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

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

Overview

Professional services firms - from the legal sector to accountancy, consulting and beyond - face increased disruption. Service delivery models are under pressure to adapt to changing client expectations. Technology offers new ways of working with clients, but changes the skills profile required of professionals, and threatens the traditional people-centred business model. The Professional Services Leadership Handbook equips leaders, and aspiring leaders, with tools and insights both to tackle these long-term disruptive trends and to maximise their firm's profitability today.

Leaders of professional services firms find themselves with a daunting, but exciting, range of challenges ahead. Using practical insights drawn from experienced professional services leaders, the Professional Services Leadership Handbook explores new models and working practices to address four components of strategic leadership: clients, business, people and self leadership. It offers clear-sighted analysis of common pain points, and provides innovative solutions for dealing with them. This practical guide is designed for everyone involved in leadership decisions, whether that be a practice area, sector group, business function, or even firm-wide leadership role. It will help readers to focus their attention on the activities that will really make a difference to the success of their firm.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780749477356
Publisher:	Kogan Page, Ltd.
Publication date:	08/03/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	NOOK Book
Pages:	272
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Nigel Clark is a non-executive director of the Professional Services Marketing Group. He is also the editor and lead author of the Professional Services Marketing Handbook, published by Kogan Page.
Ben Kent is the founder-director of insight-led consultancy Meridian West. Ben advises leading professional and financial services firms and provides strategic research, consultancy and training.
Alastair Beddow is a director at Meridian West, working with firms of all sizes to develop engaging, differentiated and successful client leading strategies.
Adrian Furner is Managing Director of Kommercialize, a practitioner-led advisory firm focused on commercial excellence.

Nigel Clark has led marketing teams in professional services firms for more than 20 years in sectors including management consulting, legal, environmental consulting, engineering design, business services and project management. He is a former director of the Professional Services Marketing Group (PSMG).
Ben Kent is the founder-director of insight-led consultancy Meridian West. Ben advises many of the world's leading professional and financial services firms on their client engagement, and provides strategic research, consultancy and training for professional firms.
Alastair Beddow is a director at Meridian West, working with professional and financial services firms of all sizes to develop engaging, differentiated and successful client strategies, business development initiatives, and thought leadership campaigns.
Adrian Furner is Managing Director of Kommercialize, the practitioner-led advisory firm focused on commercial excellence. Adrian has held senior corporate leadership positions in which he was responsible for commercial, procurement, and operations, acting as both a customer and a supplier of a diverse range of professional services.

Table of Contents

• Section - ONE: Business Leadership;
• • Chapter - 01: Vision – How to Create and Implement a Robust Strategic Plan;
  • Chapter - 02: Innovation – How to Reap the Benefits of Innovation in your Firm;
  • Chapter - 03: Performance – How to Improve the Profitability of Client Engagements;
• Section - TWO: Client Leadership;
• • Chapter - 04: Understanding – How to Stay Attuned to the Changing Needs of your Clients and Markets;
  • Chapter - 05: Connecting – How to Foster a Client-Focused Culture in your Firm;
  • Chapter - 06: Sales – How to Improve your Firm’s Client Development Success;
• Section - THREE: People Leadership;
• • Chapter - 07: “Future-Fit” – How to Foster a Commercial Mind-Set in your Firm;
  • Chapter - 08: Motivate and Collaborate – How to Create High-Performing Teams;
  • Chapter - 09: Performance – How to Establish a Culture of Continuous Improvement;
• Section - FOUR: Self Leadership;
• • Chapter - 10: Forward Reflection – How to Assess your Leadership Potential;
  • Chapter - 11: Capability – How to Develop the Skills, Competencies and Experiences to be a Successful Leader;
  • Chapter - 12: Balance – How to Succeed as a Leader without Burning Out

Editorial Reviews

"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

"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!"

former Head of Strategic Marketing at Citigroup David Bowerin

"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

"An essential read if you are either a leader or an adviser to the top team of a professional services firm."

Gail Jaffa

"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."

FRICS Dennis Markey

"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