Scottish inventor John Logie Baird gave the first public demonstration of television in 1926 in Soho, London. Ten years later there were only 100 TV sets in the world.

So, how does this relate to service firms? About a century after Claude Hopkins wrote his marketing masterpiece, Scientific Advertising, only a handful of professional firms understand and practise proper positioning.

So, to help the situation a little bit, let us discuss in a few words how service businesses scan better position themselves for higher demand, recognition and compensation.

In terms of market positioning professional service businesses fall into one of three distinct categories.

* Commodity type volume work

* Commercialised "one size fits all" approach

* Highly personalised premium work

COMMODITY VOLUME WORK

The mantra of this kind of business is tactically out-brawn the competition with backbreaking hard work and bottomachingly low prices, earning a living through sheer brute drudgery. This is basically the Wal-Mart approach of providing professional services.

This type of firms deal with a preponderance of customers (definitely no clients), employing an army of trade barbarians (people with great technical skills but as total lack of other necessary skills) and churning out high volume of low margin deliverables, such as workshops, websites, etc.

The typical examples of these businesses are web site developers and seminar companies. These firms have rigid policies and procedures to follow, and the idea is that they can hire low-skilled underpaid "labourers" who have enough skills to follow the procedure manual even with their eyes shut and standing on their heads.

In these firms we cannot talk about careers. They offer jobs for their people for short-term survival. Usually people take these jobs as stop-gap measures, but do their best to move on as quickly as humanly possible.

These firms specialise on solving very specific problems in very specific ways. For example: You have a computer problem, so we install a new IBM server. The solution to every problem is an IBM server.

When you are an IBM partner and receive a kickback on your sales from IBM, then the solution to everything happens to be the most expensive IBM "box".

"In your specific case you need good old mercury filling" - says your dentist, who also happens to be a shareholder in the local mercury mine.

Fee sensitivity is very high in these firms and they are willing to drop their prices in order to land any business. Remember the motto is high volume work whatever it takes.

To compensate for low price though, these firms employ armies of junior staff on their projects, and they can make up for their low fees in asking for a low hourly rate for an army of people.

One of the problems these firms are facing is that tomorrow someone else may be willing to do the same work cheaper, so the commodity firm goes down is history as a perfect loser.

Commodity firms run on very high overheads, and often one way of cutting overheads is cutting corners.

Since these firms operate like manufacturing plants, it is vitally important to implement quality assurance and productivity measurement processes. The value-added components of these firms are their processes, procedures and internal operating methods.

Most of these firms are operated and managed like large corporations, and operate more as contractors than as consultants. The personal touch is almost non-existent and the emphasis is on churning out the next piece of work and moving on.

COMMERCIALISED "OUR UNIQUE APPROACH" TYPE WORK

These firms have extensive institutional experience at solving certain types of problems. Individual talents are largely ignored because everyone is expected to feed the firms institutional competency.

These firms' engagements have less diagnosis and more implementation of predictable, off-the-shelf solution. At this level there is some collaboration with clients, but the work is largely based on the "doing it for you" approach.

There is quite a bit of leverage. The senior consultant (consultant? Gag me with a spoon!). The senior peddler just enough grey on the temples comes and closes the deal, and then an army of junior staff descends on the poor client to implement the project and bump up billable time.

Due to repeatability and increased operational structure, the major role shifts from senior professionals to junior staff and temporary help. The firm uses senior staff to go out and hunt for new business.

Skill-building is up to people' individual drive, and largely left in their own hands. The firm' mission is to exploit the skills these people have already acquired, and there is no interest in helping them to build new skills. Senior talent is used mainly for managing
engagements and reinforcing policies and procedures.

Since these firms deal with issues as problems to their pre-packaged solutions, there is some compartmentalisation. There is a clear hierarchical difference between the implementers (junior staff) and business getters (senior staff). In these firms there is an increasing
pressure to provide career opportunities for juniors, as opposed to merely giving them jobs. However, juniors are still often treated by seniors as necessary evils eating away the seniors' margins.

HIGHLY PERSONALISED PREMIUM WORK

These firms do not have well-defined approaches. They can be regarded as "organised confusion" in which people of diverse backgrounds and expertise perform a pretty broad range of work in an unpredictable fashion. This firm' mantra is "How can we deliver higher client value at higher fees using less of our time, effort and resources?"

They stay on the cutting edge of their disciplines and walk into every new assignment with a clean slate and an open mind. You can recognise them because they ask a hell of a lot of questions.

The success of these firms is based on the unique knowledge base of their people. They do not have "standard approaches". Everything they do is "frontier" stuff, involving lots of experimentations.

The use of junior staff is almost zero. Leverage is usually achieved by using clients own implementing team, which also becomes part of the knowledge transfer process. This way one single consultant, co-ordinating the implementing team, can achieve amazing results.

And here lies another difference. There is a huge difference in focus between the first two and this type of firm. The first two type of firms focus on tasks, activities and deliverables. For example, we write 12 1000 page reports, we deliver 10 half day workshops with 50-page student manuals.

Premium firms go for results and outcomes. For instance, we help you to increase sales by as much as 20% in the next six months, we help you to reduce talent turnover by up to 15% in the next three months.

Can you see the difference? One firm can build you a website. It is nice but useless. The other firm can help you to reduce the cost of acquiring new business from the global market place. That is something. Having a web site only for the sake of having a web site is just as useful as putting a pimple on an elephants arse. It makes no difference at all. At least not to the elephant. Well, unless it is a small elephant and a huge pimple, but now we are into zoology, so let us get back on track.

