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We need to feel safe and supported to speak up, share our ideas and spark courageous conversations that help bring out the best in all of us. We know that our diverse backgrounds, experiences and perspectives help us to see things differently to the person next to us. As an organisation, we need that diversity of viewpoints and innovative thinking from our people to achieve the game-changing results we aim for when partnering with clients.
Our simple belief is that we achieve better outcomes when people feel safe to be themselves. That is why we work hard to create a working environment in which all our people can belong, contribute and thrive. As a firm, we are committed to building an inclusive, diverse, flexible, and accessible culture in which all our people can unleash their full potential.
"People here don’t take themselves too seriously and everyone that I have worked with is collaborative, open to admitting when a suggestion or guidance may not have been the best path, and always happy to work as a team"
Alyssa Griffin
Associate Principal
Australia and New Zealand
Q: Tell us about your background before consulting. What did you study at university?
My undergraduate degree is in math, and my master’s is in data analytics, so it's quite self-explanatory. What we tend to do here at Partners and Performance, and consulting more broadly, is just problem-solving at its core, and that's often rooted in analytics and has some elements of mathematical problem-solving – it's right up my alley!
Q: What do you enjoy most about working at Partners in Performance?
What has kept me here has been the variety of work that I've gotten to participate in, as well as the people that I've worked with. People here don’t take themselves too seriously and everyone that I've worked with is collaborative, open to admitting when a suggestion or guidance may not have been the best path, and always happy to work as a team.
Q: What are the biggest challenges for women in consulting, and how should organisations address these challenges?
I think a lot of women often find it challenging working in male-dominated environments like in consulting. We need to be mindful of the impact microaggressions and unconscious biases can have on women in the workplace. For example, not using gender-neutral terms or assuming the male that you’re working with is your boss when that is not the case. These challenges may seem small, but over time, it can really drain you and start to feel like you are constantly swimming upstream.
"Our culture is not just something that looks good in a textbook. Every person in the firm lives and breathes it. From the diversity, inclusion, safety, bringing your whole self to work and the overall openness of the culture, we put our money where our mouths are."
Damian Lahoud
Manager
Africa
Q: What would you say has been one of your most meaningful experiences at Partners in Performance so far?
The interactions with clients. I cannot really pinpoint one client because I’ve been on such a vast variety of different engagements. However, it is great to be able to sit with a client where at the beginning of the engagement you can gauge their hesitancy, but by the end, you can see that you have really brought value to their business. It is nice to be able to experience that joy with them when you bring improvements to their organisations and to their lives. During my time here I have been exposed to things like procurement, the rapid optimisation of capital projects, wiring implementations – things that widened my skill set and knowledge base. I did not think I would have been exposed to so many different parts of the business in such a short time.
Q: What have you learned during your time here?
I have learned a lot about myself. In such a dynamic firm, it is very hard not to get swept up in continuously improving, not just to clients, but also improving yourself and your personal development.
Q: What do you think we should all be doing to challenge gender bias and inequality?
Try to challenge stereotypes and generalisations. Individuals within each ‘group’. It can be simple things like challenging language and how people use it – for example if they talk about ‘the sales guy’ or ‘the next CEO, he will be great’. I think it’s just raising those topics and trying to challenge inequality when you see it.
Q: What makes Partners in Performance different?
Our culture is not just something that looks good in a textbook. Every person in the firm lives and breathes it. From the diversity, inclusion, safety, bringing your whole self to work and the overall openness of the culture, we put our money where our mouths are. It is encouraging and exciting to be part of that kind of environment. Here, if someone says: "Oh, that's a great idea,” during a workshop, a week later, it will be implemented. The more you get involved within the firm, the more opportunities begin to open up for you.
"Inclusion is forming an environment where those individuals can come together and that environment both acknowledges, accepts and respects all of the differences."
Araceli Fernandez
Partner
North America
Q: What does diversity and inclusion mean to you?
Diversity to me is bringing individuals together that come from a variety of forms. That differences can come from race, gender, religion, age and any other uniqueness that that individual brings to the team. Inclusion is really forming an environment where those individuals can come together and that environment both acknowledges, accepts and respects everyone’s differences.
Q: What is the one piece of advice you can give to anyone embarking a management consulting career?
I'm going to shamelessly take a quote that I learned from a female that was giving a presentation at a woman and consulting conference. She said, “Be bold in the sense that ask for what you want. Build the confidence in yourself and ignore all the unhealthy fears that keep you from growing and developing. Focus on the things that you want to get to and just keep moving one step at a time.
Q: What do you think we should all be doing to challenge gender bias and inequality?
Try to challenge stereotypes and generalisations. Individuals within each ‘group’. It can be simple things like challenging language and how people use it – for example if they talk about ‘the sales guy’ or ‘the next CEO, he will be great’. I think it’s just raising those topics and trying to challenge inequality when you see it.
Q: Describe one of your milestone moments at Partners in Performance, and what has made it so special for you.
One of my biggest milestones occurred a few months before my promotion to Associate Principal: it was the moment when I realise that I was no longer ‘green’. When you start consulting, you can be placed in different industries during different services and in different regions. It's a lot of firsts. Now, the moment a client explained their problem to me, I instinctively think of all the possible bottlenecks, and next to that, I would put potential solutions or ways to figure out if that was a problem. I have all of this knowledge that I gained throughout my career with Partners in Performance and can now lead our clients to that journey of success that they are looking for.