| Tiburon Careers
Tiburon is hiring! Specifically, the firm plans to add either a chief consulting officer and/or a team of two-to-three incremental principals (the most senior role at the firm) in 2010 or 2011. The firm also intends to add several additional research managers and/or associates as well as business & marketing managers and/or associates. And the firm is open to hearing from candidates for its entrepreneurial associate principal role. Current opportunities are highlighted below. Tiburon Strategic Advisors Tiburon Strategic Advisors was formed in 1998 to offer market research, strategy consulting, & other related services primarily to senior executives in the financial services industry. All Tiburon principals, managers, & associates are primarily engaged in the business of conducting research & analysis, drawing conclusions, creating & fulfilling demand, & providing advice to the firm’s clients (and sometimes to the firm itself). Tiburon’s business structure is akin to being a boutique version of McKinsey & Company, Bain & Company, or Boston Consulting Group, and it is probably most like Bain & Company, in that it is intentionally retaining its entrepreneurial culture (think of Tiburon as a profitable firm with a twelve year successful track-record but still with a start-up firm’s culture, energy, & rewards systems). Tiburon is positioned as an upscale business-to-business enterprise serving well-seasoned executives. Three of Tiburon’s core clientele groups are the CEOs and other senior executives of large US financial institutions faced with difficult strategic decisions, leading executives of foreign financial institutions trying to understand and/or enter the US markets, and a long list of venture capital & private equity firms, and investment banks, making investments in, and executing transactions in, areas where Tiburon has developed proprietary insights. The firm has served over 300 corporate clients and completed over 1,200 projects since its founding, and today, its knowledge base includes topics such as consumer wealth, mutual fund distribution, separately managed account programs, alternative investments, wealth management, insurance products, banking services, the fee-based financial advisor market, the CPA firm market, the family office market, and various international markets. Tiburon’s products & services are relatively expensive, with its least expensive product (its off-the-shelf research reports) costing $5,000 and most market research & strategy consulting assignments being billed at above $100,000. Practically, Tiburon principals, research managers, & research associates read a lot of newspaper clippings, surf a lot of web sites, execute proprietary research, and then in very well-defined ways, translate this information into PowerPoint presentation pages, analyze the findings, draw conclusions, & structure those conclusions into documents, allowing the firm to use these documents to offer general & specific business advice to its clients. Tiburon’s principals, business & marketing managers, and business & marketing associates then design & manage efforts to share the firm’s research, and assess & manage the resulting inbound client & prospect inquires. Tiburon offers principals, managers, & associates a broad learning and participatory experience across the financial services industry, with frequent exposure to executive-level thinking. As a general rule, strategy consulting firms offer substantial levels of responsibility to their principals, managers, & associates along with potentially high rewards structures. Furthermore, because of its initial single-principal business model, Tiburon has been built around the objective of giving even more than traditional levels of responsibility & autonomy to its managers & associates. For all roles at Tiburon, principals, managers, & associates execute special assignments & tasks under only general supervision, and they are expected to customarily & regularly exercise discretion & independent judgment on many matters of substantial importance & consequences to both Tiburon & its clients. On a daily basis, Tiburon principals, managers, & associates will compare & evaluate various courses of conduct and make decisions with consequences, often free from direct supervision. Tiburon’s culture requires accuracy, accountability, efficiency, productivity, & professionalism. Time is the scarce commodity in the strategy consulting business and with its initial single principal model, Tiburon diligently guards it; in other words, successful candidates need to be efficient, work with limited supervision, and be productive to succeed at Tiburon. Tiburon’s office can reflect a library on many days, with all employees devoted to their own assignments. Tiburon rewards success, specifically offering merit-based compensation & advancement opportunities, most notably shown by managers' & associates’ ability to conduct insightful research & analysis, draw accurate & insightful conclusions, create & fulfill client demand, make recommendations, and help less experienced employees succeed. Tiburon has worked diligently to make its work environment enjoyable in order to enable high performing managers & associates to succeed; the Tiburon setting & office design are quite pleasing (no cubicles!), casual dress, music, & office dogs are allowed on some days.
