Very practical reading

This books is like an arsenal of tools to form and grow a professional service firm. Examples and cases are rich and helpful.

A ton of great practical information and very helpful, uplifting, and guiding as I start my career in professional services.

Required reading prior to joining a professional services firm. At least you'll know what you're signing up for; no need to learn that the hard way.

Comprehensive, thorough, full of useful insight, very dry.

Одна из лучших книг, описывающая принципы работы по управлению фирмой. Хотя и немного устаревшая...

So happy to be done with this book! ugh, reading it was painful. My CEO recommended reading it to get familiar with consulting. Maybe this is part of the reason I don't get excited about my job most days.

Great book if you are working in the professional consulting services sector. I read it quite a few years ago but putting it on my list now. Clearly and concisely explains the mechanics and financials behind professional consulting, how it works and how it should be managed. A must read for anyone in the profession.

I did not read this book on my amazon kindle, I read it on paper.

Good basic book on how to run professional service firms like consulting firms. Very interesting insights even if the book ages a bit.

Un riferimento. Incredibile che dopo quasi trent’anni sia ancora così attuale.

Despite its age (which shows in several ways), there were *many* direct lessons here (applicable across industries and time!) that I’ve burned time learning the hard way. Clear, practical advice along with alternatives and tradeoffs.

Very straightforward and practical guide to a Professional Services firm.

The underlying themes include: that real professionalism is about serving clients, associates and yourself as best as possible and that this will also maximise success as well as being the ethical thing to do; that individuals and firms should concentrate not just on generating as much work as possible but on generating the right type of work – firstly (more for individuals) the types of work they want to do and the type of clients they want to work with and for firms work that helps the firm develop; that individual professionals should focus on their own career and what they want to achieve over a 1-3 year time horizon and pick their firm and design their role in the firm around that; that a professional services firm can only really work if the professionals in it agree to be coached and managed (giving up some autonomy for the advantages of being part of a successful firm) and if the firm is prepared to enforce compliance in areas such as client satisfaction, coaching, R&D; that enforcing compliance in these areas should not be punitive e.g. via compensation or even dismissal (unless other measures fail) but instead via firm coaching and personal feedback from senior managers; that a compensation system focused on overall performance is much better at dealing with mediocre performance than an individual performance system; that firms should consider guaranteeing client satisfaction by say accepting 75% of the fee and letting the client decide to pay between an additional 0-50% at the end depending solely on their level of satisfaction.

This is a must read for anyone that works in professional services. It gives a clear, concise overview of different ways to structure the business and set it up for growth. While, I believe, slightly outdated, it still is full of gems of wisdom. As long as I work in professional services I will flip through this book annually as a refresher.