I have been a long time fan of the business management writer Tom Peters, in fact his “In Search of Excellence” was the first business management book I really read as a student at Varsity. His management philosophy is extremely innovative, action-oriented and inspirational.

I regularly read his website and download the PowerPoint Presentations of his seminars that he presents worldwide and which he kindly makes available on his website. The Presentations can sometimes be a bit cryptic but they are extremely thought provoking and inspiring.

One of his current tenents of business management is that businesses and even individual departments should be modelled on a professional service firm (PSF), in the wider sense of the phrase, i.e. a professional services firm is any firm that uses the specialist technical knowledge of its personnel to create customised solutions to clients.

Interesting Peters in one of his recent PowerPoint Presentations looks at the application of this principle to the transformation of a credit department of Trek.

To quote from Peters, “We used our Professional Service Firm (PSF) Model, an intervention that enables organizations to become more mobile, responsive, competitive, and customer-oriented, to perform only “work worth paying for.” It helps people to think and operate not as part of a cost center but as entrepreneurial service providers focused on the success of their “clients.” We put first- and middle-line managers through leadership workshops tied to key projects, facilitated sessions to help the managers agree on a way forward, and provided follow-up coaching.”

How well does your credit department service its “client”, the rest of the company?