Sebastian Hartmann

Next Generation Management for Professional Services

Category: Value Chain

Cost Levers along the Next Gen Value Chain of Professional Services
September 15, 2020

Cost Levers along the Next Gen Value Chain of Professional Services

The cost pressure is on for professional services. Shifting client demands, declining prices, new technologies, and an emerging set of fierce competitors are taking a toll on law, consulting, tax, and accounting firms. Especially in times of crisis, cash is king. Once the topline deteriorates, outlasting the competition requires superior cost management. COVID19 is surfacing which firms have successfully adjusted their business and operating models and will be able to cope with the harsher climate of a global recession – and the accelerated digital transformation of professional services. But what exactly are the cost levers when the game is no longer about utilization and hourly rates?

Managing for Outcome: Rethinking Value Chains in Professional Services
May 24, 2020

Managing for Outcome: Rethinking Value Chains in Professional Services

The pandemic may have put the final nails in the coffin of the „time & material“ model in legal, consulting, tax and accounting firms. But what are leaders, partners and managers focusing on when the game is not about „utilization“ and „billable hours“ anymore?

So, here is a framework to grasp and think through the management implications of the next generation value chain for professional services:

Can Old Dogs still learn New Tricks? Towards the Next Gen Playbook for Managing Professional Services
September 23, 2019

Can Old Dogs still learn New Tricks? Towards the Next Gen Playbook for Managing Professional Services

The inherited recipes for growth and profitability are eroding as the input-oriented models of traditionally fuzzy knowledge-based services are being replaced by throughput- or output-based compensation for much more client focused and increasingly digital solutions. Leaders and managers in charge of professional service firms need to adjust their management playbook in order to remain relevant in the next generation of professional services. But where to begin?