The Professional Services Firm Bible - Hardcover

Baschab, John; Piot, Jon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471660485 ISBN 13: 9780471660484

Publisher: Wiley, 2004

Synopsis

Spanning everything from legal firms and architects to fundraisers and dentists, the professional services industry continues to experience spectacular growth yet remains largely undocumented in business literature. Until now.

The Professional Services Firm Bible is a sophisticated and comprehensive guide to running a highly productive professional services organization. Top consultants John Baschab and Jon Piot provide specific and sharply defined policies, practices and tools for each important aspect of managing the professional services firm, allowing you to assess current operations and develop a step-by-step plan for realising measurable productivity improvements. Further, the book will help you improve financial performance by managing costs, getting the most from external vendors and improving revenues.

The Professional Services Firm Bible is full of best practices, proven advice and practical techniques and includes a CD-ROM with customizable tools every professional services firm can use to achieve improvements.

Please visit www.iig1.com and www.impactinsights.com for more information on the book and top consultants John Baschab and Jon Piot.

About this title

About the Author

JOHN BASCHAB is Senior Vice President and cofounder of Impact Innovation Group, a technology professional services firm in Dallas, Texas. He formerly worked as a consultant to Fortune 500 companies for management consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and an undergraduate degree from the University of Arizona.

JON PIOT is an executive officer and cofounder of Impact Innovations Group. He helped build the company from several professionals to over 700. His prior experience includes strategic consulting with Booz Allen Hamilton and Accenture. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree from Southern Methodist University. Baschab and Piot are also the authors of The Executive's Guide to Information Technology, from Wiley.

From the Back Cover

THE PROFESSIONAL SERVICES FIRM BIBLE

A comprehensive guide to every aspect of firm operation:

• Governance
  
• Organizational structure
  
• Compensation
  
• Sales management
  
• Marketing and advertising
  
• Business development
  
• Contract negotiations
  
• Intellectual property
  
• Writing proposals
  
• Strategic partnering
  
• Quality assurance
  
• Training and professional development
  
• Recruiting and retention
  
• Project management
  
• Risk management
  
• Finance and accounting
  
• Purchasing and procurement
  
• Vendor management
  
• Information technology
  
• Legal issues
  
• Office management
  

From the Inside Flap

The Professional Services Firm Bible is a comprehensive, sophisticated guide to every aspect of operating all types of mid-sized professional services firms from law and accounting firms to consulting, real estate offices, and marketing companies. Focused primarily on growing firms with several to hundreds of professionals, it presents a wealth of expert advice for firm partners and managers who want to dramatically improve their business and keep their clients and professional staff happy.

Each chapter is written by a well-known expert practitioner who shares his or her knowledge, experience, and personal stories, providing a wide range of perspectives on a specific topic area. Together, these different voices present a complete set of best practices for modern firms, as well as practical, real-world solutions for every vital function from sales and marketing to operations to human resources to staff management.

Focused on what it takes to successfully grow a small to mid-sized firm, readers will find field-tested advice on such important topics as:

• Building a sales approach that meets the needs of a growing firm
  
• Designing marketing, sales, and businessdevelopment strategies that really work
  
• Expanding firm business through the development of new product offerings and strategic partnerships
  
• Creating an optimal partnership and organization structure
  
• Managing and developing professional staff
  
• Accurately auditing and measuring the firm's performance and developing meaningful improvement plans
  
• Growing and leveraging firm assets and resources
  
• Designing the ideal information system for the firm
  
• Effective management of functional areas, including HR, finance, and accounting
  

Most important, readers will find specific policies for building a management and decision-making structure that ensures accountability and efficiency, as well as a wealth of management tactics specifically designed for small to mid-sized firms. Best practices offer invaluable help for back-office functions such as accounting, legal, and IT, while the accompanying CD-ROM includes diagrams, spreadsheets, checklists, and other useful tools. With expert guidance on every facet of professional services firm operation, The Professional Services Firm Bible is the one resource no firm can do without.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0471660485
• ISBN 13: 9780471660484
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 576