Speaking to AccountantsDaily, Don Rankin, director at Pitcher Partners and chair of the Pitcher Partners National Association, emphasised the importance of nurturing in-house talent when it comes to advancing the firm’s partnership.
"I think being really discerning about your partnership appointments is really important; the quality of partner is really paramount these days," said Mr Rankin.
"We try as much as we can to grow partners internally and promote from within. We’re not really practices who do a lot of recruiting from the market and doing lateral hires, although it does happen."
Mr Rankin made note of the seven new partners that have been appointed across the national association for the new financial year; Phil Shepherd and Jim Gouskos in Adelaide; Kellie Davidson and Daniel Doherty in Melbourne; and Louise Meijer, Alison Wood and Jordan Kennedy in Sydney.
According to Mr Rankin, the strength of the firm lies in its preference for steady ascension in favour of "ridiculously fast aspirational growth".
"I think that’s why we’ve been so stable over the years. We’ve seen many mid-market firms come and go and change, names moving all over the place. This hasn’t happened so much with us. That builds a really strong culture."
The sense of culture promoted within the firm has allowed Pitcher Partners to expand its international offering, according to Mr Rankin.
"We’re focusing a lot more on international. We’re getting a lot more enquiries about inbound investment through our Baker Tilly network and other sources, and we’re seeing many more of our clients having to go internationally to grow their businesses," he said.
"We recently did a survey of M&A work, and I think about 40 per cent of all M&A work in the Australian middle market last year involved overseas players, so you’ve got to be a participant. You’ve got to build a capability and you’ve got to understand what’s real and what’s not, there are cultural aspects to it.
"We’ve really been focused on it for about four or five years, but it’s really the last 12 to 18 months we’ve started to see some real engagement and payback for the investment that’s been happening," Mr Rankin concluded.
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