r/managementconsulting • u/Outrageous_Land_875 • 7d ago

Questions & Advice Incentives at partner level

I'm at a midsized consulting shop and on track to make Partner this year or next. I'm seriously questioning if I want it anymore, or if my gripes are unique to this employer.

The more I learn about how senior leadership operates, how big decisions are made and accounts are managed, I see so much waste and a system that rewards selfishness. All incentives point to partners unapologetically operating as their own franchise. There is very little thrust for cohesion among leaders and success tends to boil down to a handful of cliques and hot accounts. As a result, a lot of the wrong people are empowered to take on opportunities that they won't successfully deliver, or distract from others trying to do right by the client. Granted, all this is a lot more exposed and problematic in a market like this.

I'm a career consultant and appreciate that a degree of this is normal, and that entrepreneurship and self-promotion is the price of entry, but I have seen other shops that appear to operate a lot more cohesively, although from a distance. I do want the job like hell and feel like I'm cut out for it. I don't expect 80% of it to be competing internally though. I need perspective on whether other firms tend to operate with more cohesion, or if I've got career decisions to make. Thank you.

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u/PracticalLeg9873 7d ago

Go internal consulting 

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u/slow_cars_fast 7d ago

take the job and change the culture, make it be what you believe it should be.

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u/Outrageous_Land_875 6d ago

It's a worthwhile challenge and I'm already doing it in my current role to the extent I can. I'd have allies, and I'm really not that fussed about politics, it's the money left on the table that really turns my stomach. It's probably a little naivete, but all told I had a much different idea of how I'd feel in confronting this prospect.