Havana 61 in Baltimore: Strategy Consulting for Small Manufacturing and Trade
Havana 61 is a strategy consulting firm in Baltimore that works primarily with small and mid-market manufacturers, importers, and trade-dependent businesses navigating tariffs, supply-chain restructuring, and market entry. The firm operates on a project and retainer basis, typically engaging companies with annual revenues between $5 million and $50 million that need external perspective on operational or market decisions but lack the budget for national firms.
What Havana 61 actually is
Havana 61 positions itself as a bridge between owner-operated businesses and corporate consulting infrastructure. The firm does not operate as a traditional management consultant covering strategy, operations, and organizational design across industries; instead, it specializes in trade-sensitive sectors and the specific constraints of regional manufacturers. The name references the firm's founding principal's background in Latin American supply chains. The firm occupies a single office in Baltimore's Canton neighborhood and employs three consultants plus the principal. This structure means engagements remain focused and turnaround is faster than larger firms, but capacity is limited and the firm does not take on projects outside its expertise areas.
Services and engagement model
Havana 61 offers three main service tracks: supply-chain repositioning (helping manufacturers shift sourcing or production in response to tariff changes or cost pressures), market-entry strategy (guiding companies into new geographies or customer segments), and operational diagnostics (identifying cost or efficiency problems across production, procurement, or logistics).
Engagements typically run four to twelve weeks and cost between $15,000 and $45,000 depending on scope. Retainer arrangements, where the firm provides ongoing advisory access and quarterly strategy reviews, start at $3,000 per month. The firm charges a day rate of $2,000 for individual consulting days when clients need input without a formal engagement. Most projects involve two to four site visits, spreadsheet analysis of the client's procurement and production data, and a written strategy report with specific, sequenced recommendations. Havana 61 does not do implementation; it stops after the strategy and recommendations phase.
How it compares to other Baltimore business consulting options
Baltimore hosts consulting arms of larger firms (Deloitte, BDO, CohnReznick) that serve mid-market clients, and independent consultants operating solo practices. The larger firms typically charge $200 to $300 per hour and assign teams of two or three staff, which can escalate project costs to $40,000 to $80,000 even for focused work. They excel when a company needs deep functional expertise across multiple areas (finance, HR, operations simultaneously) or when the engagement is large enough to justify overhead. A manufacturer needing a tariff-response plan and nothing else may find that overscaled.
Solo consultants and part-time advisors in the Baltimore region often charge $100 to $150 per hour and provide real flexibility, but they have limited bandwidth for multi-week engagements and no internal backup if the principal becomes unavailable. Havana 61 sits between these poles: more expensive than a solo consultant but cheaper and more specialized than a national firm, with enough staff to sustain an engagement without abandonment risk.
For a company with $10 million in annual revenue facing a sourcing crisis, Havana 61 is typically more cost-effective and faster-moving than calling Deloitte. For a company needing organizational restructuring or IT strategy, Havana 61 is not the right fit.
Who this firm suits and who it does not
Havana 61 works well for manufacturers and importers whose primary challenge is supply-chain or market strategy, whose leadership is already competent operationally, and who can provide clean financial and procurement data for analysis. Owners who want someone to come in and "fix everything" or who are in crisis mode (imminent cash shortage, quality collapse, staff turnover spiral) should look elsewhere; Havana 61 is strategic, not tactical or emergency-focused.
The firm also suits companies that already have a point of view about direction and want a second opinion or pressure-tested roadmap, rather than those seeking the consultant to invent strategy from scratch. Conversely, software firms, service companies, nonprofits, and retail businesses fall outside the firm's sector focus and would not be a good match.
What the first engagement involves
Initial conversations focus on whether the company's challenge aligns with what Havana 61 does. If it does, the firm issues a one-page scope memo defining the question, the data the company must provide (sales by product line, supplier costs, production volumes by location, and customer lists by geography are typical), and the timeline. The company then assembles this data; Havana 61 does not conduct discovery interviews as a starting point. Engagements begin with the consultants working independently from Baltimore, using the data provided, before any site visit. This approach saves the client's time and allows the firm to ask more informed questions when a consultant arrives on-site.
Hours, location, and logistics
Havana 61 operates by appointment; there is no walk-in consulting. The office is located at 3600 Boston Street, Canton, with free street parking in the immediate area. The firm holds no set office hours but is typically reachable Monday through Thursday. Engagements that require multiple site visits are scheduled in advance; travel outside the Baltimore region (to client facilities elsewhere in the Mid-Atlantic) is included in the engagement fee. Clients should confirm availability before committing to a project start date.
Havana 61 serves a real need in Baltimore's manufacturing ecosystem: strategic expertise in the specific constraints of regional trade-dependent businesses, without the cost or bureaucracy of a national firm.
