New Book Review: "Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships"

New book review for Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships: Leadership in Professional Services, by Ross Dawson, Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann, 2005:

Well written and organized text on client relationships and the issues of dealing effectively with knowledge sharing and transfer in business. This book is a practitioner's manual that discusses key foundations of this topic, and then later examines some of the primary approaches used, with a majority of the book covering implementation of these ideas. Dawson begins the text by indicating that "even if you are brilliant at engaging in knowledge-based relationships with your clients, that does not help you if your clients do not recognize the value you can create for them through this deeper level of engagement. Professionals must lead their clients into knowledge-based relationships by demonstrating the value of collaboration. On every front, the future success of professional services firms will depend absolutely on the leadership capabilities within the firm." The author furthers this line of thought by discussing recent growth of the U.S. economy, which was driven by information, ideas, services, and knowledge. But while value is in knowledge, the most powerful trend in business right now is commoditization: "Without a relationship you become a commodity. With a relationship, everything is possible. You can create far greater value for your clients than your competitors can, and as a result lock your clients into longstanding, mutually profitable, collaboration."