the job of managing partner: empowered or emasculated?
why eat-what-you-kill firm cultures produce weak ceos.
by bill reeb and dominic cingoranelli
let’s review some best practices as to how the managing partner is elected, what is expected, for what term and how he or she is protected if removed from that role.
more on performance management: how to monitor goal progress | how to implement strategy, step by step | how to decide who decides pay | accountability includes partners | succession plan requirements | how retired partners are robbing their own firms | 4 ways to create more capacity | partner retirement and the war for clients | succession: the questions to care about | hazards of not reallocating equity | cpa firm performance assessments: 15 core competencies, 21 questions | 5 harmful management attitudes (and how to fix them)
the job differs whether it is being filled under the eat what you kill (ewyk) or building a village (bav) models. for example, under the ewyk model, the managing partner is likely the largest equity partner, or if not, then the default would be that the role of the managing partner would be that of administrative partner. because the ewyk model is usually a silo model built around superstars, the managing partner’s role is to handle all of the matters that the other partners don’t want to do. it is not uncommon in these scenarios that the managing partner earns a stipend to fill that position, and that the stipend is not very much (maybe $25,000 to $75,000 a year).
