Author: David Maister
Publisher: Spangle Press
Year Published: 2008
Rating: 
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For professional service firms, David Maister has been the go-to guy for advice on how to run a successful service organization. I’ve been a fan since I read his books, True Professionalism and The Trusted Advisor, years ago and am an avid reader of his blog, so I was eager to pick up a copy of Strategy and the Fat Smoker.
What does strategy have to do with a fat smoker? For 37 years, Maister was a fat smoker. He knew he should quit smoking, lose weight, exercise, and eat healthy – yet whenever someone brought that up, his response was not, “Oh, I see, this behavior’s not good for me? Ah well then, I’ll stop, of course!” Rather, his more likely retort was, “True, but please shut up and go away!”
Maister didn’t change his habits until he was confronted with a major health crisis, but his own refusal to change made him think about why firms don’t change. After all, they often know what they should be doing, why they should do it, and often, even how to do it. So why don’t they do it?
Most firms are like people in that it’s difficult to do what’s good for you in the long term when you are constantly bombarded with short-term temptations. Sticking to what you should be doing requires sacrificing today’s comforts for discipline and future rewards.
Worse, many of us become disillusioned because we “try” to change our ways, succumb to temptation, and quit … only to repeat the cycle next time we vow to change. Of course, you don’t get much benefit from exercising only a few times a month. You can’t lose weight by eating more fruits and veggies but rewarding yourself with a large slice of chocolate cake at the end of the day.
The same logic holds true for corporate strategy – you won’t gain a competitive advantage by doing things “reasonably well, most of the time.” Rather, you must define what clients you will serve and which services you will offer – while turning down or referring out work that doesn’t meet those criteria – and stick with your decision. Strategy means saying “no” to some work so you can focus on what you do best, regardless of how lucrative the opportunity may sound in the short term – just as that chocolate cake may satisfy your sweet tooth now, but it moves you further from your long-term weight loss goal.
This may sound like common sense, self-help fluff, but Maister quickly delves into the specifics of how firms can commit to change with both employees and management on board. Starting with employees, Maister first tackles why most employees aren’t rainmakers: If they don’t love what they do, who they do it for, or feel enthusiastic about the firm’s stated purpose, why would they want to go out and get more of it? He then attacks compensation structures (hint: most people don’t work “for the money”) and proclaims “most training is useless” because managers want a quick fix rather than to deal with systemic problems. When discussing the appropriate time for training, he adds this gem:
“Here’s a good test for the timing of training: If the training was entirely optional and elective, and only available in a remote village accessible only by a mule, but your people still came to the training because they were saying to themselves, “I have got to learn this – it’s going to be critical for my future” then, and only then, you will know you have timed your training well. Anything less than that, and you are doing the training too soon.”
So what is the key ingredient to success? In Maister’s view: effective management. This section is really the heart of the book as Maister offers nugget after nugget of practical advice for how managers can better motivate and mentor their employees. In short, Maister feels it’s management’s job to make people want to get involved by explaining why opportunities are fulfilling, exciting, and worth sacrificing their time. Managers must lead by example – and he offers a fantastic example of excellent personal coaching in action when he describes how a senior colleague at Harvard Business School mentored him. This chapter should be required reading for every manager out there!
That said, not everyone will take Maister’s advice – as he points out in a chapter about why lawyers and law firms are different from other service firms. It’s somewhat disheartening to hear how lawyers are often too clever for their own good and have a low-trust culture filled with skepticism, detachment, desire for autonomy, and aversion to risk. He doesn’t see much hope for change until clients pressure lawyers to work in teams to deliver seamless legal service.
The book layout caters to the ADD-oriented business person by including a short pullout quote highlighting a main point at the bottom of each page. There’s more meat in the headlines and these quotes than there is in most business books. Like with his other books, Maister is fantastic at predicting what you want to know next and gives you plenty of examples, explanations, and action points to show you how to put his advice into practice now. If you manage people in any capacity, I highly recommend you read this book.
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