Over the last decade, there has been a substantial rise in the number of knowledge-intensive firms - constituted primarily of professionals. The core assets of these businesses are the people themselves. Handle them badly, and they may defect or stall. Successful managers of knowledge-intensive firms must create meaning among and inspire their employees, to ensure high performance. To achieve this, leaders must understand how to target each employee 's ambitions and challenges to facilitate their personal and professional development.

This book examines what sets knowledge-intensive firms apart from other types of organizations, and the resultant organizational and strategic differences in business models, talent management, and client-handling approaches. The authors bring their own complementary perspectives on the subject: one, as the manager of a private consulting firm with a strong research background; another, as a business school professor whose practice-based skills are fundamental to his work; and a third, a world leading commentator on professional service firms acting as a consultant, business school researcher and a manager.

Ejler, Poulfelt and Czerniawska present a new model for transforming the management of knowledge-intensive firms, which is supported throughout with practical examples and cases.

Over the last decade, there has been a substantial rise in the number of knowledge-intensive firms - constituted primarily of professionals. The core assets of these businesses are the people themselves. Handle them badly, and they may defect or stall. Successful managers of knowledge-intensive firms must create meaning among and inspire their employees, to ensure high performance. To achieve this, leaders must understand how to target each employee s ambitions and challenges to facilitate their personal and professional development.

This book examines what sets knowledge-intensive firms apart from other types of organizations, and the resultant organizational and strategic differences in business models, talent management, and client-handling approaches. The authors bring their own complementary perspectives on the subject: one, as the manager of a private consulting firm with a strong research background; another, as a business school professor whose practice-based skills are fundamental to his work; and a third, a world leading commentator on professional service firms acting as a consultant, business school researcher and a manager.

Ejler, Poulfelt and Czerniawska present a new model for transforming the management of knowledge-intensive firms, which is supported throughout with practical examples and cases.

Management consultancy is one of the fastest growing markets in the world today, with the worldwide fees estimated to total more than $60bn. This pace of growth looks set to continue, but the future holds significant challenges. This book assesses the key opportunities and risks facing the consulting industry over the next twenty years, such as: - the changing client-consultant relationship, with clients demanding more tangible benefits in a shorter time - access to new international capital will determine the survival of consulting firms - more complex relationships between consulting firms, with new alliances between traditional rivals in order to address new markets - a more blurred boundary between the roles of clients and consultants The author is a management consultant of long-standing experience and she quotes from interviews with leading partners from some of the world's most influential firms, including Andersen Consulting, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Deloitte & Touche and the Boston Consulting Group. This will be essential reading for anyone already working as a consultant or considering doing so, and for people who buy or work with consultants.