How professional service firms can increase revenue, partner diversity

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. Female and minority junior partners in professional service firms may benefit from using different clientele-building strategies than their white male counterparts according to recent research co-authored by Forrest Briscoe of the Penn State Smeal College of Business. By encouraging and supporting these varying strategies, firms could increase both revenue and diversity among senior partners. Briscoe, associate professor of management and sociology, and his co-author Andrew von Nordenflycht of Simon Fraser University identified two primary methods for building clientele - the inheritance strategy and the rainmaking strategy - and found that, while inheritance is effective for white male partners, rainmaking tends to be more lucrative for females and minorities. According to the researcher's paper, although both inheritance and rainmaking strategies may be viable in general, they may differ in their effectiveness for women and minorities. Because the professional-client relationship is based largely on an ongoing social relationship, building clientele in professional service firms is dependent upon building social networks. The inheritance strategy relies on building networks within a firm - often by developing a relationship with a senior partner and inheriting his or her clients upon their retirement.