Big 4 firms expanding talent pool, promote young partners amid rapid growth and shifting dynamics
The average age of a new partner at the Big 4 firms has fallen to 33-35, from 38-40 just 4-5 years ago, according to estimates. An average 35-40% of all partners in these firms are below 45 years compared to 30% 2-3 years back. The starting salary of a first-year partner at the Big 4 is in the range of ₹1.25-1.40 crore, the estimates suggest.
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Offering CollegeCourseWebsiteMITMIT Technology Leadership and InnovationVisitIIM KozhikodeIIMK Senior Management ProgrammeVisitIndian School of BusinessISB Venture Capital and Private Equity ProgramVisit«Consulting firms have grown so rapidly in the last 2-3 years that they have no option but to widen their talent pool. Promoting internal talent is one of the best ways of finding more partners,» said Navnit Singh, chairman of India at global leadership recruitment firm Korn Ferry.
Promoting young talent also serves as a retention tool.
Rise in Non-equity Partners
«Over the past few years, the Big 4 lost a lot of talent to corporates and startups where the path to the C-Suite was accelerating,» said Debu Mishra, partner and head advisory APAC & MENA, True Search, a global search firm. «This has increased the prevalence of non-equity partners (NEP) over the past few years to serve as a retention tool while not diluting the partnership pool of equity partners. This, in turn, has reduced the average time to the partner title,» said Mishra.
Together, the Big 4 are estimated to have about 3,000 partners in India. Of the total, non-equity partners are at 25-35%, while the rest are equity partners, according to Singh at Korn Ferry.
Equity partners have to invest capital in the firm in exchange for a share of profit.
