🔒Q&A: blumshapiro has found a beautiful match in Worcester’s middle market

Brian Renstrom has spent his career helping his employers consult middle-market companies, those with $25 million to $500 million in annual revenue. His company, blumshapiro, opened a Worcester office in November.

How did you end up in accounting?

I’m not an accountant. Out of school in 1982, I was hired by Arthur Andersen, in its management information consulting division. I worked as a consultant with Andersen until 1989 and transferred to the Arthur Anderson side of the world because the consulting division was focused on large, international companies, and my love is to work in the middle market, which is what Arthur Andersen was creating a division to do.

I did that until Arthur Andersen went away in 2002, building a 400-person consulting business focused on the middle market in New England.

Wasn't Arthur Andersen dissolved for its role in the Enron scandal?

What happened in 2002 when Andersen was served an indictment from the U.S. Attorney General’s Office, it could no longer practice accounting. Major pieces of the firm went to different places, because no firm wanted to take us all due to the overhanging liability. I took a group of about 30 people and went to Pricewaterhousecoopers in Boston.

How long were you at PwC?

Six months after I got to Pricewaterhousecoopers, it sold its consulting business to IBM. Even though I wasn’t in Pricewaterhouse consulting – working in a separate middle-market tax consulting division – the company signed a five-year non-compete agreement, so I was screwed. Pricewaterhousecoopers was nice about it, though.

In 2004, I came to blumshapiro with the same goal: to build a middle-market consulting business. Our clients are typically owner-managed firms, and 40-45% of our business comes from manufacturing and distribution.

Did you see Worcester as a growing market or simply underserved by the consulting businesses already here?

All of the above. We looked at the population profile of business, and we saw 350-400 potential clients who matched our profile: manufacturing, distribution, schools, auto dealers, professional services. We looked at all the pockets of industry where we have competitive focus, and Worcester was a good fit.

Then we looked at the competitive landscape, and we thought this market is potentially being underserved. We had two partners who lived in Greater Worcester, and they wanted to take the challenge on.

We then looked at the cost of doing business here, which is very reasonable, and we decided to do it.

How does the cost compare?

In Boston, we’re paying $80 per square foot. In Worcester, we are paying $20 per square foot, which is comparable to Quincy, which is more like $28.

While the cost was similar to our other offices outside of Boston, it was really about a hub-and-spoke theory about real estate. Traffic is a business issue, both for serving clients and getting your employees to work. By putting offices around the state, we can better serve our clients and better serve our people. By coming to Worcester, we thought we would be an attractive career alternative for talented people. That has turned out to be true.

How's the Worcester office doing?

We’ve got nothing but outstanding outreach from the Worcester community, the mayor, the city manager. They couldn’t be more welcoming.

We’ve been able to take our name recognition to help people who understand who we are and what we do. Six people have joined the firm since we’ve been here. We see that continuing. All that people that came here are Worcester people; they want to work in Worcester.

The business community has been more than welcoming, and we are starting to get more clients. The clients we want matches the Worcester market beautifully. We have 600 people with a lot of different skills and capability, and it is all focused toward improving middle-market companies.

This interview was conducted and edited for length and clarity by WBJ Editor Brad Kane.