Center For Talent Solutions

What Center For Talent Solutions does

Center For Talent Solutions (CTS) is a privately held, Denver-based management consulting firm founded in 1999 that helps organizations engage, develop, and retain employees through proprietary card-based assessment tools and structured workshop programs. The company's core technology comprises two trademarked methodologies: TALENT Drivers (Engagement and Retention Cards), a card-based tool covering four work-related driver categories, and LIFEDrivers, a parallel tool covering six life-domain categories. Each driver category is paired with ten proven practical solutions, and the tools feed into an online TALENT Solutions platform containing more than 1,000 actionable solutions.

CTS delivers these tools through instructor-led workshops (TALENT Impact Workshop for managers, MY Impact Workshop for individuals, Developing Talent Workshop for both), supported by the TALENT Impact Guide and a One-to-One Dialogue Framework. Revenue is generated through a hybrid mix: professional-services workshop delivery, a Train-the-Trainer certification program that licenses internal client trainers to deliver CTS content (with claimed cost reductions of up to 50%), freemium card-deck distribution as a lead-generation entry point, and subscription access to the solutions database. The go-to-market is enterprise field sales with a consultation-led discovery process and named enterprise logos including EMC, McKesson, and Owens Corning. The company is founder-led by CEO Derrick Barton and has operated continuously for approximately 26 years as an independent, privately held firm with no disclosed institutional investment, M&A activity, or public-market signals.

Name

Center For Talent Solutions

Legal name

Center for Talent Solutions

Website

https://keeppeople.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1999

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Center For Talent Solutions is a Denver-based, privately held management consulting firm founded in 1999 that helps organizations engage, develop, and retain employees through proprietary card-based assessment tools (TALENT Drivers and LIFEDrivers), structured workshops, and an online solutions platform serving enterprise HR departments.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Management Consulting / Talent Development Services

NAICS

Professional and Management Development Training (611430), Other Management Consulting Services (541618)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742), Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Talent Management & Workforce Planning Consulting (BPAHAGAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Leadership & People Skills (Influence, Managing Up, Supervisory Readiness) (EDAAAKAI), Critical Thinking & Problem Solving (EDABAMAG)

Keywords

• Talent management consulting
• Employee engagement workshops
• Retention and development training
• Leadership development programs
• Workforce well-being solutions

Headquarters

HQ city

Denver

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Workshop Programs: Organization-wide workshops including TALENT Impact Workshop for managers and MY Impact Workshop for individuals. These are high-touch, facilitated training programs delivered either by CTS consultants or by internal certified trainers.
2. Train-the-Trainer Certification: Certification programs that equip internal company resources to deliver CTS workshops in-house, reducing training expenses by up to 50% compared to using external consultants.
3. Tool Distribution: Distribution of TALENT Drivers and LIFEDrivers card decks to organizations, with free initial decks available and expanded access for full implementation.
4. Solution Database Access: Access to online database of 1000+ solutions that individuals and managers use to take action on focus areas identified through the driver assessments.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Center for Talent Solutions is a management consulting firm that helps organizations engage, retain, develop, and support their workforce through proprietary card-based tools (TALENT Drivers and LIFEDrivers) and facilitated workshops. Its offerings include manager and individual workshops, an online solutions platform, manager guidebooks, and a Train-the-Trainer certification that lets clients deliver the methodology internally.

Product overview

Center for Talent Solutions offers a suite of talent engagement, development, and retention solutions centered around two core proprietary tools—TALENT Drivers and LIFEDrivers—alongside structured workshop programs. The TALENT Drivers (Engagement and Retention Cards) are card-based tools for identifying work-related drivers across four categories, while LIFEDrivers focus on life and well-being drivers across six categories. These tools are delivered through instructor-led workshops (TALENT Impact Workshop for managers, MY Impact Workshop for individuals, Developing Talent Workshop for both), supplemented by an online TALENT Solutions platform providing 1000+ actionable solutions. The company also offers a Train-the-Trainer certification program enabling organizations to deliver workshops internally, with claimed results of 98% of managers taking action, $1B in customer results, and 26 years of experience.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• TALENT Drivers (Engagement and Retention Cards) Card-based assessment tool that helps managers and individuals identify key drivers impacting performance, engagement, development, and retention across four categories: Work you do, Work Environment, Manager Actions, and Organization, each with 10 proven solutions.
• LIFEDrivers
• TALENT Impact Workshop
• MY Impact Workshop
• Developing Talent Workshop
• Certify Internal Resources (Train-the-Trainer)
• TALENT Solutions Platform
• TALENT Impact Guide

Quantifiable outcome

• 98% of managers take action after TALENT Impact Workshop
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Gallup: Gallup is the best-known engagement and strengths-based consulting firm (Q12, CliftonStrengths), directly comparable to CTS's TALENT Drivers methodology for measuring and acting on employee engagement and retention drivers.
• FranklinCovey: FranklinCovey sells enterprise leadership, engagement, and management-development workshops and certifications (e.g., The 7 Habits, Leading at the Speed of Trust) — a near-perfect analog to CTS's workshop-plus-Train-the-Trainer delivery model.
• Dale Carnegie & Associates: Dale Carnegie delivers corporate training, leadership development, and employee-engagement workshops globally through a Train-the-Trainer licensee network, mirroring CTS's model of certifying internal resources to deliver proprietary content.
• DDI (Development Dimensions International): DDI provides leadership development, manager training, and selection/assessment solutions to large enterprises, overlapping with CTS's manager-focused engagement, development, and retention workshop portfolio.
• Ken Blanchard Companies: Blanchard sells leadership and management development programs (e.g., SLII) via workshops and Train-the-Trainer licensing — a closely comparable business model for CTS's manager-skill workshop and certification offering.
• BTS Group: BTS is a global consulting and leadership development firm that delivers workshops, simulations, and Train-the-Trainer deployments to Fortune 500 clients — overlapping strongly with CTS's enterprise facilitation and certification model.
• Wilson Learning: Wilson Learning provides sales, leadership, and employee development training with certification/licensing for internal trainers, directly comparable to CTS's workshop and Train-the-Trainer offerings.
• Crucial Learning (formerly VitalSmarts): Crucial Learning delivers corporate training (Crucial Conversations, Crucial Influence) through both direct workshops and Train-the-Trainer channels, paralleling CTS's hybrid GTM around proprietary engagement/development content.

Broad incumbents

• Korn Ferry: Korn Ferry is a global organizational consulting firm spanning talent management, executive search, and leadership development — a much larger incumbent that addresses the same enterprise HR/talent agenda CTS serves at a different scale.

Emerging players

• BetterUp: BetterUp is a digital coaching and leadership development platform selling to enterprise HR — an emerging tech-enabled competitor addressing the same talent engagement, development, and retention use cases CTS serves via workshops.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

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 Center For Talent Solutions