One-On-One With RSM's Pat Vance

Consulting: Leadership change at the top of a large organization is a natural and somewhat regular occurrence. What do you see as the potential hurdles in taking the helm and what do you see as the advantages for RSM?

Vance: Personally, in this new role, looking further into the future of consulting as a whole strategically is different than being focused on operations and more day-to-day issues. Specifically, change management is all about helping others see who you are as a leader, the value in evolving and refocusing everyone toward new ways to accomplish our goals. Things as simple as how and what I communicate, being authentic, is an opportunity to help people understand who I am as a person and a leader in the firm.

I've been with the firm a long time and have had the opportunity to form meaningful relationships. While I will continue to work closely with our teams to focus on all the factors that have made us successful, another imperative part of my role is to inspire people and give people a chance to galvanize, to work together and to approach situations innovatively so that we can continue to lead in the middle market domestically and globally. Iron sharpens iron.

We have a solid strategy, an ever-evolving portfolio of services and solutions, and we are on a strong growth trajectory. All of this, coupled with the strength of a seasoned leadership team, sets us up for success. RSM is focused on continuing to drive an unrivaled, inclusive culture and talent experience to create a compelling environment to build a career. We have invested heavily in recruiting, onboarding and talent development strategies to enhance the experiences for our people and help them serve our clients effectively.

Consulting: What is your vision/mission now that you are behind the wheel?

Vance: Our strategy to understand clients' needs, tailor our approach, and deliver solutions that are relevant and add value has been the cornerstone of our success. We are the leaders in the middle market because we invest in building deep relationships based on understanding our clients' industries, businesses and the unique challenges they face. We provide advice, deliver services and solutions, and manage critical functions of their businesses. We continue to evolve our services based on understanding the ever-changing needs of our clients and will continue to innovate solutions to further our success.

Our purpose is to deliver the power of being understood—not only to our clients, but also to our people. I am passionate about our investment in our talent experience. We have invested heavily in our recruiting, onboarding and development strategies and have seen better-than-market trend results in our ability to retain top talent. We are accelerating our efforts to provide an inclusive culture and talent experience to attract and retain the best, the brightest and the most diverse workforce. We are reimagining how we attract, retain, coach and develop talent.

We continue to provide the support, flexibility and enriching experiences so that our people are compelled to bring their best to our clients and to each other and build successful long-term careers. Our people tell us that when they join our firm, the cultural experience is exactly what we said it would be during the interview process—they think it's something special and so do we, and we're going to keep building on that.

Lastly, we can bring the full power of the firm to our clients by investing in technology and new ways of working to help our people be more efficient/effective as first-choice advisors. Through these investments, we can better create client experiences that add more value while we are also providing advice and services to help clients transform their strategies in an increasingly digital environment.

Consulting: What are your priorities in terms of growth, and strategic expansion?

Vance: You cannot have growth without staying laser focused on clients, their needs and their successes. We bring deep knowledge in our clients' industries—we drive economic research to help them think ahead and leverage our functional expertise to help them prepare for the future. We help clients run certain pieces of their business and offer solutions to problems so that they can achieve profitability, growth and other business aspirations. We are very intentional about growth in IT, risk and mergers and acquisitions. In response to our clients' needs, we have had a steady evolution from a traditional project-based approach to a shift in the delivery toward a managed service model.

Consulting: Are there practice areas or industry sectors you'll be looking to expand or enter?

Vance: As the leading provider of consulting services focused on the middle market, RSM brings strength across many key industries and sectors. We have been expanding our attention to select industries and remain focused on our strategic approach to converging industry, market and solution capabilities to effectively serve our clients around growth, efficiency, profitability and risk management.

As middle market companies become increasingly internationally active, RSM continues to expand our global presence domestically and through our RSM International network. We bring our first-choice advisor capabilities, solution sets and expertise everywhere in the world our clients do business. Specifically, we are building out our global client service teams in India and El Salvador and expanding our RSM International network and capabilities, including our consulting services, on a global scale to continue to offer clients consistent quality and value wherever in the world they do business

Consulting: Tell us about RSM's history and path to here and now.

