Managing the Professional Service Firm

Explores marketing, business development, multinational strategies, human resources policies, profit improvement, strategic planning, and effective leadership

Business & Money

Maister, David H.

Industries

Free Press

Management of owner-operator fleets

Lexington Books

True Professionalism: The Courage to Care About Your Clients and Career

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.”

Managing The Professional Service Firm

Maister, David

A consultant challenges professionals to closely examine the meaning of their work and to reach beyond their grasp, and advises professional institutions that they should invest in skill building. 30,000 first printing. Tour.

True Professionalism

David Maister, the world's premier consultant to professional service firms, vigorously challenges professionals to examine this essential, yet under-addressed question: What is true professionalism? Professional firms are forever trying to get their people to act like professionals—to do the right things. Though their various incentives may create employee compliance, these don't often encourage excellence. His answer is clear: It is believing passionately in what you do, never compromising your standards and values, and caring about your clients, your people and your own career. In clear and compelling terms, Maister shows that this approach is not only ethical but also conducive to commercial success.

True Professionalism: The Courage to Care About Your People, Your Clients, and Your Career

Business Culture

Are technically competent professionals who work long, hard hours "true" professionals, seeking superior quality in their work and striving to provide the best service possible to their clients? Or are they "cruisers" adhering to standards, but performing below their full potential, lacking the inspiration for the extra level of intensity that creates superb work?Professional firms are forever trying to get their people to act like professionals -- to do the right things. Though their various incentives may create employee compliance, these don't often encourage excellence. Taking issue with such methods, David Maister, the world's premier consultant to professional service firms, vigorously challenges professionals to examine this essential, yet under-addressed question: What is true professionalism? Essentially, Maister argues, it is a personal commitment to self-betterment and a professional dedication to provide the best and most efficient service to clients. In clear, pragmatic terms, he convincingly advocates the "power of principles" -- the most effective tools management can use to inspire excellence in individual performance. His core principles spring from good, sound logic: Believe passionately in what you do, never compromise your standards and values, and care about your clients. Do all of these because they are the ethical things to do and because they are the primary road to commercial success.In this candid treasury of practical wisdom, Maister expounds some eternal truths about the individual professional, the firm, and the client. He explains how to achieve true professionalism at both the micro and macro levels by answering many key but tough questions, including these: How do you develop a personal career strategy? How does a firm track the profitability of individual assignments? Can and should you guarantee your client's satisfaction? Looking first at the individual, Maister dares those good corporate citizens who "do their duty" to discover what they truly love to do, and then to align their real-world actions with their true values -- and he tells them why a continual investment must be made in getting better. Turning to the firm, he focuses on what he calls its "instability" and offers advice on how to invest in skill-building. He explains why extra time invested in supervising reaps large financial benefits, and why excellence in client satisfaction should be an enforced standard. A brief example of the clear thinking and sound advice to be found in this handbook: Stress on maximizing billable hours may seem profitable, but instead it encourages employees to be inefficient, it loses the customer's trust and confidence, and eventually it hurts the firm's reputation and profit margin.The bottom line, according to the author? Act like a true professional and the money will follow.

Are some technically competent professionals who work hard and long hours "true professionals" or are they just cruisers? In this call to arms, David Maister vigorously challenges individuals to examine closely the meaning of their work and reach beyond their grasp.

True Professionalism: The Courage to Care About Your Clients & Career

Simon Schuster Ltd

The Trusted Advisor

The essential "must have" tool for professionals who advise or negotiate with others in today's new economy. In today's fast-paced networked economy, professionals must work harder than ever to maintain and improve their business skills and knowledge. But technical mastery of your discipline is not enough, assert world-renowned professional advisors David H. Maister, Charles H. Green, and Robert M. Galford. The key to professional success, they argue, is the ability to earn the trust and confidence of clients. The creation of trust is what earns the right to influence clients; trust is also at the root of client satisfaction and loyalty. The workings of trust are even more critical in the new economy than in the old. Maister, Green, and Galford enrich our understanding of trust -- yet they have also written a deeply practical book. Using their model of "The Trust Equation," they dissect the rational and emotional components of trustworthiness. With precision and clarity, they detail five distinct steps you must take to create a trust-based relationship. Each step -- engage, listen, frame, envision, and commit -- is richly described in distinct chapters. The book is peppered with pragmatic "top ten" lists aimed at improving advisors' effectiveness that can be put to use instantly. It also includes a trust self-diagnostic in the appendix. This immensely readable book will be welcomed by the inexperienced advisor and the most seasoned expert alike. The authors use anecdotes, experiences, and examples -- successes and mistakes, their own and others' -- to great effect. Though they use the professional services advisor/client paradigm throughout the book, their prescriptions have resonance for other trust-reliant situations -- selling, customer relationship management, and internal staff functions like HR and information technology. The result is a tour de force -- brilliant, penetrating, unique. It is essential reading for anyone who must advise, negotiate, or manage complex relationships with others.

Galford, Robert M.

Green, Charles H.

This book explores the paradigm of that very special business relationship, using the professional services paradigm as a basis

Galford, Robert

Green, Charles

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Maister, David H.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Maister, David H.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Maister, David H.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Managing the Professional Service Firm

Management of owner-operator fleets

True Professionalism: The Courage to Care About Your Clients and Career

Managing The Professional Service Firm

True Professionalism

True Professionalism: The Courage to Care About Your People, Your Clients, and Your Career

True Professionalism: The Courage to Care About Your People, Your Clients, and Your Career

True Professionalism: The Courage to Care About Your Clients & Career

The Trusted Advisor

The Trusted Advisor