Professional Services Leadership Handbook ─ How to Lead a Professional Services Firm in a New Age of Competitive Disruption

Leaders of professional services firms - from law firms to accountancy, consulting and beyond - face an increasing challenge. Client expectations are changing and service models need to adapt. Regulators are liberalizing markets and at the same time mega multi-disciplinary firms are colonizing parallel sectors. Technology offers new ways of providing and accessing services, which may be less dependent on the people-centred business model professional services firms are built on. The Professional Services Leadership Handbook equips leaders who must find new and better ways to face the future, at the same time as delivering profit today.

Leaders of professional services firms need to evolve to meet the changing needs of their clients and yet still preserve their unique value proposition. Using examples from innovative professional services firms and parallel sectors such as financial services and advertising, The Professional Services Leadership Handbook explores new models and working practices that can unlock a new dimension of competitiveness for individual firms. It offers clear-sighted analysis of the common pain points that firms face and offers innovative solutions for dealing with them. This practical and solutions-focused guide for everyone involved in leadership decisions for a practice or function will equip readers to cut through the challenges facing them and focus their attention on the activities that will really make a difference.

Nigel Clark has held senior marketing and business development roles in a number of companies. He is a non-executive director of the Professional Services Marketing Group and teaches at the Cambridge Marketing College. He is the editor and lead author of the Professional Services Marketing Handbook, published by Kogan Page in 2015.
Ben Kent is the founder-director of insight-led consultancy Meridian West. Ben advises many of the world's leading professional and financial services firms on their client engagement, and provides strategic research, consultancy and training for professional firms.
Alastair Beddow is a director at Meridian West, working with professional and financial services firms of all sizes to develop engaging, differentiated and successful client strategies, business development initiatives and thought leadership campaigns.