One on One with ACME Consulting's David Kelleher

A lot companies were founded in the last 12 years. Not a lot of them grew during the Great Recession and even fewer have experienced growth every single quarter since inception. Enter Portland, Ore.-headquartered boutique firm ACME Consulting. The firm's growth is showing no signs of slowing down, either. Co-founder and Senior Manager and Principal David Kelleher says the firm is still looking at an annual compounding growth target of 30 percent as it expands into new geographies to help clients solve their most pressing problems. Kelleher sat down with Consulting to discuss the firm's continued growth and more.

Consulting: How has ACME been able to keep up consistent growth even though the economic downturn?

Kelleher: The way we tend to engage clients is by working on what we would describe as only their most vital initiatives. We don't really take on work unless it is sponsored at a senior executive level and is a very high level priority. With medium sized companies, preferably a CEO sponsor and in the top 3 priorities in the company, and then large multibillion-dollar multinationals we work tend to work on whatever is in their top 10, top 20. Those are initiatives that no matter what don't get cut. By positioning ourselves with those vital initiatives and also being aligned with certain industries we've been able to weather the storm.