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how do we define professional services?

While there are a large number of books on the subject, there doesnt appear to be a standard definition of professional services. A formal definition of professional services found in most dictionaries is similar to the following: Professional service is a service requiring specialized knowledge and skill usually of a mental or intellectual nature and usually requiring a license, certification, or registration. The definition posted on the web site of one state legislative agency is:

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE means work rendered by an independent contractor who has a professed knowledge of some department of learning or science used by its practical application to the affairs of others or in the practice of an art founded on it, which independent contractor shall include but not be limited to lawyers, doctors, dentists, psychologists, certified registered nurse anesthetists, veterinarians, architects, engineers, land surveyors, landscape architects, accountants, and claims adjusters. A profession is a vocation founded upon prolonged and specialized intellectual training which enables a particular service to be rendered. The word professional implies professed attainments in special knowledge as distinguished from mere skill.

Governments, industries, businesses, and people use different definitions for professional services depending on the situation. They include or exclude different vocations in the definition. For the purposes of this book, professional services are businesses in which professionals are providing a service not based on a tangible product. In our definition, we include accountants, appraisers, attorneys, business consultants, technical consultants, political consultants, architects, engineers, physicians, advertising agents, real estate brokers, and insurance agents. These types of occupations must deal with similar issues in delivering specific and specialized services through people. While the types of services delivered to clients are diverse, many of the mechanisms and operations of all professional services firms are similar. For example, a medical practice and a commercial real estate brokerage firm are very different in the services they provide. However, for much of their operational decision making, they have similarities-for instance, both firms might analyze whether they should promote a professional staff member to be a full partner in the practice/firm. The thought process and the decision framework for analyzing this question are very similar for both. How much profit will the new partner add to the practice? How dilutive will the new partner be to existing partners? Will the new partner have voting rights? Many other operating aspects are similar for the firms as well (e.g., utilization, profit per employee, invoicing, record keeping).

Because of the comprehensive treatment of the business of managing a professional services firm, this book addresses major operational and



business issues that affect almost every firm manager, partner, or owner on a daily basis.

The approximate number of U.S. firms in each professional service category is shown in the following table:

Approximate U.S. Firms

Segment

(Thousands)

Health care

Business consulting

Insurance

Legal

Financial services

Real estate

Counseling

Architecture

Political advisory

Marketing

Staffing services

Education

The first six segments are covered in depth in this book. We underscore, however, that the concepts can be applied to most professional services firms.

what is covered in this book?

The intent of The Professional Services Firm Bible is to help professional services firm executives turn their companies into highly productive organizations, help readers become better managers of their firms, and solve many of the problems alluded to earlier. The book provides sharply defined, specific policies, practices, and tools for each important aspect of managing the professional services firm, from sales and marketing, to human resources (HR), to operations, to risk management. The approaches facilitate the assessment of current operations and the development of a step-by-step improvement plan designed to improve current firm management and provide measurable productivity improvements. The book will help firm management improve the financial performance of their practice by managing costs, getting the most from external vendors, and improving revenues.

Each chapter in the book is devoted to a key operational area of managing the firm, such as marketing, finance, HR, and risk management. Topics and features include:

Identifying the main management areas of a successful professional services firm



Understanding the scope and key success factors in each management area

Identifying approaches for auditing current performance by area

Understanding the main sources of waste

Identifying industry average spending and investment commitments by area and professional services type

Distinguishing the business of managing the firm from the delivery of professional services

Identifying symptoms and sources of professional services firm inefficiencies

Finding critical improvement steps in each of the main management areas

Making better decisions in firm strategy and direction setting, hiring practices, operations, technology, marketing, and overall management

Achieving higher utilization from existing professional services assets/ consultants

Achieving higher return on investment (ROI) from capital and operating expenses

Specific cases and anecdotes from actual departments and consulting engagements illuminate and further explain the material. Quotes and advice from well-known practitioners in each of the service areas are included.

The book has five sections. Section I, Managing and Governing the Professional Services Firm, focuses on understanding the difference between the business aspects of operating a professional services firm and the actual delivery of the services. Additionally, the contrast between front office (sales and marketing) activities versus back office (operations) activities is drawn. The section presents benchmarking research by functional area (HR, information technology [IT], finance), by professional services firm type (law, medical, etc.), and by size for spending and focus on each area. The section explains why the topic is important for the professional services firm manager and discusses what key operations, sales, and marketing processes all professional services firms have in common. Case studies and cautionary tales about failures of professional services firm initiatives or businesses where the fundamental business pieces were not well executed emphasize the importance of the topic. The section also covers the effective senior level management and decision-making structure for the professional services firm and topics such as partnership management and legal governance structure.

Section II, The Front Office: Driving Sales and Growth, covers the topic of sales and marketing. While most professional services providers are highly proficient in delivering their actual services, a common shortcoming for many



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