What It Takes: Seven Secrets of Success from the World's Greatest Professional Firms 1st Edition

Charley Ellis, well known and very well respected author of many many books re: business (firms, histories, theories, practices) has, with What It Takes, hit another home run. His excellent and fascinating discussions cover the Major Essentials for true success:defining your Mission, being sure the firm's Culture supports that Mission, Recruiting people who understand the primary importance OF that Mission, Developing people's ability and eagerness to support the Mission, Focusing your firm's attention on their Clients, being open to mission-supportive Innovation and exercising steady, principled Leadership. These simple (but NOT EASY!!) principles apply equally well to Personal Behavior and to Family Life. Happily for his readers, Charley Ellis writes in a clear and well-focused discussion of his points, including some very very interesting examples. This is a Keeper, and a Re-reader, regardless of one's personal field(s) of life endeavor.

Live, good examples and cases. The book is an deep insight into the minds of successful PSF leaders and role models.

"What it Takes" only deals with professional service firms. It deals with everything from values, hiring, compensation, culture, and service delivery.Very few business books focus exclusively on professional service firms. As such, I've had difficulty applying the author's insights. Plus most business books that try and deal with professional services don't take into account the complexity inherent in these type of firms. Charles Ellis addresses complexity through detailed case studies, which helps provide the necessary context for applying (or not applying) an insight to my own firm. It's an easy and entertaining read that is well referenced and annotated. I highly recommend it.

The book is interesting but not great. The last chapter--the rise and fall of Arthur Anderson--makes the book worthwhile. The chapter is a cautionary tale of how a great company that focused on doing great work for its clients transformed into a mediocre company that focused on generating great profits for its partners. It will scare the bejeebers out of you. Read it several times if you care about your company.

The book is very interesting. I liked it and recomend for all. Everyone should read it. Great read for all !!!

Insightful and engaging on successful professional firms

I am ashamed that I spent money to purchase this book. I am ashamed that I spent time to read this book. I am writing about it here only to try to help others avoid doing the same. I am flabbergasted that books like this can still be written, let alone published. This book tells the story of a very small group of white men in the 20th century who used their positions of privilege to create fortunes for themselves. This books shamelessly attempts to explain their systematic discrimination against women and minorities, justifying it as necessary to the success of that small group of white men. The only lessons in this book are about how the elite think and work in order to maintain their privileges. Just having this book sitting on my desk makes me feel dirty.

What It Takes offers a roadmap of how the premiere professional services firms in the World has distanced themselves from their competitors.Charley Ellis is a legend. He is the founder of Greenwich Associates - a strategy consultancy focused on financial clients where he served for several decades. Ellis has authored 16 books plus countless papers and articles on investing and strategy. The 1975 article “The Loser’s Game” has made a lasting impression on many in the investment profession, me included. Among the very many assignments Ellis has had, the decade of chairing Yale University’s investment committee alongside its CIO David Swensen deserves mentioning as it makes Ellis a part of one of the most successful investment track records ever.This book started with a number of questions: “Which are the best firms? And what makes them the best? What principles and what concrete actions bring them to the top?” The firms in question are those in professional services. A number of enquiries later a clear consensus had formed around five outstanding leaders in five segments: McKinsey in consulting, Cravath, Swaine & Moore in law, Capital Group in investment management, the Mayo Clinic in health care and Goldman Sachs in investment banking. A further 300 interviews with leaders of these firms later a few very consistent keys to success emerge:1. Mission – a sense of purpose that motivates exceptional people,2. Culture – values that translate the mission to practices and make colleagues a tribe,3. Recruiting – recruiting only the most capable, motivated people,4. Developing people – maximizing people’s development during their careers,5. Client focus – exceeding what the most demanding clients expect,6. Innovation – finding new ways to serve clients and reinventing the organization in times of fundamental change and7. Leadership – bringing the above together.The absolute bulk of the book are chapters on each of the above keys to success that start with one page of general reflections then continues with 20 – 30 pages discussing the 5 leaders from the specific aspect in question and then a half page of reflections to end the chapter. There is further a chapter on handling problems – mostly devoted to Goldman – and one on lost excellence, fully dedicated to Arthur Andersen.Both the stories of successes and of failures show the tension between professionalism and long-term profit build-up on the one hand and short-term profit maximization as a business on the other. The firms that stay true to the professional values slowly, over time gain so much strength that they as a consequence also earn more money than others short-term. Those who look to maximizing short-term profits like Arthur Andersen are on a slippery slope where profits and employee benefits are gained at the expense of clients, eventually leading to destruction. The hard part is that at any point in time people’s incentive is to think short-term. This is why iconic - often-early - leaders and culture are so important as counterweights.What Ellis describes is often obvious but at the same time inspiring as you realize that so few of us live up to best practice. The author’s long experience makes him appreciate the many small, subtle and hugely important nuances of asset management, investment banking and consulting. The reader get to know the five professional services firms fairly well as Ellis is analyzing them by choosing what to share with the reader. In my view Ellis could have increased the amount of general analysis and reflections somewhat. It would have been especially interesting to read some thoughts on which choices Arthur Andersen could have made to stem their demise but Ellis instead clearly prefers the reader to think for himself.This book is an important gem. Read it.This is a review by investingbythebooks.com

I am ashamed that I spent money to acquire this book. I am ashamed that I spent time to read this book. I am acknowledging here that I have only in an attempt to save others from this book. I can't believe that books like this on are still written, let alone still accepted by publishers. The only thing you will learn from this book is (i) how Great White Men amassed fortunes for themselves in the 20th century simply by asserting the privileges that Great White Men had during that century, (ii) how those Great White Men are still trying to explain themselves and justify their gross discrimination against women and minorities. Don't buy this book and definitely don't read this book. It will make you feel sick. At least, it should.

This book absolutely blew me away. The insights into the DNA makeup of the world's greatest and enduring professional firms is conveyed in a fashion that grapped my attention right away. It is very inspirational and kept at a practical level as well, so it is easy to pick up ideas for implementation and/or further consideration.Well done./Rune

A thoughtful analysis of what it takes to build a great company and what is required to maintain that status.