Profile: Cecilia Burgess

Cecilia Burgess joined leading New Zealand law firm Bell Gully in July 2010 and as Chief Operating Officer, oversees all of the firm’s operations. She has more than 17 years’ experience in senior management roles at professional services firms including Linklaters and PricewaterhouseCoopers. She joined Bell Gully from Linklaters in London, where she was Global Head of Client Development and Head of Marketing, Asia.

It’s unusual to make a transition from business development (BD) to Chief Operating Officer (COO). What attracted you to this new role and what are your main responsibilities?

Cecilia Burgess, Chief Operating Officer, Bell Gully

I think we’re likely to see more BD directors moving into general management roles in the future as clients are at the heart of everything a professional services firm (PSF) does. The role is attractive as it has added an extra layer of challenge for me to develop expertise in areas I have only ever had peripheral knowledge of – such as IT and facilities management. My responsibilities are very broad, ranging from being an active member of the board to having responsibility for all business support functions.

How do you balance the COO role against retaining responsibility for business development?

I make an effort to attend all regular meetings with the BD team and am conscious that dropping by to answer ad-hoc queries rather than always responding by email gives me a chance to check in with how the team is going and what pressures people are under. We have just recruited two senior BD managers, so I’m confident that the balancing act will become easier.

The COO role is a lot more structured, with regular board and executive committee meetings as well as the various committees I am either chairing or involved with. On top of that, the board has given me a program of projects that I have been able to get my teeth into straight away. If it sounds like a lot of meetings and people interaction – it is. But I think it’s important to be personally involved in my role. It just means that I have to do a lot of catching up with follow-up analysis, reading and email responses at the end of each day.

Early on in your career, did you ever envisage yourself being COO of a professional services firm?

Not at all. I thought I would follow a path in tourism from my initial years as a consultant, where I was involved in a lot of feasibility work for hotels and the licence applications for a number of Australian and New Zealand casinos. When Hamilton Island went into receivership I also spent quite a lot of time there helping to reshape their marketing function. I developed my own practice in tourism consulting and while doing some work for Price Waterhouse got the bug and have loved working in a professional services environment ever since.

What do you see as the main issues PSFs in the Asia-Pacific will have to grapple with going forward and how, if at all, might they differ from other major markets such as the UK and US?

Probably the shift that has taken place in how clients buy professional services. Everyone is lamenting the involvement of procurement professionals in panel appointments, but they are here to stay and we need to get smarter about how we demonstrate value to not only the end users of professional advice but also their procurement people.

Over your career, what would you identify as being the single biggest change to impact the professional services sector?

I think it has become increasingly hard to differentiate between firms. Client relationships used to be more at arm’s length, whereas today they are demanding a lot more from their advisors. They want advice, not just an opinion, and because clients find it difficult to differentiate, the challenge for PSFs now is to be able to really display the personality behind their brand.

For you, what are the most challenging and rewarding aspects of working in professional services marketing and BD?

Most challenging would probably be the need to be flexible with daily priorities, where you can go from working on strategically important work to dropping everything to help someone get a pitch out, draft a media release or even proof a document. Most rewarding is definitely about winning work, as I still get excited when a pitch I’ve led or been involved in is successful.

If there was anything you could change about the professional services sector, what would it be?

I’d probably look right back to the start of a professional career to university and the structure of degrees. I have really benefitted from completing a degree with a relatively high compulsory component that covered a number of management disciplines such as accounting, economics, law and strategic planning. All of these courses have helped me to better understand business and have an empathy with what fee earners do. I think lawyers and accountants could benefit from compulsory business courses in marketing, accountancy (for lawyers), economics and HR.

During your professional career, what has been the hardest decision you have had to make?

The decision to take this role. Usually when you change roles there are push as well as pull factors involved. With Bell Gully there were a lot of pull factors – a new role, a great firm, moving home and being closer to family and friends. But there was no push. I was having a great time at Linklaters, enjoying a tremendous role, and loving London. So I really had to weigh up two very different career paths; in the end the deciding factors were more emotional than clinical.

To date, what would you regard as the biggest highlight of your career?

The teams I’ve been lucky enough to work in. There is a lot of remarkable talent in our profession and I love working with teams to develop their individual and collective talents.

In terms of skills development, what advice would you give others who might be considering a similar career path to yours?

Probably two things. First, grab the opportunities that come your way to be involved in other areas of the firm, whether that’s volunteering to be on project groups or sitting on cross-functional committees. The insight you can pick up is invaluable. It also makes your experience all thericher when you know what motivates other people and the pressures they are under in their roles.

Second, take an interest in the firm’s successes and challenges. By knowing the numbers you can understand a lot about individual partner behaviour and also a partnership’s appetite for change at any given time.

Given the increasing corporatisation of professional services, what are the skills you see as essential for success in the future?

People talk about corporatisation but I still think we’re a long way from the fundamental structure changing. I say that because I think it drives behaviour, and in terms of marketing now and at least into the medium-term, PSFs will still require outstanding personal influencing skills.

In terms of a leading business figure, who would you identify as being, or having been, the most personally inspirational during your career?

I had the absolute pleasure to work with Jeff Todd (formerly Managing Partner of Price Waterhouse in New Zealand), who was also the go-to man for the NZ Government for a number of major reforms like superannuation and the introduction of the GST. He led those taskforces. I learned a lot about how to personally conduct myself and how to gently build consensus through watching him.