Tiburon Associates (standing left to right) Alex Porfirenko, Chris Jenks, Pablo Perez, & (seated) Camille Harris Current Openings Specifically, Tiburon has openings in four areas:
Consulting Department: Chief Consulting Officer and/or Team of Principals Tiburon's key opportunity now is to add additional principals to leverage its client relationships, written research materials, contacts database, marketing processes, & firm infrastructure that has been built over the past twelve years. It is expected that new principals will independently lead market research & strategy consulting assignments with existing Tiburon clients or possibly new clients that they would source. Tiburon's managing principal seeks to transition project and employee leadership in the near-term, repositioning himself to focus more on marketing and research, and also wants to transition client and firm leadership in the medium term. Becoming a principal at Tiburon is an excellent opportunity for mid-career strategy consultants who have gained experience with top-tier strategy consulting firms, and who may now wish to pursue more entrepreneurial opportunities. As Tiburon's managing principal focuses more of his efforts on running the firm, marketing, assessing client needs, and driving the firm's research agenda, Tiburon expects these other principals to lead the majority of client engagements, and the firm is prepared to kick-start all new principals by introducing them to the firm's extensive client base (e.g., approximately 150 Tiburon clients attend each of its semi-annual CEO Summits). The Tiburon principal role is for experienced management consultants who have learned and successfully applied strategy consulting processes. The best candidates likely have gone into the financial services industry and/or served financial services companies extensively. As compared to the model of the leading management consulting firms, the best candidates for Tiburon may bring more industry expertise, may be a little more research focused, and may be more hands-on. But that said, the role is similar to that at the larger strategy firms. Candidates for the roles of principal need to have gained experienced at one of the top-tier strategy consulting firms such as McKinsey & Company, Bain & Company, and Boston Consulting Group (e.g., Tiburon's managing principal is an alumnus of McKinsey & Company). A careful balance of consulting skills, industry experience, & research aptitude is required. Principal candidates must be able to develop and maintain excellent client relationships and independently lead multiple projects. New principals must also be devoted to continuing Tiburon's research-based model. Ideal candidates may have overlapping expertise and/or expertise in areas related to the firm's core brokerage & investment management clientele; obvious synergistic areas include banking, insurance, institutional asset management, capital markets, corporate & capital governance, leadership & change management, technology, operations, and M&A strategy. In a boutique environment, the two key challenges for new principals appear to be:
Tiburon's objective is to add numerous additional principals. There appear to be two ways to effect the transition that Tiburon is seeking to make:
Compensation Package Compensation for principals will be structured similarly to that at other management consulting firms, consisting of draws based on previous Tiburon results and annual profit sharing allocations. Principals will be compensated substantially on project execution; the firm's current model allocates a percentage of project revenues to sales, research, marketing & administration, and equity, while still allocating the largest share to execution. Early principals may be eligible for higher percentage payouts as they will be expected to continue to help build the infrastructure and source additional principals. After an initial period, draws can be established based on realized revenues; draws of $300,000-$600,000 seem realistic based on $600,000+ compensation expectations for principals, with additional compensation paid annually. A substantial level of commitment will be expected of all new principals; compensation will follow, not lead. Tiburon hopes to add an initial two-to-three principals in Tiburon so that they are best able to leverage the existing firm infrastructure and be available to directly lead managers & associates in market research & strategy consulting projects. Beyond that, Tiburon will be willing to explore the addition of new offices. The firm is not interested in contractor relationships or assistance from recruiters. Research Managers & Associates Tiburon research manager & associate positions provide a unique opportunity for BA/BS or MA/MBA graduates with a research aptitude to enter into the consulting industry and learn research and consulting processes. Prior consulting experience is not necessary, but rather new research associates will be expected to quickly learn & apply Tiburon’s well-established research & consulting processes. Content knowledge is also not a pre-requisite and may even make one believe that they are more qualified than is true; Tiburon’s clients are generally the CEOs of their businesses, so they are quite well-versed in basic (and often advanced) industry content. Content is learned at Tiburon by reading the firm’s existing research reports, reading newspaper clippings & web sites, conducting proprietary research, and analyzing all such findings. Experience has taught the firm that backgrounds in research, debate, history, and/or journalism may be most helpful. Tiburon research managers design & manage the majority of the firm’s research efforts, conduct analyses, draw conclusions, and structure those conclusions into proprietary Tiburon research content and client documents so as to provide advice to Tiburon clients. Tiburon research associates play as support role in leading the core aspects of research report production, including refining reports' table of contents, reconciling appendices, selecting key findings, selecting executive summary paragraphs, & selecting Power Point slides to include (with the requirement of two new or revised research reports being published weekly). Near-term success will be based on both timeliness and accuracy of work. Success will be measured by the quality of the work products produced, as evaluated by clients, principals, & managers. Mid-term opportunities for successful research associates are enormous at Tiburon. By developing a track record of timeliness and accuracy, research associates will be reviewed for advancement to the role of research manager. Tiburon seeks to help managers & associates learn its established processes and to build their careers at Tiburon, following a path to becoming firm principals. Qualifications More than any particular degree or experience, success in strategy consulting seems to come to those who are research-oriented, organized, conclusion-oriented, & motivated. Tiburon has developed the following qualifications list for this role to represent its desire to find team members with those aptitudes:
