Sebastian Hartmann

Next Generation Management for Professional Services

Tag: Operations

Your Future Workforce won’t fit into Your Firm!
December 23, 2021

Your Future Workforce won’t fit into Your Firm!

For most professional and B2B services firms, human capital constitutes the largest single cost driver of business activities. The current pace of change across consulting, legal, accounting services, and other professions is driving massive shifts in human capital requirements, skill transformation needs, and talent shortages. At the same time, top-tier talent is increasingly harder to recruit, develop and retain. Professional services firms are recognizing that they are not immune to the Great Resignation.

That’s why more and more firms are beginning to leverage a mix of employees and contingent workers to meet their clients’ needs, deliver competitive services and solutions and transform themselves. An extended workforce approach helps firms reduce fixed costs, leverage specialized skillsets for varying periods, increase capacity and individual flexibility or even innovate and grow in new markets. Building management capabilities for an extended workforce that combines internal and external resources will define the success of many professional services firms in the coming years. This article outlines some fundamental building blocks for designing a workforce ecosystem strategy and management capability.

Managing Technology as a Revenue Driver in Services Firms
January 26, 2021

Managing Technology as a Revenue Driver in Services Firms

Technology is moving to the center of attention across professional and business services – and firms are spending more and more, not just absolutely but also relative to their revenue. If solely treated as a cost position, it becomes a race to the bottom. Instead, if considered a revenue driver and managed as an integral part of your firm’s P&L, technology paves the way for new business models, growth, and profitability.

Stay Calm and Steer Your Firm
November 24, 2020

Stay Calm and Steer Your Firm

In the light of the pandemic, an economic downturn, and an unparalleled technological upheaval across professional services, we urge firm leaders to take a careful look at their management reporting – and to invest in its maturity and future-readiness. It is, after all, one of the most essential tools for any leadership and management role.

Being Future-ready means being Cloud-ready for Professional Services Firms: 3 Key Actions
September 29, 2020

Being Future-ready means being Cloud-ready for Professional Services Firms: 3 Key Actions

As of today, it is quite unlikely that professional services firms will dial back on their technology investments – instead, we even see increasing technology investments in order to keep up with a faster evolving competitive landscape. Gartner predicts an annual growth of 5 to 15% for the technology spend of professional services firms – even factoring in the steadily decreasing unit costs for many technologies (e.g., storage, processing, etc.). As firms work through the selection, implementation and adoption of more and more systems and tools, it is obvious that there is barely a true alternative to a “cloud first” strategy.

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: