Kevin McCarty
President
West Monroe Partners
Excellence in Leadership
Kevin McCarty is the President of West Monroe Partners, responsible for all office and shared services operations across the firm. He is also a Board member, leads the firm's Executive Leadership and co-founded West Monroe Partners in 2002. McCarty says he takes great pride in the fact that last year, the firm celebrated its 10th anniversary, "an extraordinary milestone for any business," he says. "But it is especially rewarding for one in this profession that has developed literally from the ground up and almost entirely organically—person by person, client by client, office by office, brick by brick, and without the benefit of outside financial backing."
McCarty says it was especially significant, given the fact the firm was "conceived on the back of a napkin back in 2002."
Since then, of course, plenty has gone right for the Chicago-based firm. "No question, the biggest factor in our success as a firm—and my success personally—is our people. I am so fortunate to be surrounded by great, talented, motivated people," he says. "I credit this to our people-first operating principle and our emphasis on treating our people as colleagues and partners in our success. We know—and have seen time and time again—that when you have happy people, this translates to better client service and better quality work."
West Monroe's motto is "to do the work we love with the people we trust." McCarty says firm leaders work hard to make sure that motto isn't just words on paper but rather the spirit with which people interact and do business. And do they ever do business.
"We supported 146 IT & operational due diligence and post-merger integration deals in 2012 alone—a level that I believe is remarkable for a 350-person firm," he says. "It has become clear that our specialty in IT and operational consulting related to mergers and acquisitions—a capability that I played a primary role in building over the past 10 years—has become recognized and valued as a true 'go-to' presence in the M&A marketplace for private equity and strategic buyers."
McCarty, who spent eight years at Arthur Andersen before co-founding West Monroe Partners, says he never wanted to work at a firm that was already on top and simply playing defense. "I love supporting the underdog," he says. "We've made a concerted effort to focus on serving those trying to be challengers and to break open new markets."
McCarty says he also looks for opportunities to challenge the status quo when it's appropriate, and when there is potential for finding a better way to do something. "There's a fine line to walk between being antagonistic and being contrarian in a positive way," he says. "I find it motivating to help our clients think beyond the traditional ways of doing things and create new ways to fuel their success."
Q&A: What does winning the Top 25 award mean to you?
"Being included in an exclusive group of Top 25 Consultants is recognition and validation of a couple of things: The first is the soundness and relevancy of the approach we defined when we founded the firm, which I have continued to drive internally and into the market. This award also shows that it's possible to build a credible consulting enterprise from scratch. Although we are not a peer in size to the biggest firms in our profession (and frankly, that isn't our intent), we have become their peer in terms of quality of people, quality of work, and strength of reputation. Ours is an entrepreneurial story. To me, this says the American dream of entrepreneurship is alive and well."
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