Professional Services First Principles — Rediscovering David Maister

Audience: Leaders in professional services firms.

Premise: Professional Services firms have more in common than differences, and understanding those commonalities can help leaders adopt best practices and differentiate.

Have you ever wondered how similar or different the challenges you face as a leader of a professional services organization are from your peers at competitors?

Have you ever struggled with where you should focus on gaining a sustainable competitive advantage and aligning the activities of your professionals around those actions?

Have you ever found your organization’s professionals debating which metrics to use to assess the health of your business?

Former Harvard Business School (HBS) Professor David Maister published a book in 1993 that helped me answer questions like those above when I was new to professional services. That book is “Managing the Professional Services Firm.”

My degree is in mechanical engineering, and most of my work was software development and managing projects with capable technical talent. What I had learned up to that point about managing a professional services business was through informal coaching, word of mouth, trial and error, self-study, and osmosis. As an engineer, I looked for business “first principles” to guide me but could not find them. I had the aha moment as I began reading David Maister’s recently published book (updated several times since).

At the time, I assumed a general manager role responsible for a profit center with a portfolio of projects. I was working with clients that needed a combination of management, technology, and organizational change consulting. The practice that I was building needed a wide variety of skills, more strategic thinking, and quickly adapting to market changes as our projects became more complex.

I wanted to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible about how the best firms in professional services operate. Maister’s book was there to help.

I am a voracious reader of business and technology-related books and articles. Former colleagues and friends know how annoying I can be in sending them articles and books. It is rare to find business books that contain truths that transcend the context of the time they are published. Many popular business books encapsulate the current fad or tell the story of a then-popular business success story. Often, those firms have lost their luster a few years after the book appears.

Maister’s work is different. He set out to identify and explain the patterns common to all professional services businesses (e.g., law firms, architecture firms, management consulting firms, medical practices, etc.). He describes his insights by focusing on “first principles.” He also documents best practices he observed and developed for the challenges that all professional services firms face as they grow and compete in the market.

More recently, I transitioned from leading and managing profit centers to advising senior business leaders on strategy, operations, and emerging technology. I also have an opportunity once a year to teach a course to first-year MBAs on the role of information and information technology (IT) in shaping business strategy, customer and employee experience, innovation, and operations. I am always searching for case studies and research that illustrate enduring principles and describe cause and effect relationships in models that the students can use in their careers. Those are very hard to find for most topics. The research and writing of Drucker, Maister, Porter, Schein, Kotter, and Christensen are examples of management “first principles” thinkers that I’ve found valuable in my role as a profit center leader. Deep thinkers and clear communicators who have uncovered enduring ideas.

In working with clients who are the leaders of professional services firms, I find myself drawing upon the work of David Maister. These include his other books published after “Managing the Professional Services Firm” and his excellent website (https://davidmaister.com), which provides a broad array of ideas from his experience as a business advisor. Maister’s work is specific to the unique context of professional services and is as enduring as those “first principles” so clearly illustrated in the writing of Peter Drucker.

Whether you are new to professional services or an experienced executive, Maister’s work in books and his website has gems worth revisiting from time to time. It’s not a typical business book that you might read from beginning to end. Instead, each chapter explores an important topic and provides both ways to analyze your current situation and formulate a plan of action to address the challenges you face.

Much like the ancient Greek philosophers or writers like Shakespeare who uncovered profound truths about human nature that are as applicable today, Maister’s work is as valuable today as when it was published.

I encourage you to explore his website and his books.

One of my other favorites by David Maister is “True Professionalism”.

Are there other books on professional services you think have enduring value and should be in my Kindle library? If so, please share those in the comments below.