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Summary: If you are in for a "services career" must have book
Review: I'm now in my seventh year in Professional Services and High End Management Consulting - as an individual contributor as well as in leadership roles - this book always lead the way in difficult situations.If you want to pursue a career in services: must read!
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Summary: If you're the one who has my old copy...
Review: I've read a lot of books on leadership, management and selling - this is one of a select few that I find myself referring back to frequently since I first read it 5 years ago. I just logged on to buy a new copy - I've loaned out my old one again and forget who has it. The chapters on selling professional services are particularly strong, because Maister recommends dignified, professional approaches to client development. I personally practice ideas like 'marketing from the inside' and it's helped me help a lot of people - and make a lot of money in the process.
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Summary: An utterly excellent guide to managing a consultant firm
Review: If you have ever worked in, been a partner or managed a consultancy firm, this book will not only answer a lot of your troubling questions, it will also explain matters that you did not know the questions to - just the obnoxious frustration of something that was not working. It is with incredible ease, yet depth and understanding that David H. Maister plough through the important issues that concerns not only managing partners in a consultant company, but anyone who wants to climb up the ladder. He explains why you got to balance your workcrew (juniors up to partners) and why it is so vitally important to mix people on the right combination of projects (brains, grey hair and procedure projects) as this builds up the firm's human capital, and provides the means and profitability to continue to grow steadily. I could go on but space does not allow me to. This book is not filled with theoritical babble but practical and useful information, no - knowledge and experience! The book is divided into seven parts (personal highlights inside brackets): basic matters, client matters (quality work does not mean quality service!), people matters (building human capital, the motivation crises), management matters (creating a strategy), partnership matters (the art of parner compensation), multisite matters (the collaborative firm, hunters and farmers, etc.) and asset management. All in all it comprises of 32 chapters. You won't find many books that explains service business any better than this one. I know because I went searching.
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Summary: an absolutely fabulous book
Review: It has come to my rescue time and time again at a management consulting firm. The first four chapters on "basic matters" have become standard reading for all senior managers in our group. I wish he would do some more case studies outside the legal profession, otherwise it would be a 10.
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Summary: A must read for marketing managers of prof. service firms
Review: It is all in this book. If you are responsible for marketing professional services, this book brings 100 years of experience. It will make you a super star. It has the data, the method, the plan. It's up to you to implement it, but it's one that is easy to do...and it works.
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Summary: Consummate Consulting Guide
Review: Maister does a great job of summarizing the rules, objectives, and pitfalls of most service organizations. This was required reading (perhaps still is) for Andersen Consulting managers. It is very easy to read and can be put to use immediately. Some of the basic issues that plague service firms are raised without a proposed fix. Partner billable hours is the metric that drives short term thinking. It would seem that Partner profit would be the better metric. An Outstanding book that is applicable to law, medical, technology, and strategic service firms.
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Summary: Must reading for service delivery managers everywhere.
Review: Many managers in IT professional services do not recognize the unique business model that we share. They think that Service Delivery is all about matching customer projects with the right talent. Maister reaches way beyond this short-sighted approach and shows critical practice development, relationship management, governance and business development techniques. Mastery of these techniques is necessary to build a healthy practice with long-term viability.
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Summary: Great for larger firms and delivering quality service
Review: My edition is a 1993 hardback and the price is multiples of what you can buy it for today here online and in paperback. Maister has also written several books since this one along topics related to managing the people side of the business.
The reason to buy this book is to see a more complete picture of managing the medium to large professional firm.
There are other, perhaps more recent, books that provide deeper and more targeted coverage of the MARKETING of professional service firms, but this book also covers: how to measure and deliver quality service; how to motivate, retain, compensate, and promote your professional assets that walk out the door each evening; and even such topics as to how to "split the pie."
Maister follows the Harvard style of management books: lots of detailed text (375 pages), a few 2x2 matrices, a fair amount of original research based on management surveys of professional service firms.
I'm sure most larger firms already have this book, but younger firms may want add this book to their collection as well.
John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX
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Summary: A must for personal service firms!
Review: OUTSTANDING! If you own or are involved with a personal-service firm, you simply MUST read David Maister's books, including this one.
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Summary: A Guide Map
Review: Prof. Maister detail in this book all management dimensions in a Service Firm. He provides helpful and powerful insights to every one interested in this market. Being you a beginner or a senior in your profession, you will always find important, helpful and practical orientation on how doing business and improve in this market.
It is a classic.
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