David H. Maister

Today I would like to feature one thinker that influences me. Mr. David H. Maister, one of the world’s leading authorities on the management of professional service firms.

In 2002, he was identified as one of the top 40 business thinkers in the world (BUSINESS MINDS, Financial Times/Prentice Hall.)

For twenty-five years he has advised firms in a broad spectrum of professions, covering all strategic and managerial issues, building a global practice that finds him spending about 40% of his time in North America, 30% in western Europe, and 30% in the rest of the world.


A native of Great Britain, David holds degrees from the University of Birmingham, the London School of Economics and a doctorate from the Harvard Business School.

He began his teaching career at the University of British Columbia, Canada, and then joined the Harvard Business School faculty, where he taught courses in managing service businesses from 1979 until 1985.

One of the research that Maister contributed for business that catapult him one the helm of my favorite thinker is the 9 Statements for business to profit. These 9 are:

1. Client satisfaction is a top priority at our firm.
2. We have no room for those who put their personal agenda ahead of the interests of the clients or the office.
3. Those who contribute most to the overall success of the office are the most highly rewarded.
4. Management gets the best work out of everybody in the office.
5. Around here, you are required not just encouraged, to learn and develop new skills.
6. We invest a significant amount of time in things that will pay off in the future.
7. People within our office alwyas treat others with respect.
8. The quality of supervision on client projects is uniformly high.
9. The quality of the professionals in our office is as high as can be expected.
If you notice Maister is very particular on employee attitude as we all know it can make or break the organization.
Cheers to Maister!