Managing the Professional Service Firm

these characteristics (customization and client contact) demand that the firm attract (and retain) highly skilled individuals.

Management of a professional firm requires a delicate balancing act between the demands of the client marketplace, the realities of the people marketplace (the market for staff), and the firm’s economic ambitions.

Another managing partner, well informed about a variety of professions, observes that “professional service firms are managed in one of two ways: badly or not at all.”

procedures and mechanisms to assure the quality of the work they produce: review committees, senior-partner oversight, documentation of working papers. However, relatively few have given much attention to improving the quality of service.