Routes to the Top - Consulting

​In the consulting world, becoming partner is seen as “the pinnacle of a professional’s career”. Rob Thomas, in a LinkedIn article in November 2017, described it further as follows: “Making partner is about getting as far as your skills will take you, and being rewarded for it.” Rob is from Cavendish Stuart, and is an “executive search consultant specialising in partner and team acquisitions” which gives him broad understanding of the professional services market, and specific insights into the journey to becoming partner.

This post shares thoughts from Rob’s article, as well as Protagion’s experiences in working with our members from professional consulting environments, including at the Big 4 (Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC) and more broadly at other major and specialist consultancies. It is intended as a resource for those who are currently working in a professional consulting firm and those who are considering moving into one (recognising that it can take many rounds of discussion, interviews and vetting to join).

The appeal of becoming partner can include:

• responsibility for the success, growth and profits of your own business area/line
• significant financial rewards – Rob shared that the average Big 4 partner in the UK earned almost £700k, roughly six times what a director received; other sources shared that junior partners start from around £350k, with more senior partners earning substantially more
• the title, and the associated status
• more autonomy
• the ability to set a vision and build a team of exceptional and committed people to execute your vision

Among potential drawbacks are:

• the continual pressure of sales targets
• long hours
• stress
• financial liabilities, including the shared obligations with other partners in your firm

Rob cautions: “I’ve even heard it suggested, a shorter lifespan and increased marriage failures!”

Given these drawbacks, some of our members as well as commenters on Rob’s article warn that partnership is not for everyone. Individuals should reflect on whether they have the ability to operate at partner level and the willingness to sacrifice other aspects of their lives. To sustain success, you must be happy doing what you do, and recognise the energy you will need to reach and maintain partner level. Rob warns: “fewer people are getting promoted, and it’s taking longer to be admitted”.

Skills needed
Rob highlights the following (overlapping) skills as necessary for partners at professional services firms, all supporting the ultimate aim of successfully running every part of your business area:

• public relations
• business planning
• strategy setting
• design and development of services your team will offer
• innovation, including technological
• recruitment and training
• leadership
• people management, and
• practice and financial management

The ability to generate fee income is crucial to being a partner, both to meet immediate quarterly targets, as well as to grow revenue sustainably over the years. This is the biggest difference between the requirements of a director and a partner: “The ability to sell… is the most important attribute of a Big 4 partner. You can always find someone to do the work – it’s generating the work in the first place that’s the difficult part.”

While a change in behaviour and focus is needed when transitioning from director, the extra pressure can lead some new partners to change behaviours negatively – in order to be a successful leader for your teams, you must learn to manage these stresses. Rob advises: “In order to be a successful partner, and leader of the business, you must have a set of strong values. One of those is to treat your staff as well as you treat your clients. This is not just morally correct, but it is also important for long-term success, as the only sustainable competitive advantage that you have is the quality of your people (their skills, experience, attitude etc). It is important that the entire team buys into the vision for the business, and shares a common sense of purpose.”

The nature of consulting
Professional consulting works on a “leverage model” (explained by Pallav Chatterjee in the comments on Rob’s article as “where one individual leading a practice builds a chain of other professionals who grow working for him and replicating in [a] standardised and predictable way, only then [the] practice multiplies”). This underscores how critical people development is - “people are the core ingredients and what is being sold is intangible; therefore having good, motivated, successful people working for a leader works best to deliver excellence!” Rob agrees, adding that “financial rewards should also be shared throughout the team - ...in professional services the only sustainable competitive advantage you have is your people. Look after them!”

Sales in a professional consulting context
So, what does it take to generate fee income? Rob argues that in a professional consulting context, “sales come from hard work, resilience, asking the right questions, clearly identifying client problems, developing practical solutions, and exceptional service delivery. You must become an acknowledged subject matter expert, but knowledge is not enough. You must be out in the market building your network, developing long-term sustainable relationships. You must become a trusted advisor. In short, you should be a professional that sells, rather than a salesperson.” This balance of expertise and relationships is echoed by Protagion’s members, recognising that the importance of external relationships increases significantly as you reach higher levels, including partner. The career strategies of depth vs breadth in consulting were discussed in a previous Protagion article: “In Pursuit of Knowledge: Specialising vs Generalising as a Career Strategy”.

Suggestions for those who want to become a partner

• Work your way into growing areas of the business as there will be more opportunities over time within those areas
• Sharpen your skills and expertise so that you have a base of credibility
• Share your passion about your chosen areas (and your business) regularly
• Build your personal brand, including your track record and reputation within your business and externally
• Network externally, building long-term relationships and becoming known by potential clients
• Develop the broader business skills needed to cultivate and nurture a portfolio of clients
• Practise selling your services with the aim of making your clients even more successful i.e. deliver value to your clients above what they are spending
• Take responsibility for your own career progress, including investing in your knowledge and development, building a personal set of sponsors and mentors, and grasping opportunities to learn and grow
• Be aware of opportunities for advancement both within your existing organisation and outside, even in other countries – sometimes there may be more potential for advancement at more specialised consultancies
• Recognise that the partner selection process can be gruelling and take a long time
• Keep learning and improving, even once you’ve reached partner level – in Rob’s words: “Even if you’ve been a partner for a decade there's always something that you can improve on. In addition, as the world changes around you so should you. Adaptability is an important part of business and life.”

Further suggestions for those new to partner level

• Assess and understand your environment, including:
  • how you will be judged and what success looks like
  • what the market opportunities are, and your priorities
  • who your target clients are and how you’ll approach them
• Set a positive tone across your team (bearing in mind that some of your team may be disheartened because they didn’t reach partnership level)
• Start as you intend to continue: create momentum through action, and establish credibility by producing good early results
• Continue building your internal and external networks
• Measure your results regularly and ask for feedback as you progress, continuing to learn as you go along

Those of our readers at professional consulting firms, please share your experiences with us (even if under a pseudonym), including where you:

• have decided that being partner is not a personal ambition
• are actively working towards being a partner
• have recently been promoted to partner and are currently managing the transition
• manage a practice or business line and are developing future partners within your business

The original article by Rob Thomas can be found here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/becoming-big-4-partner-rob-thomas/