Owners of Convenience

In my work with AEC firms, I have watched many strong billers and long-serving employees be offered partnership. The offer is usually described as recognition. Sometimes, though, it is primarily a way to keep a valued producer in place, with little consideration of whether that person is ready to help steward the firm. I call them owners of convenience.

The arrangement can work comfortably when times are good. The work gets done and the numbers hold. But when the economy turns or the firm faces a hard decision, the gap between holding shares and accepting responsibility becomes harder to ignore. The ownership group needs people who can look beyond their own work, clients and financial interests to consider what the whole firm needs.

That responsibility belongs first to the people making the offer. Were they clear among themselves about the traits healthy stewardship requires before inviting someone into ownership? Did they model that themselves? Did they explain what ownership asks? Did they assess readiness beyond production and tenure? Did they help the person develop the judgment and commitment the role requires? If those conversations never happened, they should not be surprised when the new owner falls short of expectations that were never made clear.

A firm that wants to last across generations has to look past billings when it decides who comes in. I look for people who build the firm’s reputation beyond their own projects, who share client relationships instead of guarding them, who have hired and developed others into leaders, who will accept a short-term personal cost for the firm’s long-term strength, and who see the firm as something entrusted to them to strengthen and pass on.

Strong billings can get someone considered. Those qualities noted above should carry far more weight in deciding whether they are ready for ownership.

Ownership is a commitment to the firm’s future. When we offer it without asking for stewardship, we solve today’s retention problem by creating tomorrow’s ownership problem.