The talent reflecting the educational and experiential background DLC seeks is definitely out there, Sweeney says. And increasingly, the company is finding that its employment model is attractive enough to draw experienced executives who prefer the "consultant" approach to being tied to one corporation on-staff.

Why? "At DLC we have systematically engineered the negative attributes out of the existing consulting models, and retained the positive benefits," he says. The model's "enticing elements" include not only the ability to work locally, but "one-year employment agreements, full salary and benefits even when the consultant is not deployed to a project, and productivity bonuses on all hours billed in excess of 40."

Drawing pay continuously, even when an employee is "on the bench" at DLC, is something Sweeney believes attracts many of the finance executives to his company. But having bench strength is important to DLC's corporate model, as well. It wants to keep around 90% employed with clients at any given time --- leaving the other 10% available for when that urgent call comes to fill new or existing client needs. "That's our sweet spot," the CEO says. "When utilization is greater than 90% we risk being supply constrained."

The opposite was true at the beginning of the recession, when "like most of our competitors" DLC had excess employee capacity. "But we immediately implemented a short-term strategy to address the change in market demand," Sweeney says, "to stabilize the business and to retain key talent."