Managing the Professional Service Firm by David H. Maister (English) Paperback B

Description: Managing the Professional Service Firm by David H. Maister A text offering practical advice in dealing with the managerial problems of professional service firms. Issues explored include marketing and business development, multinational strategies, human resource policies, profit improvement strategies, strategic planning, and the effective behaviour of practice leaders. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description This text offers practical ideas on the managerial problems of professional service firms. It shows that professional firms are different from other business enterprises in two ways. First, they are in the business of providing highly customized services and therefore cannot apply many of the management principles developed for the mass production industrial world. Second, professional services are highly personalized and involve the skills of individuals, therefore firms must compete not only for clients, but also for talented professionals. This text explores issues ranging from marketing and business development to multinational strategies, from human resource policies to profit improvement strategies, from strategic planning to the effective behaviour of practice leaders. Author Biography David H. Maister, one of the worlds leading authorities on the management of professional service firms, is the author of several successful books, including Managing the Professional Service Firm, True Professionalism, and Practice What You Preach, and coauthor of The Trusted Advisor. Table of Contents CONTENTS Acknowledgments Introduction PART ONE: BASIC MATTERS 1. A Question of Balance 2. The Professional Firm Life Cycle 3. Profitability: Health and Hygiene 4. Solving the Underdelegation Problem PART TWO: CLIENT MATTERS 5. The Practice Development Package 6. Listening to Clients 7. Quality Work Doesnt Mean Quality Service 8. A Service Quality Program 9. Marketing to Existing Clients 10. How Clients Choose 11. Attracting New Clients 12. Managing the Marketing Effort PART THREE: PEOPLE MATTERS 13. Hows Your Asset? 14. How to Build Human Capital 15. The Motivation Crisis 16. On the Importance of Scheduling 17. On the Meaning of Partnership 18. Surviving the People Crisis PART FOUR: MANAGEMENT MATTERS 19. How Practice Leaders Add Value 20. How to Create a Strategy 21. Fast-Track Strategy PART FIVE: PARTNERSHIP MATTERS 22. Partner Performance Counseling 23. The Art of Partner Compensation 24. Patterns in Partner Compensation 25. Pie-Splitting 26. Partnership Governance PART SIX: MULTISITE MATTERS 27. The One-Firm Firm 28. Hunters and Farmers 29. Making the Network Work 30. Creating the Collaborative Firm 31. Coordinating Industry Specialty Groups PART SEVEN: FINAL THOUGHTS 32. Asset Management References and Sources Index Review James L. Heskett Professor, Harvard Business School; co-author of Service Breakthroughs David Maisters name is synonymous with the latest thinking in professional service firm management. This book suggests why.Tom Peters author/co-author of In Search of Excellence, Thriving on Chaos, and Liberation Management The professional service firm is the best model for tomorrows organization in any industry. When it comes to understanding these firms, David Maister has no peers. Long Description For the first time in paperback, international expert and consultant David Maister offers a brilliant and accessible guide to every management issue at play in professional firms.Professional firms differ from other business enterprises in two distinct ways: first, they provide highly customized services and thus cannot apply many of the management principles developed for product-based industries. Second, professional services are highly personalized, involving the skills of individuals. Such firms must therefore compete not only for clients but also for talented professionals.Drawing on more than ten years of research and consulting to these unique and creative companies, David Maister explores issues ranging from marketing and business development to multinational strategies, human resources policies to profit improvement, strategic planning to effective leadership. While these issues can be complex. Maister simplifies them by recognizing that "every professional service firm in the world, regardless of size, specific profession, or country of operation, has the same mission statement: outstanding service to clients, satisfying careers for its people, and financial success for its owners." Review Quote Tom Petersauthor/co-author ofIn Search of Excellence, Thriving on Chaos,andLiberation ManagementThe professional service firm is the best model for tomorrows organization in any industry. When it comes to understanding these firms, David Maister has no peers. Excerpt from Book CHAPTER 1 A QUESTION OF BALANCE One of the most interesting discoveries in my consulting work has been the fact that (apparently) every professional service firm in the world has the same mission statement, regardless of the firms size, specific profession, or country of operation. With varying refinements of language, the mission of most professional firms is: To deliver outstanding client service; to provide fulfilling careers and professional satisfaction for our people; and to achieve financial success so that we can reward ourselves and grow. The commonality of this mission does not detract from its value. Simply put, every professional firm must satisfy these three goals of "service, satisfaction, and success" if it is to survive. Management of a professional firm requires a delicate balancing act between the demands of the client marketplace, the realities of the people marketplace (the market for staff), and the firms economic ambitions. Many factors play a role in bringing these goals into harmony, but one has a preeminent position: the ratio of junior, middle-level, and senior staff in the firms organization, referred to here as the firms leverage. To see the importance of this factor, we shall briefly examine, in turn, its relation to the three goals of the firm. LEVERAGE AND THE CLIENT MARKETPLACE The required shape of the organization (the relative mix of juniors, managers, and seniors) is primarily determined by (or rather, as we shall see, should be determined by) the skill requirements of its work: the mix of senior-level, middle-level, and junior-level tasks involved in the projects that the firm undertakes. Consider three kinds of client work: Brains, Grey Hair, and Procedure projects. In the first type (Brains), the clients problem is at the forefront of professional or technical knowledge, or at least is of extreme complexity. The key elements of this type of professional service are creativity, innovation, and the pioneering of new approaches, concepts or techniques: in effect, new solutions to new problems. The firm that targets this market will be attempting to sell its services on the basis of the high professional craft of its staff. In essence, their appeal to their market is, "Hire us because were smart." Brains projects usually involve highly skilled and highly paid professionals. Few procedures are routinizable: Each project is "one-off." Accordingly, the opportunities for leveraging the top professionals with juniors are relatively limited. Even though such projects may involve significant data collection and analysis activities (normally performed by juniors), even these activities cannot be clearly specified in advance