The Professional Services
Management Excellence
Awards 2025
Celebrate your firm’s leadership & management
We operate in an increasingly complex, volatile, and uncertain environment with fast-evolving client expectations. Successful leaders focus on the relationships between 1) profitability; 2) client loyalty; and 3) employee satisfaction, loyalty and productivity. They pay close attention to the needs of their clients and people. They create a culture capable of adapting to the needs of both.
The Professional Services Management Excellence Awards, in association with knowledge partners Harvard Business Review and the Financial Times, uniquely recognise and celebrate the contribution of leaders, management teams and rising stars. There is a category for everyone – see below.
Over 200 firms worldwide have entered since launch in 2002 – many on multiple occasions.
Forum membership is not essential nor is there a fee for making a submission or nomination.
Key Dates
- Nominations of firms and rising stars: Open now!
- Submissions: From 16 September to 31 October 2024
- Category shortlists announced: Mid-November
- Ceremony: 26 March 2025
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Categories for 2025
Leadership & Strategy
- Excellence in Firmwide Leadership: For achieving sustainable superior returns through effective implementation of a coherent strategy
- Excellence in Divisional Leadership: For achieving sustainable superior returns through effective implementation of a coherent strategy
- Excellence in Leadership Development: For recognising skills gaps and delivering innovative interventions
- Excellence in Performance Management: For implementing transparent systems that track progress against personal goals and assess team contribution.
Client Focus
- 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 and Business Development: 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
Operational Excellence
- Excellence in Financial and Risk Management: For involving everyone in the delivery of optimal financial performance and/or for creating a risk framework to monitor compliance and changing scenarios
- Excellence in People Management: For fostering collaborative working, well-being, productivity and client engagement
- Excellence in Knowledge Management: For organising know-how to the benefit of users
- Excellence in Technology Deployment: For harnessing stacks, systems, tools, frameworks or AI in ways that have a significant positive impact
- Excellence in Working Environment: For organising office layout and facilities that complement remote working
Responsible Business
- Excellence in Community Engagement: For investing time, money, skills and resources that deliver long term social and economic benefits to local communities
- Excellence in Inclusiveness: For creating an environment where anyone can feel comfortable and has the opportunity to shine
- Excellence in Social Mobility: For sourcing talent from a wide range of backgrounds
All categories are eligible for ‘Rising Star’ submissions.
Rising Stars show exceptional performance, are leaders among their peers and exceed expectations ‐ the ones to watch. They must also be aged 35 or under at the submission deadline (40 or under for leadership & strategy categories). Rising Stars can either self-submit or be entered by someone else (for example their team leader) with or without their knowledge.
Why participate in 2025?
- Assess the impact of your contribution through rigorous independent evidence
- Increase your influence and strengthen trust in your strategies
- Enhance the reputation of your firm with its people and clients
- Enjoy ongoing conversations, inter-firm collaboration, and the forging of strong relationships at the in-person ceremony in London
What’s in it for you
Influencing strategy to enhance business and client success is consistently top of the agenda for leaders, management teams and Rising Stars. 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 your clients. Teams say what they really think when recognised by their peers.
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.
A night to remember
Over 300 senior attendees and a celebrity guest speaker come together at the gala dinner and Awards ceremony in London on the evening of Wednesday 26 March 2025. In addition to the open categories, the Forum presents a merit award for exceptional achievement. Hear, at first hand, the progress that has been made by your peers and celebrate your own achievements. Discussions initiated on the night often generate ongoing conversations, inter-firm collaboration, and the forging of strong relationships.
Winners are invited to join a private online group for winners on the Forum’s Skills Development Platform, and to attend the Award winners’ dinner in June 2025.
To learn more about previous Award winners, please visit the Forum website.
The journey to an Award
Nominations
Anyone can nominate a leader, management team or Rising Star. Rising Stars show exceptional performance, are leaders among their peers and exceed expectations ‐ the ones to watch. They must also be aged 35 or under at the submission deadline (40 for leadership & strategy categories).
On receiving a nomination (must be online), the Forum contacts the appropriate person: leaders/management teams must self-enter; Rising Stars can either self-enter or be entered by someone else (for example their team leader) with or without their knowledge. If shortlisted for an online interview, they can then decide whether to participate.
Use the pages from guidelines for drafts as nothing is saved until the final page. Once approved, paste the final version into the relevant sections of the online form.
Top tips when making a submission
Evidence of achievement is critical. You must supply tangible ‘proof points’.
Read the guidelines before starting. The average time to complete a quality submission is 15 minutes.
The same initiative or Rising Star cannot be entered for more than one category.
Reflect on the initiative or the Rising Star in the round and over time. Success seldom happens overnight. Provide sufficient detail to allow the judges to grasp their 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 (18 October 2024).
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.
Judging criteria for management team initiatives
Strategic alignment
Active leadership engagement
Innovation in services, markets, methods or systems
Effective education of stakeholders
Positive impact on the client experience, employee engagement or stakeholder performance
Measurable impact against goals in a reasonable timescale
Judging criteria for rising stars
Impressive metrics – targets, percentage increases/decreases, retention statistics.
Examples of dynamism and daring to be different or challenging the status quo.
Cutting-edge inventions, process improvements or digital innovations
Technical or creative excellence that has been recognised internally and/or externally.
Evidence that others are significantly inspired by the Rising Star.
Achieving success beyond immediate business objectives, expectations or targets.
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 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.”
Forum membership is not essential nor is there a fee for making a submission or nomination.
Click here to read the detailed terms & conditions related to The Professional Services Management Excellence Awards 2025.