Our client is a boutique advisory firm specializing in family enterprise consulting, working across governance, family office, and consulting practices.
Seven years in, the firm had built a strong reputation and a loyal team, but had grown around an advisor-owner model that created genuine collegiality without the infrastructure to support it.
When the CEO turned to wattsnextpx, the work ahead was clear: design a people architecture purpose-built for a firm where advisors are also owners, and where the future of the business depended on getting it right.
A model that needed its own approach
Advisors were senior professionals who also owned part of the business. The firm's people architecture had to be designed specifically for that reality. Nothing generic would fit.
No definition of success
Nobody had ever formally defined what good looked like at any level of the firm. Advisors were expected to perform without knowing what performance actually meant.
A succession question the firm couldn't ignore
The founding advisor cohort was approaching the later stages of their careers. The firm had no framework to attract the next generation of talent or articulate what a future at the firm could look like.
Tension beneath the surface
Without clear expectations, some advisors felt opportunities and recognition were allocated informally. Trust was quietly eroding.
Define what success looks like at every level
Replace informal expectation with an explicit standard for each level of the firm, so advisors know what is expected of them and how their contribution is measured.
Build a meritocratic progression model
Design a transparent path to progression tied to expertise and market credibility, removing ambiguity about how people advance.
Reward contribution beyond client delivery
Formally recognize business development and firm-building contribution, so recognition follows a system rather than informal judgement.
Build a performance and growth ecosystem
Give every advisor the same rhythm of performance and growth conversations, independent of who they report to.
Create the foundation for the firm's next chapter
Put in place the structure needed to attract, integrate and retain the next generation of advisors.
- Defined what success looks like for every role in the firm, setting out what is expected, how contribution is measured, and what the firm considers outstanding performance.
- Built a transparent three-tier progression model tied to expertise and market credibility, replacing ambiguity with a path advisors could trust.
- Created a Bonus Pool Framework that formally recognizes and rewards business development and firm contribution, replacing informal recognition with a system designed to be fair.
- Established a consistent rhythm of performance and growth conversations across every advisor, so feedback is no longer manager-dependent or ad hoc.
- Designed a defined integration plan for new hires, making onboarding consistent, intentional, and set up to have people contributing from day one.
- Equipped the firm to articulate a compelling future to the next generation of advisors, backed by the infrastructure to deliver on it.
