BrazilConsultants from Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania on working at Civitta
With more than 250 consultants and staff, Civitta is one of the largest management consultancies originating from the Baltic-region, with offices in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, Russia, Belarus and Serbia. Three advisors at the firm – Edgars Kokins (Latvia), Grete Gutmann (Estonia) and Jonė Vaitulevičiūtė (Lithuania) – reflect on what life is like at Civitta.
The Civitta brand first appeared in Lithuania in 2010. Jointly with Estonian founded companies Advisio and Innopolis, the Civitta group has expanded in a puzzle-like fashion through organic growth, mergers and acquisitions. Today, the company, headquartered in Tartu, Estonia, employs 250+ consultants and experts across 18 offices in 12 countries, including a recently launched presence in Saint Petersburg, Russia. According to several employees across Civitta’s Baltic presence, this international outlook makes for a challenging and rewarding opening to a career in consulting.
Joining Civitta in 2016 from 4finance, where he was a Finance Controller, Edgars Kokins has spent the past two years at the firm’s office in Riga, Latvia. Commenting on how the firm fits with his own passions/values, Kokins said, “I have never shied away from adventures at Civitta, and these experiences have made my time with the company. In my two years as a part of Civitta family, I’ve worked in six markets across three continents.”
Kokins was promoted to International Project Manager in May 2018, and told Consultancy.eu that one of the best things about working at Civitta – and indeed, one of its keys to success – is the firm’s internationalist approach. Aligning with his career ambitions, this often presents Kokins with the opportunity for life-changing adventures.
He elaborated: "The opportunity to experience various cultures and getting to know people with different outlooks, all while working on projects, has been fantastic. Whether I am flying to Zambia with five days notice or to Uganda with two hours notice, I have never once regretted taking these opportunities because they have made my time with Civitta memorable."
Having joined Civitta five years ago from Invest Lithuania, where she worked in Investment Development, Jonė Vaitulevičiūtė operates from the firm’s office in Vilnius. Vaitulevičiūtė, an Innovation Project Manager at the firm, similarly highlighted the globe-trotting nature of life at Civitta as a positive.
She says, “My ordinary year in Civitta includes more than 30 flights and 20 country visits - UK, France, Belgium are the usual suspects to name a few. There we meet with our international partners - startup accelerators, incubators, media companies, start-up associations, the European Commission, and others, to work on building a strong pan-European start-up ecosystem and provide startups with financial and content support.”
Similarly, another Civitta employee, Grete Gutmann cited the diverse array of opportunities that working for the firm throws up as a major plus. She explained; “It is exciting to experience the impact of just a single hour of digging into a business plan and finding new client segments or potential partners for a start-up. This motivates me personally to take on new and increasingly complex projects.”
“I cannot name a better environment for young people to be empowered and do as impactful work as they get with an opportunity here in Civitta.”
– Jonė Vaitulevičiūtė, Innovation Project Manager at Civitta
Gutmann joined Civitta in Talinn, Estonia, in 2014, having just graduated from the University of Gothenburg with a Master's degree in International Administration and Global Governance. She is now a Senior Consultant at the firm. According to her, the holistic, end-to-end consulting service provided by Civitta is the perfect environment for young professionals to cut their teeth in.
Gutmann expanded; “By default, impact is the underlying principle of every project that Civitta executes. Each project is developed with a set of tangible outputs for our clients. Although these outputs are designed to help them reach their goals, we frequently surpass their expectations and exceed their goals by bringing additional value and impact. This is most evident when we are working with young entrepreneurs.”
Vaitulevičiūtė agreed that working with young people in particular has boosted the firm’s expectations, and further added that the next generation of consultants can find a great launchpad for their career at the firm. Having been thrown in at the proverbial deep-end, she was asked in her first days at Civitta to help out with a start-up consulting project. This led to her having 2-3 client meetings per day all year long as a Junior Consultant, benefitting from meeting most of the start-ups in Lithuania in the process, and having been a part of shaping first steps of the Civitta Start-ups & Innovation line.
“I cannot name a better environment for young people to be empowered and do as impactful work as they get with an opportunity here in Civitta,” Vaitulevičiūtė said. She added, “I have started working at Civitta back in 2013 as a Junior Analyst. It was a trade-off between starting a Master studies of International Economics at Utrecht University, in the Netherlands, or beginning my career in the company. I have not doubted my decision since.”