Compensation Package All new employees at Tiburon will start as associates until they have shown comprehensive knowledge of Tiburon’s processes, at which point they can be considered for the role of manager, which comes with more direct contact with the firm’s principals and higher potential compensation. Tiburon hopes to reward successful associates over time through a clearly-defined advancement plan. The compensation package for the Tiburon associate role is:
All Tiburon associates will be expected to maintain detailed accounting of their hours and should take meal & break periods as stipulated by California employment law. All Tiburon associates are subject to a three month probation period without benefits. Tiburon associate roles are challenging; employees should seek out regular feedback from their assigned supervisors and/or mentors. Continued employment will be based on individual and company performance. Tiburon will not offer severance to associates who do not succeed. Business & Marketing Managers & Associates Tiburon business & marketing manager & associate positions provide a unique opportunity for BA/BS or MA/MBA graduates with a business & marketing aptitude to enter into the consulting industry and learn business & marketing processes. Prior consulting experience is not necessary, but rather new business & marketing associates will be expected to quickly learn & apply Tiburon’s well-established business & marketing processes. Content knowledge is also not a pre-requisite and may even make one believe that they are more qualified than is true; Tiburon’s clients are generally the CEOs of their businesses, so they are quite well-versed in basic (and often advanced) industry content. Content is learned at Tiburon by reading the firm’s existing research reports, reading newspaper clippings & web sites, conducting proprietary research, and analyzing all such findings. Experience has taught the firm that backgrounds in research, debate, history, and/or journalism may be most helpful. Tiburon business & marketing managers design & manage the majority of the firm’s business & marketing efforts, outlining such projects, executing such, & measuring such. Tiburon business & marketing associates play a supporting role in executing pre-defined business & marketing projects (with most projects taking just hours, days, or weeks). Near-term success will be based on both timeliness and accuracy of work. Success will be measured by the quality of the work products produced, as evaluated by clients, principals, & managers. Mid-term opportunities for successful business & marketing associates are enormous at Tiburon. By developing a track record of timeliness and accuracy, business & marketing associates will be reviewed for advancement to the role of business & marketing manager. Tiburon seeks to help managers & associates learn its established processes and to build their careers at Tiburon, following a path to becoming firm principals. Qualifications More than any particular degree or experience, success in strategy consulting seems to come to those who are research-oriented, organized, conclusion-oriented, & motivated. Tiburon has developed the following qualifications list for this role to represent its desire to find team members with those aptitudes:
Compensation Package All new employees at Tiburon will start as associates until they have shown comprehensive knowledge of Tiburon’s processes, at which point they can be considered for the role of manager, which comes with more direct contact with the firm’s principals and higher potential compensation. Tiburon hopes to reward successful associates over time through a clearly-defined advancement plan. The compensation package for the Tiburon associate role is:
All Tiburon associates will be expected to maintain detailed accounting of their hours and should take meal & break periods as stipulated by California employment law. All Tiburon associates are subject to a three month probation period without benefits. Tiburon associate roles are challenging; employees should seek out regular feedback from their assigned supervisors and/or mentors. Continued employment will be based on individual and company performance. Tiburon will not offer severance to associates who do not succeed. Associate Principals Tiburon is attempting to define an associate principals program for mid-career professionals who want the autonomy of working on business & marketing (not client) projects as independent contractors while benefiting from Tiburon's established market position (relationships, written research materials, contacts database, & marketing processes). Becoming an associate principal at Tiburon is an excellent opportunity for mid-career professionals with the aptitude to work alone, the desire to follow through a project, & the necessary general management skills (as projects often will involve research, technology, & marketing). Rewards will be solely tied to project completion and revenue generation. Tiburon has the opportunity to allow a series of associate principals to lead dozens key Tiburon initiatives. Compensation Package Compensation for associate principals will be solely based upon project completion and resulting revenues. All Tiburon associate principal roles would be structured as independent contractors and are obviously exempt from overtime pay. The firm is not interested in assistance from recruiters. Tiburon Careers Process Prior to applying for any Tiburon job, please:
If you are interested in applying for any Tiburon position, please email a cover letter explaining how you would fulfill this job’s specific requirements, and include a resume. Please send these to Careers@TiburonAdvisors.Com. Tiburon will contact qualified candidates promptly. Thanks & good luck! Other senior industry executives may be interested in Tiburon's CEOs-in-Residence or Tiburon Fellows programs. The CEOs program is for retired CEOs from throughout the industry who want to stay actively involved in some capacity. The Tiburon Fellows program is for executives that have set up industry-focused consulting businesses in complementary capacities to Tiburon's services. You may also find the information in the Tiburon People and the About Tiburon sections helpful. |
|||