Industry
eminence
As the firm deepened its middle market focus, leaders recognized that clients don’t experience complexity in the abstract. They experience it through the pressures of their industries.
“One thing that every one of our clients has in common is that they all identify via an industry,” says Don Lipari, who was responsible for setting the firm’s enterprise industry and channel strategies. “It begged the question, ‘How do we deliver the power of being understood or become first-choice advisors if we show up as industry agnostic?’”
The answer required a cultural shift within the firm. Rather than go to market solely by geography or line of business, RSM began building industry communities—encouraging professionals to align their mindset not to where they worked but to the characteristics of the industries they served.
“What we really needed to do was to get people to embrace the idea of an industry community.”
In 2018, the firm launched the Industry Eminence Program—a three-year rotational program led by Chief Economist Joe Brusuelas and Deputy Chief Economist Kevin Depew. The program is designed to equip senior analysts with the skills to understand, forecast and communicate the economic, business and technology trends shaping the industries RSM serves.
For participants, it was transformative. “It’s like getting an MBA within the firm,” says Karen Galivan, a tax partner specializing in consumer products. “Now I’m not just a tax specialist, but I really learned economic indicators. I learned how to give a presentation. I learned how to write more thoughtfully to an audience. I learned about executive presence.”
Graduates bring those skills directly to clients and the market—speaking at industry events and to national media outlets, contributing to trade publications and leading conversations that position RSM as a forward-looking advisor.
“Because we have that deep industry dive, we’re in the position to say to the market, ’Be ready, because we anticipate that this is going to come down the line.' It just changed the conversation 100% on how I deal with my clients.”
The program continues to evolve each year and now includes participants from the UK and Canada.
