Professional Services Leadership Handbook: How to Lead a Professional Services Firm in a New Age of Competitive Disruption - Softcover

Clark, Nigel; Kent, Ben; Beddow, Alastair; Furner, Adrian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0749477342 ISBN 13: 9780749477349

Publisher: Kogan Page, 2020

Synopsis

Leaders of professional services firms - from law firms to accountancy, consulting and beyond - face an increasing challenge. Client expectations are changing and service models need to adapt. Regulators are liberalizing markets and at the same time mega multi-disciplinary firms are colonizing parallel sectors. Technology offers new ways of providing and accessing services, which may be less dependent on the people-centred business model professional services firms are built on. The Professional Services Leadership Handbook equips leaders who must find new and better ways to face the future, at the same time as delivering profit today.

Leaders of professional services firms need to evolve to meet the changing needs of their clients and yet still preserve their unique value proposition. Using examples from innovative professional services firms and parallel sectors such as financial services and advertising, The Professional Services Leadership Handbook explores new models and working practices that can unlock a new dimension of competitiveness for individual firms. It offers clear-sighted analysis of the common pain points that firms face and offers innovative solutions for dealing with them. This practical and solutions-focused guide for everyone involved in leadership decisions for a practice or function will equip readers to cut through the challenges facing them and focus their attention on the activities that will really make a difference.

About this title

Review

"This eminently practical handbook guides successful professionals on how to build the additional personal competencies they need to stand out as effective leaders. Through a robust interview process with industry leaders, as well as their many years of collective consulting experiences, the authors present a series of thoughtful frameworks and a synthesis of well-constructed leadership lessons. It all amounts to a really useful companion for those who have committed themselves to making the challenging personal transitions ahead - tomorrow's leaders!" (David Bowerin, former Head of Strategic Marketing at Citigroup)

"The Professional Services Leadership Handbook is an excellent tool for future and experienced leaders operating in a dynamic, and ever changing business-to-business environment, where differentiation is a critical success factor, and where leaders often misunderstand how to lead. This is a must read handbook." (Michelle Jones, Chief Communications and Investor Relations Officer, CH2M)

"The authors successfully distinguish the difference between delivering projects and leading professional services firms...This book helps to guide anyone in the industry from project / delivery management to leading teams and businesses to optimise performance." (Marc Barone, AECOM Sector Leader, Water EMIA)

"At last a professional services leadership guide that's based on well researched and real experiences, I would recommend this is read by anyone who seriously wants to gain an extra edge." (Dennis Markey, FRICS)

"An essential read if you are either a leader or an adviser to the top team of a professional services firm." (Gail Jaffa, Managing Partner, PSMG)

"The Professional Services Leadership Handbook is really interesting, hugely practical and a thoroughly good read. Professionals entering the unfamiliar world of leadership will find clear, readable and entertaining advice, peppered with insights from firm leaders. The "how to" approach to knotty issues such as strategy, profitability and client focus is particularly helpful, as is the focus on you as a leader and how you can develop the right skills and mind-set. If you are a leader, or you want to be one, keep this book close, as it will be an invaluable companion. I wish it had been written twenty years ago!" (Nick Holt, Partner at SR Search and former Managing Partner, KLegal)

Book Description

Analyzes the current state and future direction of the professional services industry, giving readers a road map for change

Identifies common pain points that professionals face and gives focused advice to deal with them

Includes pricing models, checklists and other practical tools that readers can adapt to use in their practice

About this edition

• Publisher: Kogan Page
• Publication date: 2020
• ISBN 10: 0749477342
• ISBN 13: 9780749477349
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272