The other differentiating factor of these firms is that head count is the bare minimum with minimum operating overheads and maximum margins.

Talking about "frontier" work, clients are looking for the best and most reputable firm. For the firm it is vitally important to seek this pre-eminence by building the reputation of individuals.

Among the three type of professional service firms, this is the only one that recognises that people build relationships, thus do business with people, not with firms.

ON SUMMARY
Now take some time and have a hard look at your firm. Think about how you present your solutions and how you interact with clients.

* Which type of firm is yours?

* How could you step up to the next highest level?

* Who do you have to become and what do you have to do to be able to step up?

* What would be the pay-offs of stepping up?

* What are the investments you have to make in order to step up?

Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan of Dynamic Innovations Squad helps professional service businesses to build high trust client relationships in which they can deliver higher value at higher fees, using less of their time and effort. You can request his e-booklet Why Most Service Professionals Consistently and Persistently Undercharge for Their Services by emailing booklet@di-squad.com

In the past year and a half, hundreds of thousands of military reservists from all branches of the service were called to active duty, sending their employers scrambling to manage around their absences. Soon, many of these brave men and women will begin returning home to resume their lives and professions, which creates a new challenge for management teams across the country, who must reintegrate these employees back into the work flow.
Lee Hecht Harrison was faced with these very issues when a valued senior consultant, who also happened to be a public affairs officer in the Navy reserves, was deployed to a post in Italy after September 11th. While Lee Hecht Harrison regularly works with organizations to manage change, we know that many companies have never experienced losing an employee temporarily to military service and may be unsure about how to handle the situation.
First, its important to remember that reservists are protected by the Uniformed Services Employment and Re-employment Rights Act (USERRA). Employers play a role in maintaining a strong national defense and, as part of that role, must protect the jobs of reservists by making the original, or an equal, position available on the reservists return, whether they are gone for six months, a year, or longer. Employers can learn more by visiting the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve website at www.esgr.org.
Prepare a reintegration strategy as soon as possible. Returning reservists often face mixed feelings from colleagues, particularly those who took on additional roles that will need to be relinquished. Its important to ensure that all members of your team understand the roles they will play moving forward and to update the reservist about who stepped up to the plate during his or her absence. You may also need to reassure the reservist that he or she is positioned correctly in the company, since the transition from the high pressure position he or she held previously might seem abrupt.
Coping with the sudden departure of a military reservist can be a complicated issue. With that in mind, here are a few suggestions for effectively managing the reservist dilemma:
Develop a contingency plan. If possible, develop a strategy for redistributing the workload before the reservist is called, cross-training other employees as needed. Can your existing team handle the additional responsibilities or will you need to hire contractors? Be sure to gain buy-in for the plan at all levels of management. Remember that a reservists immediate supervisor may change during the time he or she is away, so any transition policies must be firmly established.
Communicate, communicate, communicate. During times of stress, its important to maintain a precise and constant flow of communication. Tell everyone involved what is happening and what you expect of them. And take time to communicate to your team the importance of the work the reservist has been called to do and how much you appreciate their extra work during the reservists absence.
Motivate your team. You may need to "reframe" the situation, in order to help your remaining staff view their additional responsibilities in a positive light. Persuade them that this is an opportunity to stretch and grow into new roles. They may find that they learn new skills during the process, which could eventually lead to a promotion. Its not enough to simply tell people what to do, you need to inspire them to buy into the entire process.
Delegate. There is a difference between simply reassigning responsibilities and true delegation. Its important to let go of the expectation that the work will be done in the same way the reservist would have done it. Communicate the results you need, but allow your team to find their own path to those results. Forcing a specific work process will only serve to reinforce the idea that team members are performing "someone elses" work.
Remain flexible. During active service, the reservist may not be able to maintain regular contact with the office, particularly if he or she is stationed in an unstable area like Afghanistan. It is also unlikely that youll be able to depend on a particular timeframe for the reservists return. Youll need to plan future projects without the reservist, but be prepared to integrate him or her back into the workflow when necessary.
Reach out. Keep in mind that reservists will be understandably nervous about being away from work for an extended period of time. Regularly emailed updates of office news or even occasional calls by an immediate supervisor to the reservists spouse can help minimize any feelings of isolation. Remind the reservist that he or she is still a vital part of the team, even thousands of miles away.
Prepare a reintegration strategy. Returning reservists often face mixed feelings from colleagues, particularly those who took on additional roles that must now be relinquished. Its important to let everyone on the team know the role they will play moving forward, and to update the reservist about who stepped up to the plate during his or her absence. Reassure the reservist that he or she is positioned correctly and understand that the adjustment will take time.
Management teams should familiarize themselves with the reserve process, so that they can develop realistic strategies. One misconception that many companies have is that the reservist will be prepared to come back to work within a few days of their return to the United States. Reservists need time to spend with their families and to adjust to being home. Depending on the amount of time the reservist has been away, USERRA provides guidelines for when they are expected to resume their pre-service jobs.
Ideally, companies should develop clear policies governing military reservist employees and incorporate those guidelines into their human resource manual. This will help management and employees alike deal efficiently and sensitively with a situation that is likely to become more widespread in the months, and possibly years to come. Military reservists are part of a larger national defense strategy. Theyre helping to safeguard our country and its important that management teams place their absence from the office into that context.

Regional Senior Vice President and General Manager of Career Services Company Lee Hecht Harrison