Great book! A must read for anyone who wants to spend their career working in a professional service firm. Despite the date it was written, this book remains very relevant today. The first few chapters focus on ‘leverage’ for firms, with which it is actually referring to employees, and what balance between partner/employees that the firm should have. It compares the employees at the firm to leverage with a company in a different industry. The middle of the book is about marketing, where it encourages marketing to current clients, on top of non-clients, and it displays different marketing options. Then closer to the end it talks about firm leadership, and the role of the managing partner, as well as partnership compensation (two fascinating chapters).

The only problem I had with it, is that it did not discuss the different attitudes/needs of people in different generations. Because of the date it was written (1993), and the fact that it was really a compilation of articles written a few years earlier than that, the majority of the employees at that time were boomers, who were very loyal to their job, and desired to work their whole career for one employer. Now though, we have many Gen-Xers, who are more self focused, working on their career and wanting to be well rewarded or they might jump ship, as well as the Gen-Ys who are more interested in work/life balance.

Otherwise, it was a good read, and I’d recommend it to anyone in the field, no matter what level.

Useful for my career