Q&A with Greg Portell

Are we at risk of not growing because of the lack of resources ? Given the long term growth of consulting and our lack of growth, does a short term concern about capacity constrain our growth ?

Greg. Appreciate you doing this. How are we positioned for winning digital procurement transformation projects? How do we compare to completion? I see a gap between our capabilities vs competition

Are we at risk of having too many resources with the recent off-cycle and campus hires starting up? With the cyclical nature of consulting, what are we doing to ensure we don't "over" hi… more

i think i addressed all the questions. if others are floating out there, i’m happy to keep answering as long as fb allows. otherwise, feel free to email me directly. thanks for keeping it lively!!

Hi Greg, thanks for sharing your time with us. Do you have any advice for people who are new to leadership roles on how to be a good manager/team lead (or any advice that has helped you do so)?

This is the super bowl :) Thanks for doing this, Greg! No reply necessary for this one.

I have heard partners, current and retired, mention that the benefit of partnership for new partners has been degraded quite significantly from even 10 years ago. Do you think this is true?

In terms of positioning vs competitors - particularly strategy focused firms like MBB, could our leading Operational expertise can be coupled with the strategy practice to differentiate us?...

What is your take on consultants being stuck on long projects? It’s like pulling teeth trying to roll off of some accounts. We never get a say in our extension. Will leadership address this?

How do you view yourself as a partner vs MBB partners? Just want to understand where you see your strengths vs weaknesses.

What's your average work week including travel time look like?

Hi Greg, thanks for your time! I'm curious about how Partner compensation works, and to see how different it is from other employees. Can you provide some insight into that?

What is your opinion about the way ATK evaluates employee performance. Any thoughts on how this process can be improved?

taking a brief pause... will be back soon... keep the questions coming

Hi Greg, what has been the most difficult adjustment when you became a partner?

How has ATK's reputation within the industry evolved while you've been at the firm? What is our plan to differentiate ourselves from the competition moving forward?

What's the most rewarding aspect of being a partner in your opinion? How did you decide this was the career path for you?

Does leadership view free lance or purely analytics/data driven consulting firms or in house consulting arms for many of the Fortune 50 (e.g. google, amazon) as a legitimate threat to ATK?

Hi Greg! As a consultant with limited time and a million emails to read, what is the best way to disseminate important regional info to you? We have many resources at our disposal (con’t)

Hi Greg, I’ve been at the firm for 5 years and seen a lot of G&A savings initiatives that have taken place (functional offshoring, Avis v. Hertz, etc.). While I agree with being cost efficient, ha… more

Does leadership acknowledge that there has been a recent problem with retention of slightly more experienced consultants (2-5 years of experience)

Thank you for doing this Greg! What is the rationale for having our BA/SBA base salary much lower than competitors? Most juniors I know with multiple offers took a pay cut to come to ATK (cont.)

Greg- what is your honest opinion about the recent mandatory alignment for managers within 6 months of promotion? I am quite surprised this topic hasn’t been discussed enough on Fb.

daylight again in the US, I’ll be jumping back in as soon as i finish my brisk workout. those who know me realize that means i’ll be starting right after my plate of pancakes. fire up those questions

Greg, thanks for doing this! What advice do you have for scholars considering whether or not to return post-MBA given the various opportunities to pivot at this point (vs say post- manager)?

Hi Greg! What is your best consulting memory? 😀

Realize someone recently asked this in the main bowl, but... Why don’t we have anything in place to track actual hours worked vs. the 40 billed to the client? Could provide many insights

they say I’m not supposed to start answering until wednesday - but to paraphrase the saying “it is 5:00 somewhere”, “it is Wednesday somewhere”. let’s start ...

I have a hard time believing our firm would ever advise a client to have an IT function as underresourced and spread thin as KNET. Any possibility of an upgrade or added investment?

Hi Greg - Two questions. 1.What life lessons would you give to those who want to stick to consulting in the long run? 2.Same Q but for those who want to exit + what is the optimal role to quit Thanks

What is leadership doing to address junior consultants’ work / life balance and happiness, especially in strategy projects that are known for being grueling?

Thank you for your time. I work in Management Services. What are your thoughts about an assessment of current leadership/power structures? There are way too many little kingdoms here

What advice would you give to Junior Consultants as they build their own “Brand” within ATK?

The job market is currently very strong. What is the firm doing to retain top experienced consultants ( Manager and above) given recent attrition?

What keeps you awake at night?

I’ve come across many toxic seniors. Why should I stick out my most productive years to be in the same partnership as these people? What keeps me going is that I’ve also met some very amazing folks.

Let’s say that I aspire to be a partner one day...why should someone at my level have that aspiration if the firm hasn’t grown much past the 1bn revenue number in the last few years?

After all these years, what keeps you at the firm ?

Thanks for your time Greg - how did you know you wanted to stick it out until Partner?

Hi Greg, thanks so much for doing this! Really appreciate it! To kick things off, how does ATK compare to other firms in your opinion. How do you differentiate us when selling work?