Pros
It can be political and hierarchical at times but at least everyone is treated with full respect. We are not allowed to bad mouth even the most unethical competitors or become overly aggressive/competitive because 'it's not the Woodmac way'. Majority of the people who work here have families, so if you are after Friday binge drinking it is not your place. The PE holder H&F hasn't been a positive influence overall - they try to inject too much greed in their prey at a very bad time for the industry, and brought in excessive 'processes' that drive people crazy. Product is expensive although commensurate with the quality, but some external consulting companies are hired to exacerbate this situation by setting the price even higher, which forced sales to battle with management to offer discount. This is also not the place if you look to work like a dog and double your salary in 2 years - you need to be balanced and have patience to get advanced. Sales need to be more aggressive and have more autonomy to offer packages/discounts. Leadership needs to be introduced not only to monitor and control, but also to train and support to help succeed. Red tape can pile up when each support unit tries to gain influence - leave the core units alone to do their jobs! Last but not least, if you need to put things into perspective, have a look at the review of our competitors then you will realise all the issues Woodmac have are really just first world problems.
Cons
I have read so many reviews and I feel like contributing some fair comment. Overall I believe it is ethic blood that flows in the veins of this company. World-class analysts with integrity and passion for what they do, they conduct fully independent research and have exposure to many presentation opportunities at industry events where they are highly sought after. Consultants are highly intelligent, many with quite solid degrees or industry background. They engage in some extremely high profile work and get close proximity to top industrial and political figures around the world. Low staff turnover, HR work hard to improve staff satisfaction with benefits which is above industry standard. I haven't seen anybody being fired - it is not a fear driven culture, but rather a relationship driven culture. It seems as if people get away with too many things, but eventually it allows people to adjust their behaviour from fear/greed driven to passion/belief driven. In a way, I find this quite utopia-like and slightly idealistic, but thinking deeply into it I become quite grateful. Of course this philosophy is in conflict with the weakness of human nature at times, but it can be somewhat offset by excellence driven culture and quality of people.