The Marcus Buckingham Company

What The Marcus Buckingham Company does

The Marcus Buckingham Company (TMBC) is a Beverly Hills-headquartered, privately-held subsidiary of ADP, Inc. that develops and operates the StandOut strengths-based talent development platform. Founded in 2006 by Marcus Buckingham and acquired by ADP in April 2019, the company sells to enterprise organizations seeking to improve employee engagement, develop frontline leaders, and build strengths-based cultures. Its product suite is organized around three solution areas (Leader Development, Team Performance, Employee Engagement) and includes the StandOut Assessment (which identifies an individual's top two of nine StandOut Roles), a weekly Check-In ritual with Spotlight Questions and private team-leader notes, a quarterly Engagement Pulse survey with global benchmark data, Conversations (Milestone Connect, Role Reflect), Team Activities, and StandOut Insights (automated engagement analytics storytelling). Supporting offerings include one-on-one coaching, facilitated workshops (e.g., StandOut Team Leader Workshop, Cultivating Connection), certification programs (Team Member, Debrief, Strengths Coaching), and an Enterprise Content Subscription featuring the StandOut Foundations digital learning modules, with a standalone StandOut Community platform for users.

Name

The Marcus Buckingham Company

Legal name

The Marcus Buckingham Company

Website

https://tmbc.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2006

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Marcus Buckingham Company is an ADP subsidiary that develops the StandOut strengths-based talent development platform, offering assessments, weekly Check-Ins, quarterly engagement surveys, coaching, workshops, and analytics to enterprise customers and their leaders and teams.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Beverly Hills

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Enterprise Content Subscription: Organizations subscribe to StandOut content libraries and tools, with enterprise content subscriptions allowing customization of StandOut materials for organizational use.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

The Marcus Buckingham Company (TMBC) sells StandOut, a cloud-based strengths-based talent development SaaS platform that combines an assessment identifying nine StandOut Roles, weekly Check-Ins, quarterly Engagement Pulse surveys, coaching, workshops, and certifications to help enterprise organizations develop leaders, strengthen team performance, and improve employee engagement. The platform is distributed as an enterprise subscription, often bundled through ADP's HCM ecosystem.

Product overview

The Marcus Buckingham Company (TMBC) offers StandOut, a unified strengths-based talent development platform organized around three solution areas (Leader Development, Team Performance, Employee Engagement) and delivered through an integrated suite of products. The core platform combines StandOut Assessment (identifying nine StandOut Roles), Check-Ins (weekly leader-member connection ritual), Engagement Pulse (quarterly engagement survey), and Conversations (Milestone Connect, Role Reflect) with supporting modules including Coaching, Workshops, Certifications, Team Activities, and StandOut Insights (analytics storytelling). Enterprise Content Subscription provides customizable content including StandOut Foundations modules. The platform is supplemented by the StandOut Community (online forum and knowledge base) and integrates with Coaching.com for coach matching and ADP Lyric for single sign-on. All offerings are designed to help organizations build engagement through strengths-based practices.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• StandOut: A strengths-based talent development platform that includes assessment, technology, coaching, and workshops to help organizations develop employee engagement and performance.

Products and services

• StandOut Platform Cloud-based SaaS platform that delivers StandOut's strengths-based talent development solution, combining assessments, weekly Check-Ins, Engagement Pulse surveys, Conversations, Team Activities, and reporting dashboards for enterprise organizations.
• StandOut Assessment Strengths assessment that identifies an individual's Top 2 roles from nine possible StandOut Roles, providing personal edge insights for work and life. Available as a free individual assessment with optional paid debrief coaching.
• Engagement Pulse Eight-question engagement survey deployed quarterly (configurable) that measures eight factors key to engagement, with results delivered to team leaders and HR plus benchmark data across countries and industries.
• StandOut Coaching One-on-one coaching services delivered by StandOut-certified coaches, including Check-In Conversation Coaching (3-session engagement), to help individuals and leaders apply strengths-based approaches.
• StandOut Workshops Facilitated training workshops including StandOut Team Leader Workshop, Coaching Essentials for Team Leaders Workshop, and Cultivating Connection for Your Team Workshop.
• StandOut Certifications Certification programs for facilitators, including StandOut Team Member Certification, StandOut Debrief Certification, and StandOut Strengths Coaching Certification combining virtual classroom, 1:1 mentoring, and peer-to-peer coaching.
• StandOut Insights Automated reporting feature that analyzes StandOut data to create interactive slideshow presentations about an organization's engagement journey, including 'Why Leader Attention Matters' and 'Percent Fully Engaged Deep Dive' stories.
• StandOut Community Online community platform for StandOut users featuring forums, Knowledge Base, product updates blog, events, and Product Ideation space for feature requests.
• Enterprise Content Subscription Annual subscription service providing organizations with customizable StandOut content, including StandOut Foundations modular learning content and exclusive workshops such as Cultivating Connection.

Quantifiable outcome

• 27% increase in Fully Engaged employees in 6 months at a Financial Services Organization
• +8 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

Feature7 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• ADP (Acquirer/Parent Company)flagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 9 April 2019ADP acquired The Marcus Buckingham Company to enhance its HCM solutions portfolio with StandOut's strengths-based talent development capabilities. The acquisition allows ADP to offer integrated engagement and leadership development solutions as part of its comprehensive HCM platform.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• CultureAmp: Employee engagement survey and performance management SaaS platform serving mid-market and enterprise. Competes directly with TMBC's Engagement Pulse, Check-Ins, and analytics offerings.
• Lattice: Performance management, engagement surveys, and goal-tracking platform for enterprises. Competes with TMBC on engagement measurement and the manager-employee check-in workflow.
• 15Five: Continuous performance management platform featuring weekly check-ins, engagement surveys, and manager tools. Directly comparable product overlap with TMBC's Check-Ins and Engagement Pulse modules.
• Gallup: Creator of CliftonStrengths, the most directly comparable strengths-based assessment framework to TMBC's StandOut. Gallup serves similar enterprise HR and leader development buyers with decades of underlying research, making it TMBC's closest methodological competitor.
• BetterUp: AI-augmented leadership development and coaching platform serving enterprise HR buyers. Overlaps with TMBC's coaching, leader development, and engagement solution areas, and competes for the same enterprise budget pools.
• Glint (LinkedIn Talent Solutions): Employee engagement survey platform acquired by LinkedIn. Competes with TMBC's Engagement Pulse for enterprise HR buyers and benefits from LinkedIn's distribution reach, similar in some respects to TMBC's ADP relationship.

Emerging players

• Humu: AI-driven employee engagement and people analytics platform focused on nudges and action-oriented insights. Competes in the same engagement and manager-effectiveness category as TMBC but with an AI-native architecture that contrasts with TMBC's traditional strengths-assessment approach.

Broad incumbents

• Development Dimensions International (DDI): Established leadership development and talent assessment firm serving large enterprises globally. Overlaps with TMBC's leader development, assessment, and engagement solution areas within a much broader consulting practice.
• FranklinCovey: Enterprise leadership development and training content provider. Competes with TMBC's workshops, certifications, and content subscription offerings, though within a wider portfolio of content franchises.
• Korn Ferry: Global organizational consulting firm offering leadership development, talent assessment, and executive coaching. Competes with TMBC at the high end of the leader development and assessment market as part of a much broader services portfolio.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/mwbuckingham
• Facebookfacebook.com/marcuswbuckingham
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/86539

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Marcus Buckingham Company