The education, foundation and future of human resources and leadership development policies in professional services firms

This work sits at the crossroads of an industry - professional services - and a global functional field - management education, and seeks to answer one question: how are millenials going to lead?  

Are current management education systems, which proved robust and effective for the past sixty years, capable of adapting to this new generation, helping them create their own leadership codes? New players in the field of education are emerging to take advantage of the rise of a massive middle class around the world.

With their vast bodies of empirical research and their innovative practices in the design and delivery of management education through their corporate universities, can companies, provided they open up, pioneer new formats of executive education? Can these corporations shift from capital-intensive organisations to knowledge-intensive campuses, the latter seemingly favoured by the most talented and sought-after Millenials?

If a shift is underway, Professional Service Firms are at the forefront of the transformation: based on a purely people-intensive business model, selling only knowledge, and governed through partnerships, PSFs have long had management education at the heart of their operations. Moreover, a large majority of their staff belong to the Y generation. This work therefore examines how to foster education-based innovative HR and leadership development strategies in Professional Service Firms, and draws lessons for the larger corporate world.