Professional Services Management

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.

Years ago, developing and sustaining a book of business was not as big a problem for accountants, attorneys, financial planners, and other professionals as it is today. Clients were more loyal to the firms they worked with, and unlikely to shop your services, compare rates, or jump ship. Times have changed! And if you don't change along with them...well, you're not going to enjoy yourself or have as much control over your career as you deserve. Believe it or not, you can enjoy the process of expanding your client base.

Leading for Organisational Change is an intelligent and practical guide to the human side of merger integration and other organizational change. Building a clear sense of common purpose and then reinforcing it through storytelling can underpin the success of an integration or significant change program. Pulling together the best thinking from neuroscience, psychology, business, and her rich personal experience in 20 years of leading change projects in professional services organizations and other people-centered businesses, author Jennifer Emery presents a framework for change.