Vance: RSM will celebrate it's 100th anniversary in 2026. The firm was founded in 1926 by Ira B. McGladrey in Cedar Rapids, Iowa with a vision to treat employees well, serve clients with integrity, and bring leadership and innovation to the firm and profession. McGladrey was one of the early pioneers of the accounting profession, having served on many prominent boards and helping to shape the standards and practices that are the hallmark of our firm and in the field of accounting. Our firm continues to embrace these ideals and every owner and employee at RSM embraces five key characteristics that we call the 5 C's (caring, curious, collaborative, courageous, critical thinkers). These characteristics are firmly entrenched in our culture and have become an expectation for how we interact with our colleagues, our clients and in the communities where we live and work.

Looking forward, RSM will continue to grow as an employer of choice because of our culture, commitment to diversity and inclusion and opportunities to develop our people as a first-choice advisors. RSM continues to be acknowledged as an employer of choice through various national, regional and local awards, including several from Consulting Magazine. Additionally, RSM earned a spot on Great Place to Work® and Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2022 list.

RSM will continue to lead with its thought leadership, offering powerful insights matched with relevant services and solutions for the middle market. We achieve this by utilizing our focus on digital velocity. By understanding the complex environment our clients operate in and by offering them the expertise to manage key functions supported by technology platforms, we are helping to position clients for hyper growth and create a sustainable model for the future.

Consulting: What is your personal perspective (and plan) for addressing corporate culture and the human demands of our evolving workplaces?

Vance: Culture is everything. RSM has been growing at a rapid pace. Ten years ago, consulting was a $200 million practice. At the close of this past fiscal year, consulting surpassed $1.1 billion in total revenue. At the same time, RSM grew from a $1.3 billion firm to over $3 billion. We had double digit growth and that outpaced our competition. That does not happen without a culture of innovation and inclusion. Empowering our people to function as trusted advisors and welcoming multiple perspectives is what got us here. Strategy is necessary. Having a roadmap is necessary. However, a plan is just paper unless you have someone to execute it. We encourage our people to push, to grow and to challenge themselves. All of that said, COVID accelerated where RSM was already headed: working and collaborating in a virtual environment successfully. The hybrid and virtual environment is one where we have been successful and will continue to listen to our people and our clients, learn what works and be sensitive to any nuances that can enhance connections. Beyond that, we are looking at new ways of working so our people are working smarter, not harder. That is part of our strategy to encourage people to be innovative, adopt new technologies and build on what works.

Additionally, when we talk about an evolving workplace, I think what can get lost is in the conversation is growth in general. By growing so rapidly in the last 10 years, and planning on even more growth in the next five, one thing I will not sacrifice is our creativity. As we continue our growth trajectory, establishing controls to continue to protect and evolve our culture will be foundational.

RSM has been thoughtful, collaborative and intentional in evolving our vision and strategy. Three of our key goals are:

• Promote a transparent, caring and authentic environment that fosters meaningful connections.
• Empower our people to personalize their leadership, advisory and specialized skill development opportunities.
• Promote an equitable and inclusive firm where diverse talent excels.

Consulting: Environmental and social governance plays an increasingly necessary role in operations (and service offerings). What are your goals/plans relating to ESG at RSM?

Vance: Last year, RSM created our environmental sustainability task force with the mission to "cultivate sustainable communities that enhance the wellbeing of both current and future generations by driving positive environmental practices through RSM's people, clients and stakeholders." Our team of subject matter experts, who also provide these services to RSM clients, worked with our finance, travel and real estate teams to complete a baseline measurement of our carbon footprint for both fiscal years 2020 and 2021. Based on the measurements, the task force has recommended considerations around how we can return to offices and travel with a more environmentally sustainable future in mind, including considerations around when and how we might reach net zero. Some recommendations for offices included:

• Establishing and communicating data collection expectations with landlords to allow for more robust data channels,
• Decreasing the disposal rates of supplies and packaging,
• Increasing waste management to include more recycling and composting for food waste management, and
• Education of our people so they can employ more sustainable practices not only in the office but also in their lives outside of work.

