Consulting firm org chart example
A consulting firm of about thirty-five, drawn around the fact every consulting chart has to face: the people on it spend their weeks on engagements that are not on it. The chart is the firm's home structure, the partners, their practices and the pyramid under each, plus the small firm that keeps the consultants billing. Engagements are a staffing plan, and they change too often to draw.
How a consulting firm is usually structured
A consulting firm is a partnership drawn as a company. The managing partner runs the firm on the partners' behalf; each partner owns a practice, a group of people who sell and deliver one kind of work; the chief operating officer runs the firm as a business, which the partners would rather not. Draw the managing partner at the top, the partners beside the COO under her, and resist the urge to draw the partnership itself, which is a legal structure and not a reporting one. A chief of staff beside the managing partner is common past twenty people and is a staff position, not a layer.
A practice is a pyramid, and the pyramid is the business model. A partner sells; a principal runs client relationships and the biggest engagements without managing anyone day to day; engagement managers run the work and the people on it; consultants and analysts do it. The ratio of partners to managers to consultants is the firm's leverage, the number its economics rest on, and a chart that stacks each practice as a column shows the leverage at a glance. A practice whose column is a partner and two managers with nobody under them is a practice that is not leveraged, whatever the pitch says.
None of that is where anyone spends the week. Consultants are staffed to engagements that last weeks or months, under whichever partner sold the work, and an engagement is a team drawn on a staffing sheet, not on the org chart, because it will be gone by next quarter. The chart shows the home practice, the one that sets the consultant's reviews, promotion and utilization target. Under the chief operating officer sit the functions the firm forgets it has until they fail: finance, talent, business development and marketing, research and knowledge, the office. Talent is dotted to the managing partner because partners hire; research is dotted to the strategy practice, whose work it feeds.
Typical titles by level
The vocabulary these charts use, from the top down. Titles vary by country and by company; the levels don't.
| Level | Titles you'll see |
|---|---|
| Leadership | Managing Partner, Senior Partner, Partner, Practice Lead; Chief Operating Officer, Chief of Staff |
| Principals and managers | Principal, Director, Senior Manager, Engagement Manager, Project Leader, Manager |
| Consultants | Senior Consultant, Consultant, Associate, Senior Analyst, Analyst, Business Analyst, Summer Associate (as an intern); independent consultants and specialist subcontractors (as contractors) |
| Firm services | Controller, Finance Manager, Head of Talent, Recruiter, Director of Business Development, Marketing Manager, Research & Knowledge Lead, Research Analyst, Knowledge Manager, Office & IT Manager, Executive Assistant |
Where these charts go wrong
Consulting charts go wrong by drawing engagements as departments, so the chart is out of date before it is printed; by listing consultants in a row under a partner, so the leverage is invisible; by drawing principals as managers of nobody with a layer beneath them that does not exist; by putting talent three levels down under operations, when the partners are the ones who hire; by leaving out the independent consultants, so a practice looks half the size it sells at; and by giving the managing partner every partner and every function as a direct report, which is a chart of a firm nobody runs.
Questions people ask
- How is a consulting firm structured?
- A managing partner at the top; partners beside a chief operating officer beneath her; a practice under each partner, with principals, engagement managers, consultants and analysts; and the firm's own functions, finance, talent, business development, research and the office, under the COO. Below about fifteen people, one partner is the managing partner and the COO is a finance manager and an office manager; above fifty, practices get a second partner and the pyramid grows a senior manager rung.
- Should a consulting org chart show project or engagement teams?
- No. Engagements are staffing, not structure: they last weeks or months, they are led by whichever partner sold them, and they are gone by next quarter. The org chart shows the home practice, the one that reviews and promotes each consultant and owns their utilization. Keep the engagement teams on a staffing sheet, and draw the chart from the practices.
- What is leverage on a consulting firm org chart?
- The ratio of partners to managers to consultants in each practice, which is the number the firm's economics rest on. A common rule of thumb is one partner to two or three managers to six to ten consultants and analysts. Drawn as a column per practice, the ratio is visible without arithmetic, and so is the practice that has two managers and nobody beneath them.
- Where do principals and directors sit?
- In the practice column under the partner, with no line reports. A principal runs client relationships and the largest engagements, and consultants report to engagement managers, not to principals. Drawing a principal with a layer of consultants beneath them invents reporting lines that exist only on the chart.
Other industries
- ManufacturingTwo shifts, and quality kept out of production's line.
- LogisticsDispatch runs the day; supervisors run the people.
- ConstructionOffice and field, meeting on every project.
- Software startupSquads under a CTO; product managers on a dotted line.
- NonprofitThe board on top, programs beside the money.
- Medical practiceA clinical line and a business line, crossing at nursing.
- SchoolDepartments led by teachers who also manage.
- HotelSix divisions around one general manager.
- Marketing agencyDisciplines own people; pods own the work.
- Security & facilities servicesSites stacked under supervisors; a 24-hour control room.
- Sales teamRegions for closers, a team for openers, RevOps beside them.
- Accounting firmA partner pyramid, three service lines.
- Law firmPractice groups, and the business side that runs the firm.
- ChurchA board that governs, a pastor who leads, ministries below.
- RestaurantFront of house and back of house, meeting at the pass.
- IT departmentRun, build and secure, under one director.
- HR departmentPartners, specialists and operations: the three legs.
- Local governmentElected above appointed, and two officers who answer to the council.
- Utility companyField crews, a 24-hour control center, and a regulator in the room.
- BankThree lines of defense, drawn as lines.
- Staffing agencySales desks, recruiting desks, and a back office that pays two thousand people.
- HospitalTwo hierarchies that meet at the bedside.
- Retail chainHead office, the field, and a store drawn once.
- Small businessOne owner, two managers, and the jobs the owner still does.
- Finance departmentAccounting closes the books; FP&A says what they mean.
- Marketing departmentDemand, product, brand, and the operations under all three.
- Customer service departmentTeams on the floor; quality, training and scheduling beside them.
- Engineering departmentProduct teams under a VP of engineering; platform, data and security under the CTO.
- Operations departmentSupply chain, fulfillment and the functions that keep both honest.
- Product departmentProduct, design, research and the operations that measure them.
- Real estate brokerageAgents who are not employees, on the chart anyway.
- Insurance agencySales on one side, service on the other, and the lines where they meet.
- Dental practiceA clinical line the law draws, and a business line the office manager runs.
- UniversityAn academic line and an administrative line, and governance kept off the chart.
- E-commerce companyThe site is the store, the warehouse is a contractor, and the lines between them are drawn.
- Veterinary clinicThe doctors own the medicine, the manager owns the day, and the technicians answer to both.
- Auto dealershipThe front end sells the cars; the back end pays the bills; the chart shows where they meet.
- School districtSchools on one line, the money on another, and a board that governs from a second chart.
- Police departmentPatrol takes the calls, investigations takes the cases, and professional standards answers to the chief alone.
- Nursing homeThe administrator holds the license, the director of nursing holds the building, and the survey reads both lines.
- Property management companyThe owners and the boards are clients, the site staff are employees, and the chart is where the two facts meet.
Or start from a structure — functional, divisional, matrix or flat — or from your own spreadsheet. The guides cover a reorg, a merger, an assistant's chart and a consultant's deliverable.
Make it yours
Download the spreadsheet, replace the names, import it — the chart redraws itself. Or start empty and drag people until it's true. Building is free at any size.