The Art of Managing Professional Services

Building and managing a professional service firm is very different from running a product-based business. Infrastructure, governance, talent acquisition and retention, compensation and financial management vary significantly from traditional corporate environments. Conventional management advice doesn’t offer all the answers, and mainstream business gurus rarely address the unique challenges facing professional service firm leaders.

The Art of Managing Professional Services: Insights from Leaders of the World's Top Firms is one of the most comprehensive, research-based guides to firm management ever written for the industry. Based on more than 130 in-depth interviews with leaders of the world’s top firms, the book offers practical, proven best practices on how to tackle the ten critical areas that firm leaders must monitor to build and maintain a strong organization: vision, values and culture; people; clients; services; finance; positioning; partnership; strategy; structure; and leadership style.

Maureen Broderick draws on her 30 years of experience in professional services to explore both the art and science of running a high performance firm. She presents tangible processes and programs that readers can tailor to their own organizations and cultures. Specifically you will learn:

• How to create and maintain a shared vision, values and culture
• Best programs to recruit, train and retain great people
• Strategies to develop and manage a profitable portfolio of clients
• What it takes to innovate services and share knowledge
• The key metrics to monitor financial health
• Insights into effective positioning, marketing and selling firm services
• Proven practices for rewarding and managing the partnership
• A guide to both long-term and annual strategic planning
• Balancing structure and governance in a consensus-driven organization
• Secrets for leading “incredibly smart and independent people”