Game Plan

Published in Managing Partner magazine   Alternative fee arrangements are here to stay. A combination of increased competitive sophistication and recession economics mean that clients of all hues are increasingly unwilling to pay their lawyers on the basis of hourly charges. Client demand means that legal services must be delivered better, faster and cheaper. Firms […]
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Competitive Force

Published in Managing Partner magazine   The book Blue Ocean Strategy challenges the primacy of competitive strategy theories. While originally developed to support longer-term corporate strategy, the principles of a Blue Ocean approach can be adapted to create new value propositions and strongly differentiate a law firm. Rather than simply dominating existing markets, it argues […]
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Land of Promise

Published in KM Legal magazine   The enduring market for legal services, with supply significantly exceeding demand, means that law firms are being challenged by their clients to deliver their services better, faster and cheaper than ever before. Impending deregulation seems set to be a further catalyst for this now established trend. A wide range […]
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The Role of Competitive Intelligence in Shaping Strategy

Competitive Intelligence: Improving Law Firm Strategy and Decision Making   “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 […]
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Fit for the Future

Legal Week Student   What sort of world will the law firms of tomorrow inhabit? How will firms respond to changing client demands? What will the fundamental economics of a legal services business look like in ten years? What skills will be needed to succeed and where will they be acquired? These are some of […]
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A New Model of Partnership

Managing Partner magazine   Being a partner isn’t what it used to be! The economic climate, impending deregulation, ever rising client demands, attitudinal changes (both in society and among young professionals), the apparent obsolescence of the historic charging model and the impact of IT on process efficiency are all catalysts forcing change in many firms. […]
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Walking the talk

Legal Marketing Magazine   Perusing law firms’ corporate communication materials and browsing their websites is a pretty mundane pastime. In truth there are only so many ways in which even the most eloquent of wordsmiths can say the same thing over and over and over again. Taken at face value we live in a world […]
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Out of this World

Managing Partner Magazine   The past year has seen unprecedented turbulence for the legal profession, but is perhaps simply a portent of what is to come. Longstanding rules of competition and client relationship management have been cast to one side. A new, resolutely commercial, approach is to the fore, which is an anathema to those […]
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Pitch Perfect…

Published in PSMG Magazine   When business is tight, maximising the opportunity afforded by pitches, presentations and proposals is quite rightly an area of intense focus for firms. But what are the simple guidelines which, if followed, can help to improve win rates? Success in winning business is, first and foremost, about selecting the right […]
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Temerity in the Face of Turbulence

“The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday’s logic.” Peter Drucker The legal sector faces a number of unprecedented challenges in the year ahead. The one with potential to disrupt most widely and deeply is a wholesale move to fixed-fee pricing. Surveys of in-house counsel show […]
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“The Road is Long” Merger Masterclass

Published in Managing Partner Magazine   Many managing partners regard the delivery of a successful merger as their gold-standard achievement. In one act they see themselves able to demonstrate, for the entire world to see, that their firm is going places, has ambition, and is prepared to move decisively and determinedly to achieve its goals. […]
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“Hitting the Ground Running” Business Development Masterclass

Published in Managing Partner Magazine   Many firms are coming to terms with a very uncomfortable truth: that growth is the only way out of the perilous position in which they find themselves. In many cases, costs have been pared to a point at which any further marginal reductions will have limited impact. Furthermore, the […]
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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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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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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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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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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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