After years of working within some of the profession's largest firms, Carrie Shea thought the time-tested consulting model was becoming outdated. She, and her husband Michael Shea, launched Griffin Strategic Advisors based on what she thought clients wanted but couldn't find from more traditional firms. To learn more, Consulting's One-on-One recently sat down with Shea for a two-part conversation.
In the last edition, Shea shared how her firm's model is unique from a client's perspective. In this edition, she discusses how the model is different from her staff's point of view.
Consulting: When staffing your firm, what's your selection criterion for determining which industry veterans will make good consultants?
Shea: A lot of our top candidates are those that were part of the client team when their business brought in an outside consultant. In many cases, those that seek us out had experience with large consulting processes, like McKinsey or BCG, but thought it could be done better—through the eyes of an industry executive. We're not just looking for functional excellence, but instead favor those with broad management experience. We like people that are willing to roll up their sleeves and work on projects. We've found the best industry talent for consulting firms can be found within international organizations because despite being very senior and having P&L responsibilities, they are still just an influencer—they make recommendations like a consultant would.
Consulting: How do you on-board industry veterans?
Shea: Initially, our industry folks work on a contract basis so we can determine how devoted they are to learning new skills. It does take someone willing to retool him or herself, learn new approaches and methodologies. And they are always partnered with a career consultant. We strive for advice that is both visionary and pragmatic. And clients love it. We've been on the short list against many of the big firms and have been selected. When we ask why we won the engagement, the most common answer is that clients like our model of an industry executive paired with career consultants.
Consulting: For the career consultants, what's unique about your business model?
Shea: We acknowledge that there are junior and senior people who don't want to commit to a full-time, seven-day a week consulting career. So, to supplement our core team, we employ what we call Griffin affiliates who are close to the company but want flexibility. They may be leaving consulting and thinking about going into industry or leaving industry and thinking of retiring, but are not quite ready. We have some employees who only want to work four days a week—they will work really hard those days and are very talented—some are ex-Bain and ex-BCG consultants. They are truly top talent, but want a different balance in their life than they've found elsewhere. We offer great part-time consulting options.
Consulting: When someone is working part-time, chances are they may leave when a full-time position opens up elsewhere. Is that a problem for your model?
Shea: We realize they some may want to leave to go back to industry, and that's okay. One former COO of a large appliance company worked for us for a year, and then become COO of another larger appliance company, and is now a client. We are working hard to build a strong alumni network. The workforce is changing and these trends are only going to get more extenuated in the future. We think this model helps turn those changes from a constraint into an advantage. And so far, so good. We've doubled our revenue every year.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.