Exclusives

Headquartered in Seattle, and with leading M&E industry hubs in Los Angeles, New York, London, and 40 offices around the world, Slalom is a global consulting firm focused on strategy, technology, and business transformation.

MESA spoke with Slalom M&E industry leaders Steven Polster, managing director in Los Angeles and Nutan Keen, senior director in New York, about the company’s unique position in the consulting landscape, and how Slalom is harnessing its skilled M&E and gaming talent and technology partnerships to tackle the most ambitious challenges facing studios, streamers, gaming publishers and their customers in our dynamic industry.

MESA: How did Slalom first come on the scene, what was the impetus for the company?

Polster: Slalom was founded 20 years ago by a small cadre of management consultants who loved providing solutions for their clients, but felt that the “fly-in, fly-out” model was draining for consultants, and didn’t allow for meaningful relationships to develop over time with clients.

They wanted to create a modern consulting firm focused on a local market approach that could scale. With a mantra to “love your work, lover your life” the company has differentiated itself by building deeper relationships with clients working and living in the same markets and bringing a people-focused culture which has led to Slalom being named a Forbes Top 100 Best Places to Work for six years in a row.

We are now 10,000 consultants strong in 40 markets around the globe, so I guess we’re onto something!

MESA: Strategy, technology, transformation, building software … Slalom’s capabilities run the gamut. Where does Slalom stand out in what M&E companies can take advantage of?

Keen: We do our best work at the intersection of strategy, technology, data and transformation. By redefining what’s possible, we help M&E companies move through ambiguity and risk to deliver sustainable business value. We believe that you can learn from your data, create incredible experiences, and make the most of technology. We blend design, engineering, and analytics expertise to help M&E companies shape their future and create bold outcomes.

MESA: Slalom boasts a top-tier list of technology partners, including Salesforce, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services. Where do these partnerships come into play in what Slalom offers for M&E clients?

Polster: We partner with more than 400 of the world’s leading technology solution providers including AWS, Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, Snowflake, and Tableau. This year we have started a long-term transition from a local-market focused partnerships, to industry-aligned partnerships for the M&E and gaming.

One example of this came earlier this year, where due to our depth of collaboration in M&E together, AWS named Slalom as a founding consulting partner when they launched AWS for Media & Entertainment, where we partner to help customers transform content production, media supply chain, broadcast, direct-to-consumer & streaming, and analytics. Bringing Industry solutions and POVs to our partners makes it much easier to work together and deliver amazing outcomes for M&E clients.

MESA: How crucial is diversity in Slalom’s business model, and how does Slalom go about ensuring it brings a wide variety of viewpoints to its clients?

Keen: Inclusion, diversity and equity (ID&E) is not just something we do, but it is who we are as a company. We value the uniqueness of every individual and ask our people to bring their authentic selves to work. We respect, encourage, and celebrate different perspectives through our core value: celebrate authenticity.

All of our team members should feel understood, included, connected, and safe.

We’re committed to a diverse workforce at all levels, and we believe our workforce should reflect the clients and communities we serve, including visible and invisible differences. Our mission towards equity starts within the walls of Slalom, though through our commitment to equity, we can drive equitable outcomes in our broader communities, including with our clients.

MESA: What are some of Slalom’s favorite use case stories to date, where media and entertainment companies made great use of your services?

Polster: In just the past year, we worked with a major studio developing a next generation engine for interactive storytelling; played an integral role in advancing diversity, inclusion and equity in the awards community; helped multiple streaming platforms scale for growth and exceed ad revenue and subscriber targets; partnered with a studio to build an end to end next generation studio supply chain; and delivered strategic insights for key industry players to equitably address the seismic shifts in media monetization impacting studios, producers, cast, crew, agents – and that is the short list!

We are really proud that the leading players in our industry trust Slalom to help solve their greatest challenges in this era of dynamic change.

MESA: What’s next for Slalom, what advances in your M&E industry offerings do you see on the horizon?

Keen: We are constantly looking ahead and working with M&E companies to build and shape a better future. We have just announced that we are setting up a 5G innovation lab in New York, where we will have connected devices exploring the art of the possible around enhanced sports and music interactions, immersive entertainment, holographic displays and so much more.

We are constantly innovating in our journey to be a truly transformational company, using a people-first approach, to build a better tomorrow.