I'm proud to also say RSM recently hosted the RSM 5K Trash Dash as part of our commitment to creating a better world. Stewardship is one of our values and it's through efforts like this that we give back to the communities in which we work and live.

Consulting: What elements have shaped RSM's post-COVID priorities and what changes do you foresee?

Vance: Aligned with our purpose and culture, RSM has taken a caring approach to all the difficult decisions we've faced during COVID, placing the health and safety of our clients, colleagues and communities above all else. I'm proud of the work we've done to care for others during a very difficult time and our firm is better off because of it.

We must work together with clients to be proactive, respond to challenges and opportunities and then provide ongoing guidance and insights to help them thrive. We have worked and will continue to work with clients to tailor business transformation plans operating in a post-COVID economy.

Consulting: Looking at the market broadly, what are some of the big consulting opportunities you're seeing that you're most interested in capitalizing on?

Vance: We help middle market companies get from A to Z by providing guidance on the economy, individual industries and specific ways our clients can plan, execute and differentiate themselves within this complex economic picture.

Managed services have been important to us for quite some time. However, the value of managed services is magnified in times like these with a shaky global economy, the war in Ukraine, inflation, and the Great Resignation. Managed services will help our clients maintain sound operations in times of uncertainty.

We recognize the value to our clients in providing ongoing managed services, and not just in the typical technology or finance and accounting realm that people have traditionally understood managed services to entail. We also expanded our solutions in the areas of financial planning and analysis and managed security services. Plus, in an increasingly digitized world, RSM is uniquely positioned to help our clients advance their strategies in a digitized environment.

Consulting: What do you see as the overall state of the advisory market?

Vance: Most companies we work with want guidance with strategy as well as specific operational assistance to execute the details of the plan, not just guidance on goal setting. We are business advisors, but we can also go very deep in all areas that our clients need us to. Clients want tactical and actionable steps to accomplish their goals.

I see this becoming only more critical in the face of digital transformation. We see clients across industries and sectors recognizing the need to transform their technology, but sometimes simply don't know where to begin. Gone are the days that we lead with a single solution the client has identified and vetted. Now it's more common for clients to come to us with a blank sheet of paper.

Another element driving this is increasingly pervasive financial, data and information security governance requirements. It can be challenging to keep up with and understand what the regulations mean, which is made even more complex by the global landscape.

Consulting: What are some of the biggest challenges clients are facing currently?

Vance: Some of today's biggest challenges include the need for a digital-first approach, understanding and keeping current with regulations, maintaining a foothold in a shaky economy, supply chain disruptions, global war and the evolving talent market. RSM is well positioned to help our clients navigate these challenges. One of the biggest challenges any of us will see in our professional lifetimes was the onset of COVID. Our sophistication, responsiveness and industry-focused approach enabled us to help our clients pivot instantaneously to a virtual environment, protecting the operations and financial stability of their businesses.

Another universal challenge is the continued investment in software while only utilizing a small percentage of its capability. If technology does not equal efficiency, it is not useful and becomes counterproductive. We always need to question this.

Consulting: What about on the talent side? What are you seeing as trending challenges on the attraction/retention side of talent the way things stand today?

Vance: We believe that our culture and focus on the 5 C's are differentiators because they are a part of each employee's experience regardless of tenure. We are transparent about a culture that fosters creative thinking, support for each other, endless career paths and at its heart, inclusivity.

At RSM, it is a priority to successfully attract and retain our great people. Our culture is a real differentiator for us and we're extremely proud of that. We want to consistently provide an environment that encourages the diverse experiences our people are looking for. They want to be able to try new things, which challenges traditional consulting staffing and resourcing models.

RSM is unique in that we welcome boomerangs. We understand no matter how special our culture is, and how engaging we can make a talent experience, sometimes people just need to explore another opportunity. We know their commitment to RSM and our clients is even stronger when they realize RSM is the best fit for them, and we can welcome them back.