The Parthenon Group

The overview

Founded by two former Bain consultants, The Parthenon Group is a business strategy consulting firm, with four global offices in London, Boston, San Francisco and Mumbai. 2011 marks its 20th birthday.

Areas of business

It has some additional arms to broaden its scope – Parthenon Capital, for example, is a private equity firm, but is still affiliated under The Parthenon Group as a whole. The principal business, however, comes from The Parthenon Group positioning itself as a consultancy resource for company CEOs and business leaders.

The group often comes under the description of a ‘boutique’ firm, in part because of its size but also due to its close, life-long relationships with its clients, upon which it prides itself.

Main operating sectors

Key sectors in which the company consults:

• education
• healthcare
• consumer

The firm does not limit itself to these areas, however. Its consultants work in various other fields, including business and financial services, private equity, publishing and technology. Projects tend to be centred around capabilities such as change management and implementation, corporate strategy, M&A strategies, econometric forecasting and company positioning in competitive markets.

High-profile clients

Clients include well-known names such as:

• eBay
• McGraw-Hill
• Ocean Spray
• Bausch & Lomb
• ThomsonReuters

The work the for each client is individualised – in much of its advertising material, Parthenon refers to its belief that there is no single ‘silver-bullet’ solution to consultancy issues.

Salary and benefits

Starting salaries at Parthenon are only referred to as ‘highly competitive’. In terms of the consultancy areas the group practices in, this should amount to somewhere in the £30,000 region.

Benefits include:

• bonus (discretionary)
• golden hello
• life assurance
• pension scheme (with company contribution)
• private healthcare
• MBA sponsorship

Culture and values

The ‘boutique’ philosophy of Parthenon means that it tries to provide a more client-focused image than its competitors. Essentially, this strategy amounts to treating the client as an individual and taking its concerns and points on board, rather than coming in as an external company and only identifying problems.

These close relationships are meant to be long-term, rather than one-off problem solvers. ‘Customised and Actionable Insights’ refer to the case-by-case basis of working with clients – while the Parthenon Group has a series of set analytical techniques and tools, it tries to approach every project as something in its own right, rather than a mimic of previous work.

Sharing risk

The close relationship with its clients extends to the Parthenon Group taking accountability by sharing a client’s risk through a variety of methods, including consulting for equity and success fees – what it refers to as its ‘entrepreneurial spirit’.

No office can have over 100 staff.

There are no plans to expand significantly, as it is the boutique-style culture that the Parthenon Group believes wins over its clients. No office, for example, is allowed to grow to more than 100 members of staff. As of 2010, there were 25 consultancy staff in the London office.

Close-knit working environment

Internally, the size of the firm means the close-knit vibe continues. All employees are meant to fill three simple criteria:

• Smart. Much of the Parthenon Group’s reputation is built on the calibre of its staff, whom it tends to recruit from select universities only. It is a system which works for the company, and has done for many years.
• Nice. The company wants to hire people who will get on naturally with their clients – and their colleagues. The firm reports that clients refer to its ‘arrogance-free’ consultants.

• Driven. It’s not just about doing the work well – there has to be some element of appetite and interest behind it from every employee, particularly given the entrepreneurial element to the work.

To promote a social atmosphere, associates are expected to get involved in several internal company events and tasks, and are likely to organise some. These can vary from team events to recruitment and training, and are laid out in further detail in the graduate jobs section of this Insight.

Harvey Two-Case

Something the Group is clearly keen to promote is the ‘two-case’ principle that it works by. In practice, what this means is that on the vast majority of occasions, an employee is working on two projects at once. Supposedly, the two case model increases both the speed and breadth of employees’ learning. It does this simply by directly exposing them to a greater variety of tasks and sectors in a shorter space of time than is typical of the profession.