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.

"Conquer the CSCP Exam: Your Guide to Becoming an APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional" is an essential resource for individuals aiming to achieve the prestigious Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) credential from APICS. This comprehensive guide is meticulously designed to cover all the critical areas of the CSCP exam, including supply chain design, planning and execution, supply chain improvements and best practices, and compliance. Each section is structured to provide a deep understanding of the concepts, supported by real-world examples and case studies that bring ...

We are in the golden era of boutiques. The business models of your clients are being disrupted. This makes it virtually impossible for them to have all the required expertise in-house. They are looking for external expertise. They have big budgets to spend. Clients are buying from boutiques in record numbers. The sun is shining. Time to make hay.

The Blue Square Method is a philosophy and process for the enlightened fee-for-service professional who is striving to grow on their own terms. Panoramic success requires continual refinement and optimization both personally and professionally. This actionable playbook is designed to put you on a predictable trajectory and ensure you never plateau.

The Customer Success Manager has become a critical asset to organizations across the business landscape. As the subscription model has spread from the cloud and SaaS to more sectors of the economy, that pivotal role will only grow in importance. That's because if you want to compete and thrive in this new environment, you need to put the customer at the center of your strategy. You need to recognize you're no longer selling just a product. You're selling an outcome.

Productize draws on the 25+ years of experience that Eisha Armstrong has in successfully creating, launching and growing productized services. Eisha knows what works and what doesn't and she is passionate about making sure organizations learn from each other and avoid reinventing the wheel.

This book is your step-by-step guide to building something bigger—something durable. With 50 succinct, hard-hitting lessons, you’ll learn how to create a business that is valuable, profitable, investable, and able to grow well beyond your career. Unlike selling to a third party, succession planning is a gradual transition of ownership and leadership—often over 10 to 20 years. If done right, it can change not just your exit, but your entire approach to building and leading your firm.

Turn Your Photography Passion Into a Profitable Business Success in portrait photography isn’t just about mastering your camera — it’s about building a powerful brand, understanding your clients, and creating a business that thrives. In The Professional Photography Playbook, acclaimed Master Photographer and Photographic Craftsman Jeff Lubin shares the exact strategies he used to build a 7-figure portrait studio. This no-fluff guide is packed with tools to help you: Craft a signature style that sets you apart Attract high-paying, loyal clients Build long-term marketing partnerships ...

Never Say Sell explains how to scale individual engagements into long-term business relationships. Cowritten by Tom McMakin, the coauthor of How Clients Buy and expert in account development, and colleague Jacob Parks, this book provides insights into how key rainmakers at firms like Accenture and IBM drive growth from existing relationships. Never Say Sell is a business development guide for professional service providers like consultants, accountants, and lawyers, whether they are sole proprietors or members of account teams tasked with expanding key accounts.

In this first-of-its-kind book, seasoned security pros Christian West and Brian Jantzen share lessons learned from years of protecting some of corporate America's most prominent people. Full of practical, hands-on information, this guide provides a comprehensive overview of how to conceive, build and run successful executive protection programs in corporate settings. With insights that only experience in all phases of program execution can provide, the authors dig into the key questions that corporations need to ask and answer.

Are You the Biggest Obstacle to Your Own Law Firm's Growth? You didn't go to law school to become a professional bottleneck. Yet here you are—reviewing every document, approving every decision, wondering why your talented team can't function without you. You've hired smart people and worked harder than ever. So why does everything require your approval? Why does growth feel impossible? The truth: you've trained your team to be helpless. Every time you step in "just this once," every time you redo their work, you reinforce their dependence. Meanwhile, you're drowning in work that shouldn't...

There's a Customer Born Every Minute reveals the lost wisdom of famous entrepreneur and showman, P. T. Barnum. Barnum was much more than a showman; he was a dedicated businessman and entrepreneur with a razor-sharp mind. In this delightful and absorbing new edition, Joe Vitale reveals the secrets of Barnum's success and shares the 10 key business practices that Barnum developed and lived by.

sing the CAS Professional Standards is a practical text designed to highlight multiple ways to apply the standards and guidelines published by the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS). It offers a compilation of in-depth case studies that demonstrate what the CAS approach looks like in practice across a wide range of functional areas in a variety of college and university settings. Written by student affairs faculty and practitioners, the book details how the CAS approach can be used successfully to design new programs, develop learning outcomes, address ...

Les Gold has been in business since age 12, when he started selling used golf clubs from his dad’s basement. Now he owns Detroit’s biggest pawnshop, American Jewelry and Loan, and is the star of the hit reality TV show Hardcore Pawn. In this entertaining, honest book, Gold takes you inside some of his weirdest, wacki­est deals and steals. From the monkey his dad once took in to pawn to the deal Gold made for a stripper pole, he has no boundaries for what he considers to be part of his business - and neither should you.

Getting ahead requires you to think strategically, embody specific values to help you stand out amongst your peers, and successfully navigate and build relationships with internal stakeholders. ‘How to Advance Your Career in Professional Services Marketing’ takes a deep inside look into how to go from a junior role to a senior role within the world of professional services marketing. Previously, if one wanted to learn how to advance their career within the industry in marketing and career management, they would have to learn on the job, read multiple books and combine the information of...

Anyone can have a good idea. Very few can turn it into a million-dollar one. Until now. It’s challenging to start and scale a business. Choosing the cloud as your platform for delivery and headquarters presents a whole new set of obstacles. This guide will allow you to leverage the cloud to streamline your processes and maximize your profits.

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.

Conventional wisdom says most startups need to be in Silicon Valley, started by young engineers around a sexy new idea and backed by VC funding. But as Mikkel Svane reveals in Startupland, the story of founding Zendesk was anything but conventional. Founded in a Copenhagen loft by three 30-something friends looking to break free from corporate doldrums, Zendesk Inc. became one of the hottest enterprise software companies, rapidly growing with customers in 150 countries. But its success was anything but predestined.

You’ve spent years training to be an expert in your field. Years hunched over books and articles, writing essays late into the night on the science and art of your chosen profession. Through hard work and determination, alongside lots of experience, you’ve now become pretty good at it. So good in fact, that you have been asked to stop doing it all the time. You’ve been asked to be a manager.