Comments

Richard is one of the leaders, along with Madeleine McGrath, of tompeterscompany!UK. See their bios here:
http://www.tompeters.co.uk/contact_us.html
Thank you, Richard, for joining in on our blog!

Posted by cathy at April 14, 2005 12:31 PM

Richard,

I'm not certain where you are coming from.

Are you talking about "departments" which have/should have become PSFs or are you referring to actual "professional firms" ie accountants which should be acting as PSFs.

If it is the second then we fall into that group and we do our best to be a PSF but to be frank it is wasted. Most people we come into contact think (at best) we are strange because we are not like the "typical accountant". At worst they think we can't be any good because we are not like every other Tom, Dick & Harry firm of accountants.

It's very difficult to keep the faith!

Posted by Stuart Jones at April 14, 2005 2:13 PM

Stuart, I know it's tough - people tend to think of accountants as boring beancounters - until they're in financial crisis or tax trouble. then they expect you to be magicians. Having done my share of packaging and selling Professional Services (including my own brain)- I'm sympathic - Here's a thought for you - Flip the turtle. What do your existing clients say about you? Why did they pick you? Why do they stay with you? Do they refer others to you? What do they say when they tell others about you? That'll give you a start. You can be professional and different - you're just not going to please everyone.

Keep the faith.

Posted by Mary Schmidt at April 14, 2005 5:00 PM

1992 LIBERATION MANAGEMENT - PSF - Dinofossil - we are in regression at the TP company.

Posted by Sean at April 14, 2005 6:52 PM

heh sean

my friend, we are not in dinofossil land, sometimes it just takes a while to sink in. any staff area of any company is in the bullseye...as a former op's manager, I still wonder why staff doesn't get it...if you can't provide me more value internally than what I get externally, you are toast! Quite frankly, if I was a CEO I would outsource hr, finance, engnineering, purchasing, etc....hell, I might outsource sr management!

Posted by mike at April 14, 2005 10:06 PM

The PSF mindset is a powerful framework, but the economics of today's Corporate America do not always afford one the opportunity to employ it at an organizational level. This is precisely why it must be applied in individual personal development strategies.

Posted by Troy Worman at April 14, 2005 11:46 PM

heh mike

sounds good in theory, but in reality: outsource “everything” and your competition would eat you alive

Posted by tweeter at April 15, 2005 12:20 AM

When is Tom going to post again?

Posted by Bruce Johnson at April 15, 2005 1:07 AM

One of the challenges facing business is how to deal with intangible costs and benefits.

This is one of my pet gripes. Companies (rightly upto a point) assess people on performance metrics that are measurable. what they don't measure is the intangible networks, relationships, customer knowledge. Get rid of that person and you have a hole (not in your org chart but in the reality of what makes a business tick)

Posted by PaulH at April 15, 2005 4:24 AM

An excellent point Paul H...I recently attended a panel discussion where the top HR bods from IBM,Accenture,Atos,Marakon etc were on the panel. Someone asked them what they look for in hiring and they all gave the standard answers.Problem solving,analytical skills,numerical reasoning etc. Apart from the IBM rep....she said that her number one consideration was this, "who can the candidate have on the phone in 24 hours. Who is in their network?"

Posted by fredd kambo at April 15, 2005 5:19 AM

I remember well reading about Jo Tilli and Tom Strange all those centuries ago - it was and still is an inspiring story that I often quote in talks.

The principles of what Jo and Tom did still hold true

I have always passionately advocated that;

"STAFF KNOW ALL THE ANSWERS ALL THE TIME"

I really believe that.

What we need to do is free our staff up to do interesting stuff and not hold them back through petty rules and regulations.

Long live Titelfex and long live Tom and Jo –

BUT - don’t complicate things by giving it unnecessary jargon words like ‘Professional Service Firms’ - these were simply two experienced but ordinary guys who had done the job for many years and their managers simply trusted them to make things better - and it worked - that should not surprise us at all.

Amen to this little story – it tells us a lot about Simplicity which is my passion

Posted by Trevor Gay at April 15, 2005 5:31 AM

Trevor, your point about terminology is very well taken. I agree totally that the jargon is not helpful. But we do have to find ways of getting the concepts across to people.

Does anyone have any ideas about how to describe the PSF mindset without using jargon? I can do in four sentences, but not in one - any takers?

Posted by Madeleine McGrath at April 15, 2005 7:38 AM

"Professional service" resonates with me - it seems to mean "higher up the value chain" - which is where the USA/EU/Japan/Austrailia probably should focus as China/India/Korea/South America take their world business to a higher level.

And professional means simple, consistent world peace so families benefit and become more affluent.

Posted by Sean at April 15, 2005 8:39 AM

I think we actually have to be careful with the term PSF. To many people PSF means Consultants and Auditors. These people (wrongly in many cases) don't have a good reputation with others (I've worked in both a PSF and "normal" dept and they both look down on each other!). In fact the image is often that they are very un professional cowboys. I think it is far healthier to talk about the behaviours, mindset and values that you want people to work towards.

In some ways I feel the same way about the male/female debate instead of talking about women being better at this or that I think it is more inclusive to talk about the behaviours and values that show why woman are better in some situations. Then we can all share the benefit

Posted by PaulH at April 15, 2005 8:52 AM

Bruce,
tom will be back. just don't know when at this point.
And Sean,
If by dinofossil you mean somebody who goes back a very long time with Tom, then you've got it right. Tom has changed partners in the U.S. several times, but not in the U.K. Since Rick and Madeleine started in 1988, they have been right in step with Tom all along. And by bringing up PSF, Rick demonstrates his ability to stay in step with Tom, because Tom's writing a treatise called "PSF is Everything" right now.

Posted by Erik at April 15, 2005 9:03 AM

I agree that the jargon 'professional service firms' should simply be seen as 'service firms' and the professional should be an intergral part of the firms brand values. Demonstrate 'professionalism' rather than state it! this leads to the issue of service delivery and best practice. Here is a question if everyone is practicing best practice then best practice ceases to be anything other than average - whats going to be the next generation of service levels and does the next generation of best practice become known as 'a bit better than best practice'?

Posted by Justin at April 15, 2005 9:06 AM

Thanks Madeleine - I hear what you say - good to know the UK is having input to these wonderful discussions

I would love the PSF concept simply to be called

"Trust Your Staff"

But I guess, well qualified, highly technical managers will tell me I am being just plain silly in the adult world of big business - what a shame!

I think we should use more childrens language in business - maybe then more workers will understand what we managers are talking about.

I seriously believe less than 5% of average workers know what the hell we are talking about with this management jargon - so how then can we expect them to sign up to what we believe!

sample viagra free I love Simpliicty but I know we have to have a label/handle for all these things.

I dislike jargon intensely so how about something along these lines;

"In House Innovators (IHI's) will improve processes thus making making the organisation more efficient"

Throw this suggestion in the bin or work on it to improve it but whatever please keep it simple.

My beloved Mum is 76 and still likes to understand things she reads.

quick delivery on viagra

Trevor

Posted by Trevor Gay at April 15, 2005 10:14 AM

PSF mindset ?? In 4 words - "Search for Excellence -Always"

In 4 sentences ? Oh well -- I follow Seth's method --if you can't describe it in 8 words, you're toast.

Posted by /pd at April 15, 2005 4:49 PM