and require the active involvement of at least middle-level (project management) professionals on a continuous basis. Consequently, the ratio of junior time to middle-level and senior time on Brains projects tends to be low. Grey Hair projects, while they may require a highly customized "output" in meeting the clients needs, involve a lesser degree of innovation and creativity in the actual performance of the work than would a Brains project. The general nature of the problem to be addressed is not unfamiliar, and the activities necessary to complete the project may be similar to those performed on other projects. Clients with Grey Hair problems seek out firms with experience in their particular type of problem. In turn, the firm sells its knowledge, its experience, and its judgment. In effect, they are saying, "Hire us because we have been through this before; we have practice at solving this type of problem." Since for Grey Hair-type projects the problems to be addressed are somewhat more familiar, at least some of the tasks to be performed (particularly the early ones) are known in advance and can be specified and delegated. The opportunity is thus provided to employ more juniors to accomplish these tasks. The third type of project, the Procedure project, usually involves a well-recognized and familiar type of problem. While there is still a need to customize to some degree, the steps necessary to accomplish this are somewhat programmatic. The client may have the ability and resources to perform the work itself, but turns to the professional firm because the firm can perform the service more efficiently, because the firm is an outsider, or because the clients own staff capabilities to perform the activity are somewhat constrained and are better used elsewhere. In essence, the professional firm is selling its procedures, its efficiency, its availability: "Hire us because we know how to do this and can deliver it effectively." Procedure projects usually involve the highest proportion of junior time relative to senior time (and hence imply a different organizational shape for firms that specialize in such projects). The problems to be addressed in such projects, and the steps necessary to complete the analysis, diagnosis, and conclusions are usually so sufficiently well established that they can be easily delegated (under supervision) to junior staff. For Procedure projects the range of possible outcomes for some steps may be so well known that the appropriate responses may be "programmed." The three categories described here are, of course, only points along a spectrum of project types. However, it is usually a simple task in any profession to identify types of problems that fit these categories. The choice that the firm makes in its mix of project types is one of the most important variables it has available to balance the firm. The choice of project types influences significantly, as we shall see, the economic and organizational structures of the firm. Consider what will happen if a firm brings in a mix of client work such that its "proper" staffing requirements would be for a slightly higher mix of juniors, and a lesser mix of seniors than it has (i.e., the work is slightly more procedural than the firm would normally expect). What will happen? As Figure 1-2 suggests, the short-run consequence will be that higher priced people will end up performing lower-value tasks (probably at lower fees), and there will be an underutilization of senior personnel. The firm will make less money than it should be making. The opposite problem is no less real. If a firm brings in work that has skill requirements of a higher percentage of seniors and a lesser percentage of juniors, the consequences will be at least equally adverse: a shortfall of qualified staff to perform the tasks, and a consequent quality risk. As these simple examples show, matching the skills required by the work to the skills available in the firm (i.e., managing the leverage structure) is central to keeping the firm in balance. LEVERAGE AND THE PEOPLE MARKETPLACE The connection between a firms leverage structure (its ratio of junior to senior professional staff) and the people marketplace can be captured in a single sentence: People do not join professional firms for jobs , but for careers . They have strong expectations of progressing through the organization at some pace agreed to (explicitly or implicitly) in advance. The professional service firm may be viewed as the modern embodiment of the medieval craftsmans shop, with its apprentices, journeymen, and master craftsmen. The early years of an individuals association with a professional service firm are, indeed, usually viewed as an apprenticeship, and the relation between juniors and seniors the same: The senior craftsmen repay the hard work and assistance of the juniors by teaching them their craft. The archetypal structure of the professional service firm is an organization containing three professional levels. In a consulting organization, these levels might be labeled junior consultant, manager, and vice president. In a CPA firm they might be referred to as staff, manager, and partner. Law firms tend to have only two levels, associate and partner, although there is an increasing tendency in large law firms to recognize formally what has long been an informal distinction between junior and senior partners. Responsibility for the organizations three primary tasks is allocated to these three levels of the organization: seniors (partners or vice presidents) are responsible for marketing and client relations, managers for the day-to-day supervision and coordination of projects, and juniors for the many technical tasks necessary to complete the study. The three levels are traditionally referred to as "the finders, "the minders," and "the grinders" of the business. The mix of each that the firm requires (i.e., its ratio of senior to junior professionals) is primarily determined by the mix of client work, and in turn crucially determines the career paths that the firm can offer. While the pace of progress may not be a rigid one ("up or out in five years"), both the individual and the organization usually share strong norms about what constitutes a reasonable period of time for each stage of the career path. Individuals who are not promoted within this period will seek greener pastures elsewhere, either by their own choice or career ambitions, or at the strong suggestion of the firm. This promotion system serves an essential screening function for the firm. Not all young professionals hired subsequently develop the managerial and client relations skills required at the higher levels. While good initial recruiting procedures may serve to reduce the degree of screening required through the promotion process, it can rarely eliminate the need for the promotion p Details ISBN0684834316 Author David H. Maister Short Title MANAGING THE PROFESSIONAL SERV Language English ISBN-10 0684834316 ISBN-13 9780684834313 Media Book Format Paperback DEWEY 658 Year 1997 Imprint Simon & Schuster Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States Residence Boston, MA, US DOI 10.1604/9780684834313 AU Release Date 1997-06-09 NZ Release Date 1997-06-09 US Release Date 1997-06-09 UK Release Date 1997-06-09 Pages 368 Publisher Simon & Schuster Edition Description New edition Publication Date 1997-06-09 Audience Professional & Vocational We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:8332303;

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