Jon Katzenbach sees 'real expanded growth opportunity' with Booz & Company
In April, Jon Katzenbach, co-founder of Katzenbach Partners, decided to sell the firm to Booz & Company for an undisclosed sum. The deal closed last month and Katzenbach sat down with Consulting to discuss the sale, its implications and his new role with Booz & Company.
Consulting: Katzenbach Partners is ten years old. Why sell now and why to Booz & Company?
Katzenbach: Let me start with why Booz & Company first, because I think that's probably
the most important element here. We were familiar with Booz because we had worked with them on different occasions, so we knew them well and they sort of knew us well. The main reason to sell was strategic. We had reached the point where we needed to grow internationally, and we thought we wouldn't be able to do that without a partner. We were pretty well positioned in North America, but many of our people had ambitions to do things in a global economy. So, we decided to explore partners and Booz continually came out as the most logical, particularly after its repositioning last year. I think when you get right down to it, I saw a real expanded growth opportunity with Booz.
Consulting: Where are we in the transition?
Katzenbach: We are off and running. The train has left the station and I'm having trouble hanging on! It's taken off surprisingly fast. We started trying to jointly serve clients even before it was final, and I think on both sides those opportunities turned up more quickly than I would have expected.
Consulting: Katzenbach has always been known as a firm with a unique culture. How do you make sure your people don't become disenfranchised?
Katzenbach: I think that's a challenge we face. These cultures need to come together and that doesn't happen overnight. I think what we'd like to be able to do is capture the scaling, the efficiencies and the specialization opportunities that the Booz culture provides, but we'd also like to enable Booz to pick up some of the informal
and personal aspects of our culture.
Consulting: What opportunities do you see for both yourself and the firm down the road?
Katzenbach: When the two firms are one, and functioning as one, we'll be serving clients in a higher impact way than either could do functioning individually. For me, I'll probably be doing the same thing I've always been doing; I'm fundamentally an incurable consultant. I like the client work, and I'll be focused on that.
Consulting: How difficult was the decision to sell?
Katzenbach: It was very difficult. I thought we had become a special place for special people, and that's hard to give up. But what you have to face
is special people stay with you only as long as the opportunities grow. It was hard for me to imagine that Katzenbach Partners would disappear, and I think hard for many of our people. But the reality was we had to grow; you can't stay small. It was
a difficult decision, but there's absolutely no doubt in my mind it was the right decision.
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