Utilization is a key business metric for professional services companies. Insight into skills and expertise is critical to effective utilization management.

What drives ROI on skill & expertise management? The most powerful levers are better utilization & the ability to win more projects.

Relationships take you only so far in winning work. You have to be able to demonstrate skills & prove differentiation. Skill & expertise management does this.

Managing business to optimize for staff utilization will ultimately lead to commoditization. Applying skills to build differentiation is a better strategy.

Lawyers, accountant, firms in Architecture, Engineering & Construction all want to be business consultants. Borders are blurring. This could drive innovation.

Skills are the new currency of work. Knowing your skill signature is part of being a professional.

Over the past decade, HR in professional services has become increasingly complex. There is a need for new tools that give deeper insight into people’s real skills and how they are being applied on projects. The payback for HR leaders is a greater strategic role in the firm’s direction, a more engaged workforce and insight into where one needs to invest

What new skills will professional services companies need to develop in 2017?

Your purpose will guide the skills you choose to develop and how you put them to work.

Differentiating skills are often hard to identify. They depend on the alternatives and must always be client in.

Differentiating skills are always relative to the alternative and specific to the problem being solved.