Strategy & The Fat Smoker

I’ve been doing consulting for a very significant part of my career and therefore know a thing or two about all the critical aspects of running a professional services firm (client service, practice management, business development,etc.).

If you’re in the business, or if you run a professional services department that services your company you should read David Maister’s Strategy and the Fat Smoker.  David Maister has made a career publishing books and writing articles about life in the professional services world.  I know of no better author who helps crystallize your thinking about what it takes to run a successful organization in this space.

So what’s with the odd book title?  It’s not intuitive, but becomes clear once you read the first chapter.  Everyone knows that being overweight and smoking is bad.  And most know what it takes to loose weight and quit smoking.  But you still see lots of overweight smokers roaming around out there.  Strategy is somewhat analogous.  It’s pretty straight forward to put a strategy together.  For many industries, such as professional services, it’s not a mystery regarding what you should be doing.  The difficult part is the hard day-to-day decisions you need to make to implement your strategy.  Exactly like loosing weight, and stopping smoking.

Have a look.  The book includes great chapters on management, client relationships, firm management, etc.

I welcome your comments,
Mike Brannan