Challenging the establishment

By Michael Mosley

At the start of 2010 it was claimed (once again) that this would be the ‘year of the boutique’. When this failed to materialise, the Bulge Bracket Banks once more held aloft the mystical figures that saw off these up-start challengers, ‘the rainmakers’.

The rainmakers have for sometime been the defining feature of the Bulge Bracket Banks with their ability to bring work to the M&A team, their ability to make or break a bank’s year and some say their ability to walk on water.

But nothing lasts forever and the Bulge Bracket Banks have stopped asking themselves a simple question. A question every firm should ask themselves about revenue generating staff - what if they left? The answer…5%.

5% is the total deal volume* Frank Quattrone (Qatalyst), Ken Moelis (Moelis), Blair Effrone (Centerview) and Perella Weinberg have taken since 2006. In fact there is no better advert for 2011 being the year of the boutique than Frank Quattrone’s Qatalyst - with its sale of Motorola to Google ($12.5billion), and its sale of Autonomy to Hewlett Packard ($11.7Billion). With its team of 30 professionals in two offices, Qatalyst have demonstrated to Bulge Brackets’ thousands of staff and hundreds of offices, just how dangerous one rainmaker can be.

But this isn’t just happening in M&A – it’s happening in Venture Capital, Private Equity, IT, Software, Recruitment - the list is endless. 

Entrepreneurs armed only with a rolodex and a mobile phone are looking to challenge the establishment. But this isn’t the first time or the last time that small firms will cause havoc for big firms, these cyclical events mean that job hunters can no longer be a master of one trade; they must become a jack of all trades and a master of everything. 

The boutique clients we work with, especially the more recent ones, push this idea of an entrepreneurial environment. They want their employees to get excited about the business they work for, so that they are willing to roll up their sleeves and help drive the business into the future as if it was their own. They want individuals that can see the long-term vision and gain, rather than the short-term benefit. 

So if you are looking to join a boutique or a start-up, there are a few things you need to consider. Will you be able to enjoy a work life balance? Will the firm not having the best infrastructure trouble you? Are you keen to create the processes and practices of the office? 

From experience, I know these companies can be great places to work, especially when you are a junior with nothing to lose. On a day-to-day basis the work will have you flying by the seat of your pants and only the most resilient, resourceful and driven of individuals will survive.

 So go forth and take a risk with a boutique or start-up, the bigger the risk the bigger the reward.

* Source: Reuters