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.
Auflage
Sprache
Verlagsort
Zielgruppe
Editions-Typ
Produkt-Hinweis
Maße
Höhe: 231 mm
Breite: 153 mm
Dicke: 28 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-0-684-83431-3 (9780684834313)
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Schweitzer Klassifikation
David H. Maister, one of the world's 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.
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 Doesn't 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. How's 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
