McKinsey & Company to expand Costa Rican outfit by 250
McKinsey & Company has announced plans to further expand its Costa Rican office with the opening of 250 places in its modern design centre in San José. The new cohort join over 700 already working in the country’s capital, at a centre which recently received a visit from the country’s President, Luis Guillermo Solís.
As the consulting industry in Costa Rica goes through a period of expansion, professional services firm McKinsey & Company is planning to expand its operation in San José, the Central American nation’s capital, with the addition of 250 new workers to its operation. The company opened the doors to its first office in the country in 2010, before, last year, opening a modern design centre in Ultrapark II in Lagunilla, Heredia, adding around 550 people to its staff in the process.
Costa Rica has seen modest growth in recent years, and the country, which is believed to be one of the world’s ‘happiest’ places to live, saw economic growth of 4.2% last year. The country has continued to draw interest from global consultancy firms, with BDO recently expanding its operation in the country with the addition of 70 through the acquisition of Grupo Camacho, while troubled IBM were speculated last year to be moving a number of jobs to India and Costa Rica, following the IT giant’s round of 5,000 job cuts in 2016.
British engineering consultancy Mott MacDonald have meanwhile been announced as the firm chosen for the delivery of a much-awaited masterplan for a proposed international airport in Orotina, Alajuela, Costa Rica. The group will carry out a 12-month feasibility study to forecast increasing future travel demand in the nation, while the project will eventually replace Costa Rica’s Juan Santamaria International Airport, which will be unable to meet future passenger demand beyond 2026.
In this increasingly competitive environment, McKinsey has announced it will continue to expand its operation in the country in 2017, having already grown to a collective personnel of more than 700. The rapid growth of the firm in the region has boosted its capabilities to the region, as well as to the rest of the world, with a broad range of expertise – from Visual Graphics & Media, Technology & Digital to Research Analytics and New Ventures.
The firm will draw heavily from local talent, to fill the more than 250 positions announced as opened at the firm’s operation in the region. The expansion is part of the firm’s longer-term plans for the region, which includes moving into a new office in early 2018 that can support up to 1300 staff, with vacancies likely to continue to be filled in the coming years.
Following a visit by Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís – who recently performed a state visit to the United States to further call on American business to invest in the region – Andrés Cadena, a Senior Partner at McKinsey, said, “We are very happy to have President Solís visit our facilities and meet our local colleagues. It’s the dedication and talent of Costa Ricans that is making our centre a success for our clients, and we look forward to continue recruiting and developing people and creating compelling professional paths for our colleagues.”
President Solís meanwhile remarked positively about the continued boost to Costa Rican employment offered by the new roles at the firm, during his visit, “This is the result of Costa Rica’s effort to strengthen the competitive conditions that the country needs to attract investment. This articulated work allows us to create jobs, thanks to the alliance with the productive and business sectors, which adds to the solid actions of the government to maintain a growing economy, with an active attraction of investments and the construction of public infrastructure necessary to bring optimum conditions.”
With consulting firms further expanding into the lucrative marketing and design market through sustained merger and acquisition campaigns, McKinsey’s efforts to organically grow their operation in Costa Rica will see them further rival Accenture, who also have an office of over 900 staff in the region. Accenture have themselves been ramping up their design offering in recent months through a series of M&A captures, while the ‘Big Four’ accountancy and consultancy firms PwC and Deloitte are also building large advertising presences, among others, reportedly worth over $750 million and $1.6 billion respectively.
