Changing the Game Plan

Published in Legal Marketing Magazine   In these challenging times, the need to be more effective at managing strategic client relationships is ever more important. Those clients that continue to deliver revenue (albeit perhaps at significantly reduced levels) need determined focus, care and attention. Competitors are more desperate than ever to capture a share of […]
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Developing Business on a Shoestring

Published in PSMG Magazine   Forget the logic about counter-cyclical investment, when cash is in short supply discretionary budgets feel the pain. This is even more the case in businesses with high fixed and semi-fixed cost bases like professional service firms. It can therefore be no surprise that business development and marketing budgets across the […]
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Outsourcing the Core

Published in Managing Partner Magazine   On 15 June 2009, The Times predicted that the next two years will see a reduction in the number of lawyers employed in private practice in the UK by 10,000 (or over ten per cent). On 13 July 2009, the London Evening Standard carried a feature ‘Mumbai Law: 1000 […]
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Running a different race

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Henry Ford Consensus among professionals can be difficult to achieve but on two issues there is widespread unanimity – the business world in which we operate has fundamentally changed and the pace of change will continue to accelerate as a world […]
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Primus Inter Pares

Published in Managing Partner Magazine   Observation and experience over the past 20-plus years have led me to formulate the ‘First Law of Professional Firm Management’. It can be simply stated and I have found it to be true in firms of all sizes, shapes, hues and colours. It is most strikingly accurate among partners […]
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Profiting from Key Clients

Published in Managing Partner Magazine   It is widely accepted that the ‘Pareto effect’ applies to most businesses, with 80 per cent of turnover coming from 20 per cent of the client base. Indeed, my experience of many professional-service firms operating in the commercial sphere is that the numbers are even more compelling. It is […]
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Getting over the gain line!

“Other things being equal, the higher your speed the better.” Jim Greenwood, ‘Think Rugby’ The British & Irish Lions’ tour of South Africa brings home the importance of ‘getting over the gain line’ – that imaginary line on the field which marks the point at which the ball is closer to the opposition try line […]
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Brave in the new world

Published in ‘Legal information in a recession: A restructuring opportunity’   In the current recession, managing partners have a great opportunity to overhaul their information and knowledge-management functions for long-term growth and profitability. To succeed will require addressing critical information and knowledge-management issues, but the results will fundamentally re-shape legal business creating the profitable next-generation law […]
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One year or two, the choice is for you… but be quick!

Published in PSMG Magazine   What will changes to the syllabus mean for you? Changes to the CIM syllabus could mean that the minimum overall period for completion of the Professional Diploma for some delegates will increase from one year to two. From 1st June this year, the new syllabus means, unless you have a […]
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Risky Scenarios

Published in Managing Partner magazine   An acid test of the efficacy of any strategy is the way in which it is able to accommodate and respond to uncertainty and unforeseen risks as they emerge over time. While we live in an increasingly non-linear world, many strategies are still constructed using a surprisingly onedimensional model. […]
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Crystal Ball Gazing

Published in Managing Partner Magazine   When marketing guru Ted Levitt said: “The future belongs to people who see possibilities before they become obvious”, he captured the essence of the challenge faced by those in fast-changing environments. How do firms cope with a world in which the pace of change has never been greater and […]
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Opening up

Published in Managing Partner magazine   Every firm has huge untapped potential in the form of hidden knowledge about clients, relationships, experience and technical issues. If unearthed and shared, this could create a step-change improvement in business performance. Generally it is not a paucity of systems that prevent firms from capitalising on knowledge. This is […]
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Time for a Reality Check

“The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.” Max DePree The words of Max DePree, the renowned leadership guru and member of Fortune magazine’s National Business Hall of Fame, should resonate with the leaders of professional service firms as they adapt to a new business paradigm. Developing an understanding of how competitive landscapes […]
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Work smarter not harder

Published in PSMG Magazine   It’s that time again! Students studying for the PSMG Cambridge Marketing College CIM rofessional Diploma are approaching the ‘crunch’ as assignment first drafts are completed for discussion with tutors. Requests for study leave have been lodged and social events cancelled. But life need not be this difficult! There are a […]
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Learning through life

Published in PSMG Magazine   “What matters more, qualification or experience?” was the question posed to me recently. This got me thinking about the impact of formal education versus on-the-job experience on career development. The honest answer is that both are vital, situation specific and, in many respects, one is a catalyst for the other. […]
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Learning to Succeed

Published in PSMG Magazine   When the PSMG collaborated with Cambridge Marketing College to create the world’s only CIM endorsed Professional Diploma for Professional Services Marketing it had two clear aims – to create a bespoke programme that addressed the particular needs and issues faced by marketers in our sector and to put in place […]
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Thought Leader: Competitive Strategy

Published in Managing Partner magazine   “If you are ignorant of both your enemy and yourself, then you are a fool and certain to be defeated in every battle. If you know yourself, but not your enemy, for every battle won, you will suffer a loss. If you know your enemy and yourself, you will […]
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Survival of the Fittest

“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who survive, it is those who are most responsive to change”. Charles Darwin As 2008 draws to a close, battle weary management teams are retiring to reflect on the events of the past year and contemplate what the future may bring. In a year where the […]
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The Devil in the Detail

Published in Legal Marketing magazine   When asked by managing partners to stress-test the revenue growth projections in the business plans of practice groups my approach is straightforward. I ask group heads to explain, in detail, where their revenue will come from based on four segmentations – by geography, by sector, by service line and […]
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“What Gets Measured Gets Done”

Published in Managing Partner Magazine   ‘What gets measured gets done’ is an old adage of management. It is also a universal truism that many firms ignore when designing and implementing performance management and reward systems. It is crucial that these are aligned with the organisation’s strategic objectives. Many firms are now moving towards a […]
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Some Observations on Law Firm Leaders

Published in Leadership Development in the Legal Profession   Over the past 20 years, I have observed a range of leaders and leadership styles in professional service firms. Over this same period, there has been an exponential increase of interest in the subject of leadership, and the crucial role that it plays in the success […]
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Mind Over Matter

Published in Managing Partner magazine   Ignore the importance of cultural fit at your peril when merging firms. Culture clash is one of the most common reasons mergers fail. Within professional services, where the importance of common values and behaviours in creating cohesive firms is indisputable, getting the cultural aspects of a merger wrong can […]
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Talking with one voice

Published in Managing Partner magazine   Integrated marketing communications is the name; clarity and consistency is the game. Students of marketing communications are inculcated with the need to create compelling, consistent and clear messages that can be directed at an array of targeted delivery channels. In considering communications (whether internal or external) it is crucial […]
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The Law Firm of the Future

Published in Law Firm of the Future supplement report by Managing Partner and Legal Marketing magazines   Views on the shape and focus of the law firm of the future are widely divergent, but invariably pessimism is expressed by many as to how the profession as a whole will fare over the next decade. The common […]
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Leading the Edge

Published in KMLegal magazine   A key component of building the bridge between theory and realisation in the utilisation of knowledge assets lies in improvements in a broad range of leadership capabilities within the KM function itself, according to Andrew Hedley. If law firms are to be effective in building a competitive advantage through knowledge […]
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