The Professional Services Management Excellence Awards 2026
Celebrate your firm’s leadership & management
The winners will be announced at a live ceremony at IoD, London on 26 March 2026.
Celebrate your firm’s leadership & management
These Awards uniquely recognise and celebrate your contribution to the growth of the business – a coherent strategy based on reliable research; a culture capable of adapting to the needs of clients and people; new services; operational efficiency and smart use of technology; investment in brand and marketing; high employee satisfaction levels; and tailored training in ‘soft’ skills.
The focus on management excellence complements UK Government’s ten-year Industrial Strategy which mainly addresses external barriers to growth such as technology adoption, graduate skills, red tape re exports, funding and regulation.
These Awards attract entries from across the world, with over 200 firms entering to date – many on multiple occasions. Forum membership is not essential.
Key dates
Submissions accepted from 1 October to 31 October 2025
30 November 2025: Shortlists announced
26 March 2026: Black-tie Summit dinner and Awards ceremony
27 March 2026: Full-day C-Suite conference
Summit venue: Institute of Directors,116 Pall Mall, London SW1 – Places are limited.
What’s in it for your firm?
Now in its 23rd year, the Awards provide leaders and management teams with rigorous independent evidence of the impact of their contribution in three key business areas:
• Leadership • Brand • Productivity
What’s in it for you and your team?
Influencing strategy to enhance business growth and client success is consistently top of the agenda for leaders and management teams. Showing your contribution and impact puts you at the heart of those conversations, increases your influence and strengthens people’s trust in your strategies, while enhancing the reputation of your firm with its clients.
We are proud of this award which recognises that ideas that offer a competitive business advantage to
increasingly sophisticated clients often come from collaboration between professionals.
Who else is involved…
In collaboration with longstanding knowledge partners Harvard Business Review and the Financial Times, and leading sponsors, firms of all sizes from across the professions worldwide participate in the Awards – no firm is too big or too small! Management excellence is the key.
A night to remember… and ongoing conversations
Over 150 senior attendees come together at the IoD in London for the black-tie gala dinner and Awards ceremony, an integral part of the annual Professional Services Growth Summit.
Hear, at first hand, the progress that has been made by your peers and celebrate your own achievements. Winners will be interviewed live on stage by the MC (Richard Chaplin, host of the popular ‘Retuning your Firm’ show). Questions will not be shared in advance.
Discussions initiated on the night often generate ongoing conversations, inter-firm collaboration, and the forging of strong relationships. To learn more about previous Award winners, please visit the Forum website. To learn more about previous Award winners, please visit the Forum website.
Categories for 2026
Leadership theme
- Excellence in innovation – For taking innovative ideas and making them repeatable and scalable
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Excellence in social impact – For investing time, money, skills and resources that deliver long term social and economic benefits to local or global communities
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Excellence in strategic leadership – For achieving sustainable, superior returns through effective implementation of a coherent strategy
Brand theme
- Excellence in client service – For enhancing client service in ways that are original and valuable to clients
- Excellence in client solutions – For blazing a trail that contributes to market change
- Excellence in marketing & BD – For creating plans and strategies to market and sell the firm to its target audiences
- Excellence in thought leadership – For distilling and communicating ideas that confer business or consumer advantage and engage target audiences
Productivity theme
- Excellence in research – For organising ideas and know-how to the benefit of users
- Excellence in skills development – For recognising skills gaps and delivering innovative interventions
- Excellence in technology deployment – For harnessing stacks, systems, tools, frameworks or AI in ways that have a significant positive impact
A fee of £200 + VAT is payable for each submission.
Key Dates for 2026
- Submissions: From 1 October to 31 October 2025
- Category shortlists: 30 November 2025
- Ceremony: 26 March 2026
Submission date
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The journey to an Award
Top tips when making a submission
Evidence of achievement is critical. You must supply tangible ‘proof points’.
The average time to complete a quality submission is 15 minutes.
The same initiative cannot be entered for more than one category.
Reflect on the initiative in the round and over time. Success seldom happens overnight. Provide sufficient detail to allow the judges to grasp the achievement, considering the journey, challenges and milestones.
Treat it like an elevator pitch – share everything that you are most proud of in a succinct way. Stick to the point and avoid unnecessary information.
Stay within the word limits. Responses that are significantly below are unlikely to progress; those that significantly above will be penalised.
Plan ahead and take time to optimise the content before the deadline.
Judging process
Subject matter experts form small panels for each category. Transparent and independent assessment, followed by rigorous discussion and moderation, ensures that all entries are judged objectively on their merits against the assessment criteria. Referees may also be contacted.
Ceremony attendance
All entrants will be notified if they have been successful. Places are available for the Ceremony on a first-come first-served basis (minimum two places per shortlisted firm).
Judging criteria
Strategic alignment
Active leadership engagement
Innovation in services, markets, methods or systems
Technical or creative excellence that has been recognised internally and/or externally.
Effective education of stakeholders
Positive impact on business growth
Measurable impact against goals in a reasonable timescale
A great opportunity to recognise best practice in the management of professional services. Also, an opportunity to acknowledge the important contribution of business services teams. A&L Goodbody is thrilled to have been again recognised in this way.”
Click here to read the detailed terms & conditions related to The Professional Services Management Excellence Awards 2026.
A fee of £200 + VAT is payable for each submission.