt Scanlon Media. “Analytics help to reveal a lot about the hiring process and where adjustments must be made to produce the best results.”
Providing Evidence
“I find that executives react well to hard data,” said Ian Ide, managing director and partner at WinterWyman. “It’s tangible and sets the stage for a much better conversation. The data provides evidence and allows the client to draw logical conclusions. If parameters of the search need to be changed, the data arms the stakeholders for conversations they may need to have throughout their organization.”
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Some of the search parameters that may change include compensation level and reporting structure, said Mr. Ide. “In other cases, mapping the candidate pool and gaining an understanding of the availability of local talent at the outset of the search helps us decide whether we conduct the search nationally or locally, as well as understand what industries might be particularly viable,” he added.
Hanover, MD-based search firm Major, Lindsey & Africa recently released Smart-Look Analytics, a new service that helps companies assess their business health and vulnerabilities, as well as their risk exposure.
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Big data is rewriting the script for how companies around the world do business. The market for big data and business analytics is expected to grow to $203 billion in the next three years. For HR, the implications include better and more efficient talent management processes.
The review service combines powerful search tools with the search firm’s expertise in the legal sector to conduct a thorough analysis of businesses and develop custom solutions for a broad spectrum of business challenges. It is powered by Exego Select from Planet Data Solutions.
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Filling Knowledge Gaps
Leveraging the processing engine’s ability to search and deduplicate on the clause and paragraph level allows the recruiter’s Smart-Look Analytics project teams to perform precise and substantive document review that delivers better results at a lower cost, said the search firm.
“Often, companies have a limited understanding of their vulnerabilities and contractual obligations,” said Mark Yacano, global practice leader of Major, Lindsey & Africa’s managed legal services team. “They may understand payment terms and potential costs, but they lack the resources needed to navigate all of the obstacles they face or understand the full extent of their exposure. Our Smart-Look Analytics service goes further than traditional assessments by filling the knowledge gaps and offering a complete picture of a business’s health.”
By pairing sophisticated technology and with nimble teams of subject-matter experts from Major, Lindsey & Africa, the review service assists businesses with legacy data clean-up in contract management implementations, contract review in M&A-related activities, regulatory compliance work and proactive assessments of contractual and legal risk when a business lacks a contract management system. The service gives companies a precise review of their business risk.
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Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor; and Andrew W. Mitchell, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
