We often (or even usually) know what we should be doing in both personal and professional life. We also know why we should be doing it and (often) how to do it. Figuring all that out is not too difficult. What is very hard is actually doing what you know to be good for you in the long-run, in spite of short-run temptations. The same is true for organizations. What is noteworthy is how similar (if not identical) most firms' strategies really are: provide outstanding client service, act like team players, provide a good place to work, invest in your future. No sensible firm (or person) would enunciate a strategy that advocated anything else. However, just because something is obvious does not make it easy. Real strategy lies not in figuring out what to do, but in devising ways to ensure that, compared to others, we actually do more of what everybody knows they should do. This simple insight, if accepted, has profound implications for 1. how organizations should think about strategy 2. how they should think about clients, marketing and selling and 3. how they should think about management. In 18 chapters, Maister explores the fat smoker syndrome and how individuals, managers and organizations can overcome the temptations of the short-term and actually do what they already know is good for them.
Strategy and the Fat Smoker; Doing What's Obvious But Not...
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Review
Knowing what your company needs to do is relatively obvious: the test for us all is actually making it happen. David Maister reminds us remorselessly of this painful truth and then, through anecdote, metaphor and case history, more than compensates by showing us how to turn empty aspiration into hard reality. (Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO, WPP) --Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO, WPP
Strategy and the Fat Smoker is a masterpiece - a rare blend of wisdom, experience, and humility. Every manager, and anyone who works in a professional services firm, ought to read this lovely book. (Robert I. Sutton, Stanford Professor and co-author of The Knowing-Doing Gap.) --Robert I. Sutton, Stanford Professor and co-author of The Knowing-Doing Gap.
David Maister has built a career on giving unerringly wise advice to those of us in the business of advising and leading. He offers the reader the motivation, tools and wisdom to achieve more than we might ever have thought possible. This is essential reading for anyone determined to succeed. (Paul A. Laudicina, Managing Officer and Chairman of the Board, A.T. Kearney) --Paul A. Laudicina, Managing Officer and Chairman of the Board, A.T. Kearney
Strategy and the Fat Smoker is a masterpiece - a rare blend of wisdom, experience, and humility. Every manager, and anyone who works in a professional services firm, ought to read this lovely book. (Robert I. Sutton, Stanford Professor and co-author of The Knowing-Doing Gap.) --Robert I. Sutton, Stanford Professor and co-author of The Knowing-Doing Gap.
David Maister has built a career on giving unerringly wise advice to those of us in the business of advising and leading. He offers the reader the motivation, tools and wisdom to achieve more than we might ever have thought possible. This is essential reading for anyone determined to succeed. (Paul A. Laudicina, Managing Officer and Chairman of the Board, A.T. Kearney) --Paul A. Laudicina, Managing Officer and Chairman of the Board, A.T. Kearney
About the Author
David Maister is widely acknowledged as one of the world's leading authorities on the management of professional service firms. For 25 years he has acted as a consultant to the most prominent professional firms around the world, on a wide variety of strategic and managerial issues. Prior to launching his consulting practice in 1985, he served on the faculty of the Harvard Business School. He is the author of the bestselling books Managing the Professional Service Firm (1993), True Professionalism (1997), The Trusted Advisor (2000), Practice What You Preach (2001) and First Among Equals (2002.)
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More About the Author
David H. Maister, one of the world's leading authorities on the management of professional service firms, is the author of several successful books, including Managing the Professional Service Firm, True Professionalism, and Practice What You Preach, and coauthor of The Trusted Advisor.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
By J. Shaffer
Format:Hardcover
David Maister has written another very readable, logical, practical book that's brimming with common sense. It's for leaders who could use a Dutch uncle's bony index finger in their sternum to remind them of what they already know but don't have the focus and discipline to do day after day.
As a management consultant for the past 25-plus years, I've watched leaders struggle with defining, clarifying and implementing business strategies. They struggle because it's not easy work. It's like dieting or quitting smoking and staying with it. It's hard work.
Drawing on the diet/smoking analogy, Maister offers up useful ways to think about strategy--starting with having the right mindset. To this he introduces tools, techniques and processes to make strategy work...this time.
He's so usefully blunt with that bony index finger. "Real strategy lies not in figuring out what to do, but in devising ways to ensure that, compared to others, we actually do more of what everybody knows they should do." So, strategy is not just about strategy, but execution.
And commitment and resolute focus. "You can't achieve a competitive differentiation through things you do 'reasonably well most of the time.'"
And discipline. "The necessary outcome of strategic planning is not analytical insight but resolve."
And knowing when to say no. "Strategy is deciding whose business you are going to turn away."
Maister covers the gamut, from building ownership and accountability in the strategy (consequences for non-compliance), avoiding temptation, creating rules to live by, clarifying expectations and roles for leaders and overcoming obstacles that I have seen leaders struggle with over the years.... Read more ›
As a management consultant for the past 25-plus years, I've watched leaders struggle with defining, clarifying and implementing business strategies. They struggle because it's not easy work. It's like dieting or quitting smoking and staying with it. It's hard work.
Drawing on the diet/smoking analogy, Maister offers up useful ways to think about strategy--starting with having the right mindset. To this he introduces tools, techniques and processes to make strategy work...this time.
He's so usefully blunt with that bony index finger. "Real strategy lies not in figuring out what to do, but in devising ways to ensure that, compared to others, we actually do more of what everybody knows they should do." So, strategy is not just about strategy, but execution.
And commitment and resolute focus. "You can't achieve a competitive differentiation through things you do 'reasonably well most of the time.'"
And discipline. "The necessary outcome of strategic planning is not analytical insight but resolve."
And knowing when to say no. "Strategy is deciding whose business you are going to turn away."
