Highly educated professionals want to be managed

How do you lead highly educated staff members?

According to CBS Professor Flemming Poulfelt and Deputy Director at Rambøll Management Consulting Nicolaj Ejler, the challenge is to know when to give them areas of responsibility and when to give them feedback and coaching. The two of them have just published a book showing how to achieve successful management of knowledge-intensive businesses.

The key element

Knowledge is Denmark’s most important asset, and the knowledge industry acts as a dynamo to the Danish welfare economy. The book ’Uden for kategori’ (in a class of its own) focuses on how to lead highly educated staff members in private and public knowledge business, i.e. organisations such as architectural and engineering firms where the services are knowledge-based.

The purpose of the book is to help the knowledge industry reap the benefits of good management.

Management makes all the difference

- What separates successful knowledge businesses from less successful knowledge businesses is management. Yet management is often an overlooked discipline in knowledge businesses – and the ones that have tried have discovered that it is not an easy task, Lisbet Thyge Frandsen, Group Senior Vice President at Grundfos, says.

The authors have gathered a storehouse of theory, practice and experience to help managers.

The points of the book are supported by examples and cases based on interviews with strong leaders in knowledge-intensive consultancy companies such as law firms, consultancies, architectural firms, engineering and IT firms as well as ministries.

The book ’Uden for kategori’ is published by the publishing house Børsens Forlag.