Practice Management

Strategy and The Fat Smoker - New podcast episode available now

Posted on January 16, 2008
The second episode of my new podcast series, Strategy and the Fat Smoker, is now live and available for download.This series is dedicated to exploring the themes found in my new book by the same name. Each chapter will be accompanied by an executive summary ebook covering the same material...

New Years' resolutions: Podcast from Financial Times columnist

Posted on January 15, 2008
Lucy Kellaway is a (terrific) columnist on management for the Financial Times. She has written a very amusing column about her New Year?s resolutions, based in part on some of my ideas in STRATEGY AND THE FAT SMOKER. You can listen to Lucy reading her column in this podcast...

Mentoring

Posted on January 14, 2008
One of the best books on mentoring that I have found is ?The Elements of Mentoring? by W. Brad Johnson and Charles R. Ridley. Here are some of their chapter headings and subheadings: Getting to Know Your Protégé             Spend time Identify and communicate strengths and weaknesses             Allow fears and emotions to be discussed Expect Excellence             Set high expectations and communicate clearly             Model what you expect of others             Demonstrate confidence Affirm, Encourage and Support             Show that you value them             Instill confidence             Kindly shed light on unrealistic expectations Provide Sponsorship              Discern their dream             Help them with first steps             Use your status to get them opportunities             Get them to function on your behalf occasionally Teach and Coach             Clear Instruction on expectations, roles and functions             Story-telling and metaphors             Help people understand organizational politics Offer Counsel in Difficult Times             Provide insight, not necessarily answers Listen, reflect feelings clarify alternatives             Validate feelings Protect When Necessary             Recognize that protégé will occasionally suffer personal or political problems             Use protection sparingly Stimulate growth with Challenging assignments Nurture Creativity             Encourage innovative thought             Safe haven to experiment             Model innovation Provide Correction ? Even when painful             Confront negative performance or behavior             Help with ideas ? don?t just criticize Narrate Growth and development             Discuss milestones openly Self-Disclose when appropriate Accept Increasing Friendship and Mutuality Model work/Life Balance Display Dependability **** What?s your experience been with best practice in mentoring? Have you experienced organizations where it works well? What is the secret to effectiveness at this?

A Printable Ebook

Posted on January 11, 2008
Two weeks ago, I published a post indicating that an ebook of Strategy and the Fat Smoker was now available. The response to the new book, both in hardback and ebook versions, has surpassed many of my expectations.  A number of you expressed concerns that the ebook could not be printed, but only viewed on a computer screen, describing this as a major inconvenience...

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One More Thank You for 2007

Posted on January 08, 2008
It is already 2008 but I would like to pause for a moment before we move forward into the New Year. As you know, I truly appreciate and value the ways with which you share your thoughts and ideas. The last twelve months have been extremely stimulating and your contributions have helped shape the ideas and projects that grew out of this blog...

Self-Publishing: Delays

Posted on January 07, 2008
I owe an apology to many of you who were surprised to discover that, even though I announced a publication date of January 2, Amazon currently lists my book STRATEGY AND THE FAT SMOKER as not being available for 4 to 7 weeks.As best I can tell, this is an initial (and, I?m assured, a temporary) inventory problem based on the fact that neither the printer/distributor nor Amazon were ready for the high volume of orders for a self-published book on the day of publication...

Strategy and the Fat Smoker - New podcast series live now

Posted on January 03, 2008
The first episode of my new podcast series, Strategy and the Fat Smoker, is now live and available for download.It is dedicated to exploring the themes found in my new book by the same name. Each chapter will be accompanied by an executive summary ebook covering the same material...

Ruthlessness and Charity

Posted on January 02, 2008
In an editorial in today?s Wall Street Journal, Lawrence B. Lindsey, author of a new book ?What a President should Know ? but Most Learn Too Late? gives the opinion that we (the electorate) should seek (as our president) an individual who is ruthless about protecting us against others, but (who) acts with charity towards all and malice towards none at home...

Ebook of Fat Smoker available now

Posted on December 27, 2007
The hardback version of STRATEGY AND THE FAT SMOKER will be published next week  (January 2)  but the ebook version  is available now from Atlas Books. It costs US$11.99, compared to the list price of US$29.99 for the hardback. The hardback can be pre-ordered, at discount prices, from Amazon...

Medical Practice as a Professional Service

Posted on December 19, 2007
R Paul L. Shillam, Controller at Pacific Medical Centers in Seattle wrote in to say: ?I just read the excerpt from your book published in Consulting (Nov/Dec 2008).  Each time I read your views on professional consultants, accountants or legal firms, it easily translates to the practice of medicine...

New Business Thinkers

Posted on December 17, 2007
Are there any business thinkers that you are paying attention to that have not been "around" and well-known for years already? Who, if anyone, is an emerging business thinker worth paying attention to? 

Digital Marketing for Professional Firms

Posted on December 13, 2007
David Koopmans, Director of Mokum Marketing in Melbourne, Australia wrote in by email to raise the topic of how professional services firms can use the web in their marketing strategy and what the specific benefits are. He points out that among some types of professional firm there is often resistance to the concept of marketing in general, and the digital space in particular...

Meeting Rules

Posted on December 12, 2007
We all know meetings are a curse.Here are some of the rules I would offer to help make them more productive.Do not call meetings when some other form of information sharing is possible. Since most people can read ten times faster than a presenter can speak, send material ahead...

