Job Title: Associate Partner
Location: London, UK
Submitted on: 08-Jul-04
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Here's a telling story. It's hard to believe that until only about
three or four years ago, Brunswick was so secretive it didn't even have
a website. Famously refusing to advertise, give interviews or promote
itself, Brunswick (officially) preferred to gain business by personal
referrals from satisified clients. Unoffically, one of the real
reasons for the lengthy delay in building the website was simply that
Brunswick's senior partner for years was never satisfied with any of
the drafts of the copy that would appear on the site......
"You should know that we are a tribe", said the HR woman in one of my
interviews. I didn't know what to make of that at the time, but
looking back I can totally see what she meant. The culture is that of
a tight knit family - albeit 250ish strong, spread across three
continents. The upside of this is the fun you will have with your
colleagues, both inside and outside work. Socialising is very common -
whether it is going out for lunch together, or a drinking session after
work, or even a drinking session AT work (there is a fridge full of
free soft drinks, wine and beer for if you are unfortunate enough to be
staying late for something). Like a tribe or a family, the firm
organised regular cocktail parties and dances to celebrate
anniversaries, profit announcements, or for no particular reason at
all, and a great fuss (champagne for everyone, flowers, presents) is
made of anyone getting married, having a baby or leaving to move to
another (non rival)employer. People still there say the culture is
changing now, due to a sharp increase in staff turnover in the last 12
months, but during my time I had fun and made some great friends there -
something I wouldn't necessarily say about my previous or current
jobs.
The downside of the whole tribe thing is that tribe requires total and
unquestioning adherence to its cult. Like tribe members who marry
outside the faith, defectors are never, ever, forgiven, least of all by
Alan Parker, the tribal chief whose presence looms over everything and
everyone. Parker is the mercurial, visionary PR guru who founded the
company and who owns most of the shares, still effectively exerting
absolute control over just about every aspect of this business. His
influence is felt in everything, from, for example, insisting that all
employees coming in to meetings with clients and bankers at the
weekends wear formal suits as he does - even though the clients and
bankers will invariably be in polo shirts and chinos - to objecting to
the wording of a party invitation or unilaterally expediting or vetoing
promotions already decided by the promotions committee. He used to
interview absolutely everyone who applied for a job at the firm,
although I think he now only interviews those at Senior Associate
Partner and up. Most of the partners, even the senior ones, seem
scared of him. He is seen around the office a lot - it is not unusual
for him to march up to an junior executive and demand "what are you
working on?" in a tone that suggests it had better be something which
pays a d**n huge fee or else.
Another story, possibly apocryphal, but entirely in character, relates
to the time Parker asked a junior employee, while both were "occupied"
in the men's bathroom, how he thought he was getting on. The executive
replied, nervously, that he thought he was doing fine. Parker, in
reply, zipping up his trousers, said he disagreed, and told the guy he
was fired. One thing is true for sure, there is never a boring moment
when Parker is around. It is really down to you to decide whether you
like him enough to spend serious time doing what you have to do to gain
his favor and get advancement within the firm. Once this favor is
gained, it is undoubtedly a great asset, because like a tribal chief,
he is usually quite loyal to those who are loyal to him.
Work wise, the firm is probably still more professional and organised
than most financial PR firms, although the others are catching up
fast. Brunswick is caught in an eternal dilemma of whether to focus on
just offering top-level added-value strategic advice, or whether also
to rush around effectively acting as an outsourced press office,
handling everything from travel and feeding logistics to photocopying
hundreds of press releases. An awful lot of time and energy is still
spent on those logistical things, especially at the junior level.
Until you are a partner, you are going to have to be prepared to muck
in with just about anything, because if mistakes happen and clients get
angry it is often, unfortunately, because someone dropped a ball on
logistics. The dreaded phrases "press summary", "results timetable",
and "media list" are enough to invoke a cold sweat on the forehead of
many a junior executive. Enjoyment of those junior years mainly
depends on which partners, SAPs and APs you work for: as in any job,
there are those that demand vast amounts of busy work that the client
is highly unlikely ever to get much value from, and those that don't.
Your best bet is to find someone you like to work with and do an
absolutely stunning job so they will insist on staffing you on their
projects every time.
Training wise, the firm goes through bursts of enthusiasm and then long
periods of not doing that much at all. Bursts while I was there
featured lunchtime talks by outside speakers - usually from national
newspapers and newswires - and internal workshops on basic PR skills
like writing press releases, or handling various types of crisis, or
even basic accounting. The secretaries get trained internally on
Office skills like Powerpoint, and how to electronically submit press
releases. A tiny number of people are sent on external courses, but
that's rare and usually has to be sponsored at the very highest level,
ie by Alan Parker.
On other cultural/logistical matters: hours are usually about 8.30pm
to 6pm for the professional staff. On results announcement days, or in
the middle of a takeover bid, expect to work as late as 2 or 3am the
night before and be in again at 6.30am. There is no overtime for
professional staff.
Dress code is suits, just about all the time. Ladies seem to get away
with skirts and sweaters, if smart. There is quite a lot of fashion
competition going on between the senior women.
Diversity - ethnically really rather appallingly non-diverse I am
afraid. There are maybe a few British-born Asians, but that's about
it. The gender mix is about 70% female, 30% male, counting
secretaries, and possibly 55/45 for the professional staff, which leads
to an unusually balanced atmosphere in the office. At a very senior
level, however, the large majority of partners are men. On the subject
of gender, several of the female partners do have children. There is
no childcare provided at work, and the hours are incredibly unreliable,
so they seem to rely on nannies and very understanding spouses.
People come from an extraordinary range of backgrounds - law, banking,
journalism, other PR firms, in-house comms officers, you name it.
Those with more than say five years work experience somewhere
creditable (like a major i-bank or the Financial Times) would probably
come in as an Associate Partner. Anything less than that, expect to
start as an executive or Account Director. If you were a partner at a
law firm, or a Managing Director at an i-bank, or a City Editor at a
national newspaper, you should get full partner status immediately.
Make sure you get that negotiation right, however, because getting it
wrong will be absolutely fatal. Moving between levels is notoriously
difficult, unless you are an exceptionally adept office politician. In
the normal course of events a good performer should expect a promotion
every two to three years, but at any point you can run into a road
block if there are a lot of people already at the level above you.
Sometimes the only way around this is to line another job up and
threaten to leave. Just make sure you are prepared to follow through
on that threat. Finally, one other Brunswick quirk is that they make
it very clear that secretaries can never be promoted to the executive
track. Secretaries have their own promotion system, but it won't lead
to becoming an executive.
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