Sublime

many firms cannot “fix underperformers” as a profit improvement tactic because their financial reporting systems do not reveal where the real underperformers (assignments, service lines, clients, or partners) really are.

His life’s work is devoted to helping experts build better businesses.

of the firm’s entire productive capacity, 40 or 50 percent is consumed with a higher-priced person performing a lower-value task.

client may have the ability and resources to perform the work itself, but turns to the professional firm because the firm can perform the service more efficiently, because the firm is an outsider, or because the client’s own staff capabilities to perform…

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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.

quality. In the short run, this may not hurt the firm: If the clients are willing to pay us higher fees to be inefficient, why change? There is a reason to change. It is called “competition.”

what strategy is really all about: changing current methods of operating in order to render more value by existing partners on existing services to existing market segments.

underdelegation causes senior people to neglect high-value tasks that are of critical importance to the future success of the firm.

to document and share the best ideas available, so that each professional has a source of help in finding ways to enhance his or her value in conducting the client project.