When Cary McMillan and
his peers were choosing a name for their corporate and business tax consulting firm, they wanted something that conveyed a collegial
atmosphere of interdependence.
“True Partners Consulting —
we picked that name on purpose because we want to be
partners with our clients, we
want to be partners with our
people, we want our people to
be partners with each other,” the
founding partner and CEO says.
To facilitate that culture,
McMillan has grown the 175-employee firm organically,
bringing in new hires one at a
time. The practice has allowed
him to mold employees into
active participants within the
collaborative environment and
has helped boost revenue from
$8 million in 2006 to $23 million
in 2007.
Smart Business spoke with
McMillan about how to target
the best candidates to fuel successful organic growth.
Q. What is the benefit of
organic growth?
While it’s a lot faster to grow
through acquisition, I think it’s
more effective to grow organically if you can.
Building a culture of collegiality, interdependence, quality,
trust — all the words that sound
good on paper — is hard to do,
but it’s a lot easier to do if you
bring these people in one at a
time. If you bring people in, you
get a chance multiple times to
reinforce the values and vision
of the company.
You get to do it when you’re
recruiting them, you get to do it
when they come here one on
one with them, and they get to
participate in the building of the
culture.
Q. How do you find the
best employees to facilitate
organic growth?
You have to make sure that
the home front is secure. The
most important part in recruiting is to make sure that you’re
creating the right culture, the
right environment, the right
atmosphere with the people
that you already have.
The best way to find the best
employees is to have a group of
employees that already
work for you being your
real disciples out there,
and when you send your
people out to help recruit,
really the best example of
what you’re looking for is
who you already have.
