Synopsis:
Most businesses rely on talent to succeed, but none so much as professional service firms. Within this rapidly expanding, trillion-dollar industry, professionals--and how they're managed--are the primary source of competitive advantage. In fact, success in this sector is determined more by the people you pay than the people who pay you. This path-breaking book provides readers with a practical and integrated perspective on how to win in the unique and tumultuous world of professional services. From strategy to organization to culture, it offers customized insights for businesses in which professionals drive bottom-line results and long-term company success. Respected academic Jay W. Lorsch and accomplished practitioner Thomas J. Tierney apply their broad experience to the realities of "Monday morning" decision making. Their work reflects decades of personal experience, combined with a rigorous study of outstanding professional service firms in industries that include law, information technology, accounting, advertising, investment banking, executive search, and consulting. Aligning the Stars explains what differentiates the "best of the best" within professional services. By describing how to attract, retain, motivate, organize, and lead the stars that shape a company's destiny, this book provides valuable lessons for the current and future leaders of every talent-driven business.
From the Publisher:
Fills a void by providing practical guidance about how to manage a professional service firm, addressing the unique strategic and organizational choices of these private partnerships as well as how turmoil, technology, and a shifting competitive environment impact firms.
Gives readers a better understanding of how to lead, organize, and create strategy by uncovering the strategic and organizational approaches of successful professional service firms.
Large built-in market: Professional service firms—those firms that provide accounting, advertising, management consulting, IT consulting, and other professional assistance to the business community——comprise one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy, with a global market of $911B.
Based on the popular Harvard Business School course on leadership in professional service firms (the leading program of its kind in the world) and a joint research project between Bain & Company and HBS.
Includes interviews with the leaders of the following firms: accounting firms Price Waterhouse and Ernst & Young; advertising firms Grey Advertising, Oglivy & Mather, and Young & Rubicam; investment banks Goldman Sachs, Hambrecht & Quist, and BT Alex Brown; and management consulting firms Bain and McKinsey, as well as other professional service firms.
Stellar authorship: Combines the authority of both a prominent academic and a prominent practitioner in this area, blending their cumulative experience and judgment.
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