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Our Points of View articles and Special Reports bridge the gap between the latest development thinking - evidence-based and founded on rigorous research – and the real world of your firm’s work.

We like to think and talk about how theory becomes practice, and how academic research can produce real-world results. Moreover, we like to be open about our thinking — which is why we’re sharing our ‘Points of View’ with you here.

Everything we write comes with recommendations and actionable ideas based on our long experience in the professional services sector. You can search our articles by four professional services functions: Lead, Consult, Manage and Build.

The Impact of Emotion on Loyalty and Buying Decisions
What’s changed about change?
Blocked in Lockdown – 10 things we have discovered
The Openside Webinar Modules
Women in Professional Services – 20 years on
Internal Consultants – Organisational Adrenaline or Decaffeinated Consultants?
The Pelorus – November 2019
What law firms can learn from consulting firms
The Pelorus – October 2019
The Pelorus – August/September 2019
The Pelorus – July 2019
Why your organisation is not ready to train and develop your sales force
The Pelorus – June 2019
Learning from a terrible DJ about the perils of the predetermined solution
The Pelorus – May 2019
What buyers of professional services are really looking for
The Pelorus – April 2019
The billable hour kills your firm’s values – what are the alternatives?
The Pelorus – March 2019
Tales of the Unexpected: Rethinking Differentiation
Beyond the Cusp of Disruption in Consulting
Posters from IBM’s ‘Quest for Quality’ Exhibition, 1985
Proposals: How to make them a point of difference, not a point of reference
The Professional Services Procurement Conundrum
Is it worth it? Is the ‘always-on’ culture in professional services worth the cost?
Challenging the ‘always-on’ culture – lead from the front
What can individuals and their firms do to mitigate the ‘always-on’ culture?
The costs of the ‘always-on’ culture to individuals and firms with important caveats
Why the ‘always-on’ culture continues to dominate in professional services
Special Report: Is it worth it? Examining the ‘always-on’ culture in professional services
Reverence or Regicide?
The Paradox of the Poisonous Performer
How organisations can overcome big data’s two biggest obstacles
Cognitive and Behavioural Skills Development – is eLearning the answer?
What do award-winning consulting firms do better than the rest?
Time’s up for the billable hour: Focusing on value is now the only option
How creative agencies can take on consulting firms at their own game – and win
Our Top 10 Most Read Articles of All Time
The Partnership Trap
The ‘Enquiry Strategy Remote Control’ for Consultants
Why are there so few women at the top of Professional Services Firms?
Underperformance all round? The Performance Management Conversation in Partner Groups
Is the definition of Partner “No more development required”?
Special Report: Mission Impossible? Managing Performance within the Partner Group
Introducing The Openside Group
How to Improve the Management of Performance within the Partner Group
Special Report: Millennials in Professional Services – face the challenges and embrace the opportunities
The Millennials’ Skills Gap – Why, so what and what to do about it?
Defining a professional services career skill set for Millennials
Developing ‘Human Skills’ among the Millennial professional services workforce
Who are Millennials and why should professional services firms care?
Special Report: Professional Services Marketing is Dead; Long Live Professional Services Marketing
Part 1: The challenges facing marketing teams in traditional professional services firms
Part 2: The current role of marketing in professional services firms
Part 3: Redefining the role of marketing in a professional services firm
Part 4: The ‘Hidden Curriculum’ of professional services marketing
Part 5: Professional services marketing is at a crossroads
Special Report: Emotional Intelligence (EQ) in Professional Services
Special Report: Why (most) training is still useless and what leaders can do about it
Part 2: The negative perceptions of leaders’ attitudes towards training in firms
Part 3: The Broken Windows Strategy in New York
Part 4: What leaders can do about it? How to apply a Broken Windows Strategy in your firm
Define your metrics or they will define you
Learning to catch a ball and learning leadership
Rethinking Value in Consulting: What distinguishes the top performing firms from the rest?
Answer the question! Why politicians’ prevarication is unequivocally unacceptable in professional services
Why now is the time for your consulting firm to revisit its professional development strategy
Intuition bias: Why practice doesn’t always make perfect
Challenging your clients: Get “That’s fair enough” not “That’s far enough”
The Scourge of Procrustean Solutions in Consulting
The great differentiation paradox for law firms
Why jumping to conclusions can make things worse
Overcoming the gender leadership gap and women only development programmes
Microwave Beds, The Great British Bake Off and Behavioural Change Programmes
From ‘Agents’ to ‘Advisors’ – Differentiating your property / real estate firm
10 unique dynamics of professional services firms that hinder change efforts
Consulting Excellence: The Implications for Professional Development
Rethinking the parable of the old man, the hammer and the broken engine
The great professional services differentiation paradox
Biased views? Have you considered all the evidence?
Secrets of Great Salespeople: 50 Ways to Sell Business-To-Business
Thinking different… Why discomfort and risk are the necessary costs of effective consulting
Internal Consulting Research Report: Begin as trusted insiders, grow as respected professionals
Billable hours – why it’s time for firms to slaughter this sacred cow
Part 2: Behavioural and Cognitive Professional Development Report 2016
Behavioural and Cognitive Professional Development Report 2016
Why ‘Earned right’ is very different to ‘Entitlement’
Why Practising and Failing is Better than Failing in Practice
Can a ‘traditional’ professional services firm’s culture be compatible with the attitudes of Millennials?
The Consultant’s Achilles Heel: Saying “I understand” Too Quickly
Internal Consultants – Organisational Adrenaline or Decaffeinated Consultants?
Should you use Internal or External Consultants? What you need to consider
Why the best teams don’t need to cheat
Benchmark your business development process
The impact of a cringeworthy LinkedIn profile on you and your firm
How to differentiate your professional services firm
Moving from Products to Services – Why? So What? and How?
White-line Fever: The great affliction of professional services firms?
Managing difficult negotiations – how to develop a negotiation framework
The Winners’ Formula: Learning from the winning firms of the MPF Awards
Applying the Analytical Thinking Process – a sporting case study
How to avoid being deselected: Moments of Truth and Chance Encounters
Why we resist change and the implications on your firm’s behaviour
General Elections, Gym Memberships and Critical Client Conversations
Request for Proposal – 10 tips to maximise success when the odds are stacked against you
Be honest. Would you buy from you?
The dilemma of being a principal in consulting
How Manchester City won the Premiership in 2012
What is leadership?
Networking and cold calling: touting for business or making a contribution?
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6 Jan

Analytical Thinking has been one of our core development programmes for consultants for over 25 years - it appears it’s now an essential foundation skill in all disciplines and across all industries.

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