Reputations

Posted on December 11, 2007
Consistency, dependability and regularity work: occasional peaks of excellence don't. For example, always meet your deadlines. If you are asked to do something, make sure you know exactly what it is and when it is due. If you have doubts about your ability to complete on time or about the task?s priority or importance, raise your concern with your manager or client immediately...

A Video Review of "The Fat Smoker"

Posted on December 10, 2007
Mike De Witt, a participant on this blog, has created a wonderful video review of my new book.He says nice things about the book, and I can honestly return the favor by passing on a strong recommendation that you look at his work in creating the video review...

The Rule of St. Benedict

Posted on December 03, 2007
At a seminar I conducted last Friday, the topic of enforcing standards came up ? as it always does. And, again as always, I made the point that the courage to enforce standards by asking otherwise productive people to leave is both essential and scarce...

More Comments on STRATEGY AND THE FAT SMOKER

Posted on November 30, 2007
Three more reviews of my new book this time from bloggers who focus on (respectively) the accounting, legal and marketing communications agency worlds.First, Dennis Howlett compares some of the points I make in the book to his own experience. He writes: ?When I was in practice I made a conscious decision that I would never compete on price and that I would never take on work I didn?t believe we could execute against...

Mentoring

Posted on November 28, 2007
There?s an interesting discussion this month in the print version of CONSULTING magazine about mentoring programs in consulting firms. What?s notable is how diverse the programs are. Some are highly structured, while others are based on encouraging mentees to seek out their own mentors among the senior staff...

Self-Publishing: The Economics

Posted on November 26, 2007
There are only a few key numbers to pay attention to in self-publishing, which means that each is very important.First comes the book's cover price. There are basically two main strategies that people follow here - stay in line with other mainstream books if you want a shot at a general audience, or consciously set out to extract a premium from the niche audience you are targetting...

Technical Excelllence

Posted on November 21, 2007
In many professional businesses, high technical excellence is taken for granted - we assume that having it is "table stakes" for competing.However, it's not a trivial issue to ask whether and how a firm goes about ensuring that its employees in fact meet high standards of technical expertise, especially in a world where companies tend to signal that revenue generation is a more pressing (if not more important) topic...

Believer or Skeptic?

Posted on November 20, 2007
When working with clients on change initiatives, I notice that they have two widely different strategies for appointing the internal person to lead the project. In some cases, they appoint a "true believer" who really wants to see the change happen. In other cases, firms go out of their way to appoint a skeptic, so that only proposals that can overcome the skepticism emerge from the study task-force, and proposals are not made that will not be implemented...

Another reader question

Posted on November 14, 2007
My question to you and all your website contributors; What have been people's experiences with the strategy of targeting only working with one client per industry sector and deliberately broadcasting to the market that that is your "modus operandi"? It's a bit clumsy, but, for example- "We guarantee our clients that we will not work for their competitors, thereby preserving exclusively for our clients, the commercial advantage of partnering with us"I know the applicability may vary with the type of services one offers, but do others have any thoughts on this approach?

Implementing a Client Service Strategy

Posted on November 13, 2007
One of the most common topics I am asked to advise on is achieving distinctively high levels of client service. I find that many firms underestimate how tough a diet and exercise program (see STRATEGY AND THE FAT SMOKER) it would really take to pull this off...

Managing Professionals in Not-For-Profits

Posted on November 12, 2007
A friend called recently and asked whether I thought the principles of managing professional service organizations applied in the not-for-profit sector.It?s a complex question. Let?s start below the level of the organization and ask whether the principles of managing professionals (not the organization, but the people) differs between for-profit and not for profit...

More Bloggers Review "Fat Smoker" Book

Posted on November 09, 2007
I'm grateful to those bloggers that are reviewing STRATEGY AND THE FAT SMOKER.Clarke Ching says ?The book is full of great ideas.  I'm just over half way through the book and I've had several "ah ha" moments already.  If you've read any of David's other books then you'll lap this one up too...

Screening for Relationship Attitudes and Skills?

Posted on November 08, 2007
Yesterday?s post was about whether relationship skills must be ?found? by firms in their hiring process or whether they can be developed.As I reported, about one-third of a conference of leading management consulting firms felt that these values, attitudes and/or skills are mostly ?hired in? rather than developed once people have reached the age and stage of being hired by consulting firms...

Developing Relationship Skills

Posted on November 07, 2007
At a conference of leading management consulting firms last week, I led a discussion about the barriers to developing strong, deep relationships with clients ? a ?fat smoker? strategy in the sense that we all know we should be good at it, but few of us are...

Firing unprofitable clients

Posted on October 30, 2007
Hi David,I had a question I wondered whether you or your blog readers had any opinions on.Many companies have unprofitable customers. This situation may arise for many reaons including:* Poor pricing controls - offering large and multiple discounts* Historic overservicing and undercharging long-term customers* Lack of understanding of the true cost to serveNonetheless, whatever the reason, when companies do find unprofitable customers they need to manage them...

The Fat Smoker and the Consumer Society

Posted on October 29, 2007
There?s a great blog called SLOW LEADERSHIP which picked up on the dilemmas I pose in Strategy and the Fat Smoker. Here?s what it had to say:*** Somehow the consumer society manages to combine a puritanical obsession with working with a totally hedonistic devotion to getting whatever you want in as short a time as possible...

Bob Sutton wins Quill Award for "No Asshole Rule"

Posted on October 28, 2007
Bob Sutton was awarded the Quill award for "best business book of the year " for "The No-Asshole Rule."Way to go, Bob! As I said on his blog, we all look forward to the movie of the book! 

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