Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This book has several potential uses. Although I have worked in professional service firms almost my entire life, I found this book to be a useful reminder of what makes a professional service firm great. Although Tom Peters did not intend this purpose, I think it may be the best use of the book. The second use is the intended one: Turn your internal business department into a professional service firm look-alike. The book will work well for those who have driving ambition to be the best. For those who do not share Peters' passion, this book may seem over the top. Peters is a very qualitative thinker, so it would be easy to misapply his ideas in a way that created a tough work environment that created little benefit. For example, The Dance of Change warns against trying to create new language and culture in an organizational sector because everyone else may think you are weird and ignore you. Peters could create that kind of tension for a group if you followed his advice too literally (he suggests that you use questions like "How can we wow you?" when working with colleagues in the firm). On the other hand, Peters is at his best when he is a little off-the-wall because he makes you think. There are plenty of references to outstanding books, and he is really trying to create a picture of perfection. That is helpful, because most business books simply share dated information about past best practices. As someone who helps executives design simple, effective approaches to perfection, I applaud the effort. Peters would do well to accommodate other perspectives. Being totally committed to work and perfection through maximum effort often does not appeal to people as a permanent life style. What should the other people do? If you are an ambitious MBA who wants a mentor, you could do a lot worse than adopt this book as your guide. If you want balance in your life, you had better read Life Strategies as well. Keep up the good work, Tom Peters!
Click Here to see more reviews about: The Professional Service Firm50 (Reinventing Work): Fifty Ways to Transform Your "Department" into a Professional Service Firm Whose Trademarks are Passion and Innovation
Transform white collar departments into "professional service firms" whose sole, powerful asset is knowledge.Idea: You are boss of a 23-person finance department in a division of a big company. Or, rather, you were boss of the finance department. Now, per our suggestion-model, you are Managing Partner, Finance Inc., a full-fledged professional service firm which is a wholly owned subsidiary of your division.Goal: Learn from the best professional service firms! Transform your unit! Today, even after re-engineering done well, the "department" doesn't look much like McKinsey, Andersen or Chiat Day. (And that's an understatement!)Aim, in short: Cool people (call them "talent") working on cool projects with cool clients. The aim redux: A cool Finance/Purchasing, IS, HR, Sales department. Why not?The cool professional service firm is just that: cool people/talent, a portfolio of cool projects, cool clients. Period. It's only asset -- literally -- is brains. It's only product is projects. It's only aim is truly memorable client service.So step #1, then, is the organization (PSF) . . . transforming "departments" in which white collar folks work into way cool professional sercie firms adding way cool value by doing way cool "stuff". Peters discusses making the most of presentations, working with outsiders on market analysis, how to imporve brainstorming meetings, how to develop relationships with clients and get the most out of them. 50 of Tom Peters's trademark insights on how to get the most our of your department.See also the other 50List titles in the Reinventing Work series by Tom Peters -- The Brand You50 and The Project50 -- for additional information on how to make an impact in the professional world.
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