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What It Takes: Seven Secrets of Success from the World's Greatest Professional Firms
What It Takes is the distillation of lessons learned during nearly half a century of working backstage with the leaders of major professional firms as a trusted adviser on strategy and management, observing a few firms rise deliberately to leadership while many others with comparable hopes could not. Over and over again, in dozens of private meetings with firm leaders, the core questions Why do some firms rise to leadershipand why do most not make it? What does it take to excel? Perhaps even more important, what does it take to sustain excellence over years and decades, through success and adversity? Experience teaches that in a competitive market, organizations can rise to acknowledged leadership only by excelling in several specific defining a compelling organizational mission and developing a strong complementary culture; consistently recruiting clearly superior people and training them intensively; organizing and motivating them to work in effective teams devoted to serving important clients on their most important problems; and continuously finding new and better ways, both large and small, to deliver distinctive value for clients. The extensive research for this book is based on decades of studying the success and failure of hundreds of professional firms in North America, Europe and Asia, and on over 300 formal interviews with the past and current leaders of the five extraordinary professional firms that exemplify the elements of durable excellenceMcKinsey in consulting, Cravath, Swaine & Moore in law, Goldman Sachs in investment banking, Capital Group in investment management and Mayo Clinic in health care.
1 pages, Audio CD
First published January 25, 2013
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About the author
Charles D. Ellis
102 books87 followersCharles “Charley” D. Ellis is an American investment consultant. In 1972, Ellis founded Greenwich Associates, an international strategy consulting firm focused on financial institutions. Ellis is known for his philosophy of passive investing through index funds, as detailed in his book Winning the Loser’s Game.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 3, 2019
One of the best book I've read in 2019. Well researched and thorough analysis done for each of the firms. Lots of great lessons to learn from it. I was immersed from the beginning to the end. What a book, if you aspire excellence in management this book is for you.
August 21, 2018
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 and
7. 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.
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 and
7. 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.
August 18, 2017
Excellent insights on how to recruit and build a strong culture of innovation at the tactical and strategic levels
August 21, 2013
I highly recommend this book to anyone involved in management of a professional services firm. Ellis is renowned for his knowledge of the investment management and securities industries and was managing partner of Greenwich Associates. He conveys his wisdom about management through telling fascinating stories about the histories, personalities, growth, decline, ups and downs of McKinsey, Cravath, the Mayo Clinic, Goldman Sachs and Capital Group, which he describes as "the world's greatest professional firms". He then concludes with a chapter on the rise and fall of Arthur Anderson & Co. If you've ever herded cats as a manager in such a firm, you'll both enjoy and benefit from this book.
November 20, 2014
This was an interesting read about seven excellent companies from consulting and finance to healthcare. They mention Mayo Clinic as the leader in healthcare with their mantra of the needs of the patient come first. My favorite part was the final chapter, which detailed the demise of Arthur Andersen, the auditing firm of Enron. Just because you are a leader in your field, if you don't keep doing the things that put you on top, you will soon lose your position.
November 29, 2013
This thoroughly researched analysis describes what makes professional service firms successful for the long term. Ellis explains these key points through the history of successful firms like the Mayo Clinic and McKinsey Consulting, and through the downfall of Arthur Anderson. It has a powerful moral and it's thorough, but it's a long read if you're not really into service firms.
September 14, 2013
Arthur Anderson - touching story of a failure after lots of great success !
December 22, 2014
good insight into the ingredients which have made 5 leading firms so successful - culture, excellence, hiring practices, loyalty
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews