Align your firm's stars to nurture a heavenly business; They're more valuable than your clients,...

Aligning your firm's stars with the firm's strategy and organization are keys to the firm's long-term success, says Jay Lorsch, author of "Aligning The Stars" ($29.95; Harvard Business School Press) and a Harvard University professor.

Stars are the men and women in critical jobs whose performance

is crucial to the success of the firm, and in the long run, they're more important to a firm's success than its clients. Stars have a record of success and the potential to contribute to the firm's future, Lorsch explained at MANAGEMENT SUMMIT in Las Vegas. Strategy is not merely a plan, but a stream of decisions over time that reflect the firm's goals and the means used to achieve them, he added.

Strategy is delivered by the stars, because they have the relationships with clients. "If stars don't know and understand the strategy and haven't internalized it, you don't have a coherent strategy, and you have big trouble," Lorsch said.

Strategic decisions are made over time at professional services firms, often consciously, but not always. Partners are out of the office and making decisions all the time, Lorsch pointed out: about quality of work, about price, about services offered and other crucial factors. "Professional services firms have a lot of decisionmakers out there, and