Marketplace Effectiveness: more fun than the alternative

I submitted a comment on David Maister's blog regarding his post on the Shoemaker's children.  Here it is:

David, you are correct in identifying “the Shoemaker’s children” as a continuing problem in professional service firms.  I think we must be careful, however, not to fall into the trap of assuming that the reasons for this situation are all negative ones. Many would have us believe that these professionals "don't care,” “are too selfish," or as you wondered, that they harbor “a hidden skepticism about the value of their own services.”  I don’t believe that people are that bad, weak, stupid, or what-have-you.

To be sure, these professionals do have the capacity to design the internal management processes and assign the appropriate people to make their firms more efficient and effective. I think, instead, that this “Shoemaker’s children” situation occurs because of a fundamental human condition:  we all like to move from being “doers” to being “thinkers.”  Simply put, professionals like to focus on other people’s problems because that’s where the fun is.  That’s where the brain inevitably goes. 

Everyone knows how much I’ve harped on the importance of professional service firms building market-driven infrastructures.  I think “the Shoemaker’s children” will be a continuing problem until these firms understand that there is real fun in competing effectively in the marketplace. 

As for the future, I think we will always see examples of “the Shoemaker’s children.” But those of us who observe the professional services industry can already see that there are firms out there that have discovered the thrill of consistently, efficiently, effectively beating their rivals in the marketplace.  I think there will be more of them, and their examples will be obvious.