Professional Business Principles for
Successful Business Professionals
This site is divided into two main areas: MY MATERIALS allows you to explore my articles, books, podcasts, videos and blog posts. The ABOUT ME section lets you find out more about my consulting and speaking services.
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Strategy |
Managing |
Client Relations |
Careers |
General |
Strategy
Below is a selection of my recent materials in this topic. Click on the "sort by" column above to choose from articles, and podcasts
Managing
Below is a selection of my recent materials in this topic. Click on the "sort by" column above to choose from articles, and podcasts
Client Relations
Below is a selection of my recent materials in this topic. Click on the "sort by" column above to choose from articles, and podcasts
Careers
Below is a selection of my recent materials in this topic. Click on the "sort by" column above to choose from articles, and podcasts
General
Below is a selection of my recent materials in this topic. Click on the "sort by" column above to choose from articles, and podcasts
Articles
What's Our Deal?
At a recent conference, I heard a number of successful firm leaders describe how their firms had a… read more
Are We In This Together? The Preconditions For Strategy
Managers build their plans and strategies on the assumption that people in their firm are ready an… read more
Accountability: Effective Managers Go First (published on ChangeThis.com)
The One-Firm Firm Revisited
In 1985, one of us (David Maister) wrote an article for the Sloan Management Review called “The … read more
Managing the Multidimensional Organization
Professional businesses today are structurally complex organizations with many senior people overb… read more
Podcasts
Strategy and the Fat Smoker
A strategy, like any other lifestyle altering decision, requires the discipline stick to the plan…. read more
The Fat Smoker
All companies know what they need to do to be successful. The trick is to have the determination … read more
Survey Results
The goals of an organization are only attainable through the mobilization of the organization as a… read more
Strategy is Standards
In order to succeed, a professional firm must have values, principles and standards. These should… read more
Profit Formula
In business many factors lead to ultimate financial and business success. The challenge is to iden… read more
Articles
Selecting A Leader: Do We Know What We Want?
If you read many articles or books on the desired qualities of a CEO or a managing partner, you ca… read more
Accountability: Effective Managers Go First (published on ChangeThis.com)
The One-Firm Firm Revisited
In 1985, one of us (David Maister) wrote an article for the Sloan Management Review called “The … read more
Managing the Multidimensional Organization
Professional businesses today are structurally complex organizations with many senior people overb… read more
Why (Most) Training is Useless
For much of my professional life, I have been paid to do training. It has been very well received … read more
Podcasts
Accountability
In order for the employees of an organization to raise their performance, those in managerial role… read more
Managing Dad
Commonly used tactics in management such as performance appraisals, go against every rule of famil… read more
Using Language to Get What You Want
Careful attention to language and an understanding of the best way to present issues are key inter… read more
Train a Pigeon
Getting another human being to fulfill their potential is a general process akin to the process of… read more
Getting Others to Give You What You Want
Everything you want in life must be given to you by others. The key question in getting what you … read more
Articles
Integrity Impugned
Because of prior poor experiences – or the generally bad caricatures that exist about many profess… read more
Adventures in Modern Marketing
A few months ago, I was having dinner with an acquaintance, a world-famous professor at one of the… read more
Marketing is a Conversation
As the authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto (Perseus Publishing, 2000) suggest, it’s time we stopped… read more
Do You Really Want Relationships?
In The Trusted Advisor (Free Press, 2000), my coauthors and I pointed out that building trusting r… read more
Doing It For The Money
It was one of those familiar conversations that I often have:
“We want to get more of our peopl… read more
Podcasts
Dynamos
Professionals at any given time can be one of three things: dynamos, cruisers or losers. What are… read more
Getting Hired by New Clients
sides of the fence. We will discuss how to thwart this cycle at the root by demonstrating your cap… read more
Experts vs. Advisors
In the marketing of professional services, you can come across in one of two ways to the buyer. Y… read more
Marketing To Existing Clients
Most professional organizations spend the overwhelming majority of their non-billable, business ge… read more
Rules of Relationships
There is far more to building a relationship than the point of any given conversation and there is… read more
Articles
Integrity Impugned
Because of prior poor experiences – or the generally bad caricatures that exist about many profess… read more
Why (Most) Training is Useless
For much of my professional life, I have been paid to do training. It has been very well received … read more
It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Much You Want It
Some Personal History
Like many people, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life when… read more
Young Professionals: Cultivate the Habits of Friendship
Most young professionals realize early in their careers that, at some point, skill in generating b… read more
Professionalism in Consulting
Like many profound ideas, “professionalism” is an ambiguous concept used to refer to a wide range … read more
Podcasts
Summary Proverb
We will close this series with a proverb that I use to conclude many of my seminars. It illustrat… read more
Earning a Relationsip
Everything in we want in life must be given to us by another human being. This being the case, a … read more
Think of Work
Marketing services that excite you to clients that you are interested in brings the odds of winnin… read more
Sustaining the Momentum
Burnout, the imposter syndrome and the motivation spiral are all key components in a loss of momen… read more
Avoiding Procrastination
One of the most common plagues in professional life is procrastination. The key is: Don’t p… read more
Articles
Geographic Expansion Strategies
Newspaper coverage of the legal profession is filled with plans to expand geographically, diversif… read more
The Auditing Debate
Any way you look at it, the audit business cannot continue much longer as it is. If years of “clea… read more
Charting Your Course
The search for the best ways to organize and manage architecture firms has occupied more and more … read more
The Psychology of Waiting Lines
Introduction
In one of a series of memorable advertisements for which it has become justly … read more
The Laws of Service Businesses
Professor Daryl Wyckoff was one of my mentors at the Harvard Business School, and we coauthored th… read more
There is nothing so powerful in business as actually having principles that you hold on to passionately and require those around you to believe. One way or another, all my research conclusions, consulting advice and speeches in my professional career as a global consultant, business author, and former Harvard Business School professor come down to passion, people and principles.
I am pleased to share with you my insights into Strategy, Managing, Client Relations and Careers and how you can apply professional business principles, in these areas, to successfully improve your own professional life and your business practice.