Maister covers the gamut, from building ownership and accountability in the strategy (consequences for non-compliance), avoiding temptation, creating rules to live by, clarifying expectations and roles for leaders and overcoming obstacles that I have seen leaders struggle with over the years.... Read more ›
32 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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Length:
6:24
Mins
A look inside what will likely be the best business book of 2008. David Maister has collected decades of experience into what may be seen as the ultimate management BS detector. He shreds fads and provides common sense advice to people who are serious about improving leadership, management, and customer relationship capabilities. We'll look at each section and the content and format that makes this book so special.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
If you are a lawyer, accountant, consultant or architect (or work for them) you need to buy this book this book now! Right now!
January 17, 2008
By Jeff Scurry
Format:Hardcover
It's a new year and you want to lose weight. You know what to do. Odds are, however, that you will not do it.
So it goes with professional service firms strategies. Every firm knows what to do but they just don't do it. Why? Because they aren't sick. Once they have that first heart attack things will change.
That is the central point David makes in this great book. He makes the point simply and effectively and this is a must read for every person who lives by the billable hour.
Heads of firms should skip straight to the chapter titled "The Chief Executive's Speech." Take it, put it on some note cards and give it the next beginning of the fiscal year all-hands meeting. This is what you should be saying instead of the things you've been saying before.
I hope to hear that some firm has ditched their current strategy and replaced it with David's. That firm will make more money than their competition.
So it goes with professional service firms strategies. Every firm knows what to do but they just don't do it. Why? Because they aren't sick. Once they have that first heart attack things will change.
That is the central point David makes in this great book. He makes the point simply and effectively and this is a must read for every person who lives by the billable hour.
Heads of firms should skip straight to the chapter titled "The Chief Executive's Speech." Take it, put it on some note cards and give it the next beginning of the fiscal year all-hands meeting. This is what you should be saying instead of the things you've been saying before.
I hope to hear that some firm has ditched their current strategy and replaced it with David's. That firm will make more money than their competition.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Maister gets a lot right: appeal to an employee's own needs, not the greater corporate good(more work, less support makes for a bad rallying cry); embrace a relationship mentality in business deverlopment not a transaction on(as he bluntly puts it, go for romance and not a one night stand although many talk the first but do the second); understand that all can be rainmakers if you speak to their needs and intererests first with the money a nice side benefit, a consequence and not a motivator. His chapter on law firms is disheartening.He says that they are so different from other PSFs that they need their own chapter. His analysis:"(law firms are made up of)bands of warlords,each with his or her followers,ruling over a group of cowed citizens and acting in temporary alliance---until a better opportunity comes along." Beacuse of billing pressures, he says many partners hoard the work that needs to be pressed down. A final point, and one I disagree with---he seems to suggest that PSFs must only cater to the elite clients and there is no room for commodity work. Yet it is the commodity work which trains newer employees and, at times, fills in the dry periods between the more margin filled engagements.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Brad Shorr
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Although Maister is writing for and about professional services companies, I think his ideas about strategy apply to almost any type of business. The "Fat Smoker" analogy is memorable, and it means that we don't always do what we know is good for us, even when it comes to running a business. In order to achieve great results, we have to break the old habits that have kept us in the same old ruts. Most of the book concentrates on ways we can develop the right attitude toward our own work, interact more effectively with co-workers, and build inspired, cohesive organizations. For some people, this book will be like preaching to the converted. But for business leaders and professionals who think the individual is more important that the organization, or who lead by intimidation, it will be a challenging read. Although Maister has an easy to read style, there is nothing easy about his ideas. He shares great wisdom obviously the result of long years grappling with organizational problems at a high level.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
David Maister's most personal effort
When I first saw this title, I was inclined to think that the author had intended the phrase "fat smoker" to be an oxymoron, because at least in my experience, there are very few... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Erik Gfesser
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is a "must read"
This book will be a classic as more and more business leaders learn that implementation is one of the keys to leadership as well as great business. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Peter Byers
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unique, Extremely Helpful, & Powerful
This book is really more like a collection of essays from David Maister. Almost every essay is good enough to expand on and be turned into a regular business book. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Bradley Bevers
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very interesting but...
I thought was very interesting informational material but you the analogy of the the Fat Smoker and Strategy was scarcely used. Read more
Published on October 30, 2010 by LadyT Bumblebee
5.0 out of 5 stars
Strategy for imperfect organisations
There are plenty of business books which contain inspiring and valuable ideas about excellent customer service, highly engaged employees, and strategies for creating remarkable... Read more
Published on December 4, 2009 by John Gibbs
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not David's Best Work...
This book is a collection of Maister articles. It's central message is that people often know *what* they should be doing, and even *how* to do it, but they often don't due to a... Read more
Published on March 16, 2009 by Douglas Haider
5.0 out of 5 stars
Maybe The Big Three Automakers Should Read This!
Had the Big Three automakers heeded the advice of David Maister's "Strategy and the Fat Smoker" and stopped reaping short-term gains (by focusing on giant SUVs) at the expense of... Read more
Published on November 20, 2008 by Dolf M
4.0 out of 5 stars
a great guide to common sense uncommonly applied
the premise of this book is that most organizations and most of us know What to do to be successful but simply do not spend our time doing these things. Read more
Published on November 16, 2008 by Tom Sutter
5.0 out of 5 stars
Chugging Out Gems
I have been an avid follower of David Maister's for over 20 years and he keeps on chugging out gems. This latest work is no exception. Get it, read it, learn from it!
Published on August 22, 2008 by Ken Lizotte
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another Great Maister Book
David Maister did it again. For any CEO of a small business make sure you read Chapter 18.
Published on April 25, 2008 by Gary Galvin
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