Preparing for an Unpredictable Future: Scenario Planning Tips
It hardly needs saying that the future is difficult or impossible to predict. Law firm pessimists often indulge in catastrophizing many situations that they think will be threatening or disastrous to the firm. Optimists, on the other hand, may become even narcissistic in exaggerating the firm’s special market position and often over-emphasize the chances of […]
Successful Strategy: The Essential Supporting Acts (Part Two)
In Part One of this article, I focused on some important pre-strategy initiatives which should be tackled to lay a sound foundation for successful strategy implementation. Here are some others: Key governance structures Fundamental to strategy success is a cohesive partner effort and involvement. It is not something that can simply be done and driven […]
Successful Strategy: The Essential Supporting Acts (Part One)
Behind successful firms is some form of successfully executed strategy. It can be short, punchy, even informal and, at a push, in someone’s head! The test is implementation and results, which always separates success from failure. Strategy is not simply about ‘doing things better’; it is about achieving serious competitive advantage. It is high level, […]
5 Pressing Priorities for Professional Providers (This is more than just another PR exercise)
If you like lists and you love alliteration, then you’re probably a legal management consultant. It seems that practically every article these days by people in my line of work features a numbered list of entries that all begin with the same letter. I admit that I often do the same thing in my presentations. […]
Foreign Law Firms and the Indian Legal Market
The topic of liberalization of the Indian legal profession has once again gained steam to become a hot point of conversation, both in India and globally. The new Indian government has pro-liberalization lawyers at the helm of the ministries of Law and Finance. India has the third largest GDP as per the Purchasing Power Parity Index, […]
Embracing the Product Imperative
Why and how law firms can and should consider the “product” approach.
Retreats – The Edge Approach
In every endeavor, there is an optimum way of doing things. The art of sculpting a retreat is no exception. So the content for your retreat should not be prescribed externally. Beware the consultant with a hammer to whom all the world is a nail. No matter how tempting it is to pull a previous […]
Planning a Law Firm Retreat: Part I
The rapid growth of law firms in the past decade has created some new and unique management difficulties. With firms’ size, and the complexity of global legal practices, coordinating the availability of partners to perform any management function beyond routine meeting attendance is increasingly difficult. The problem of finding partners to assume leadership roles is […]
Planning a Law Firm Retreat: Part II
Expanded Annual Meeting Many firm’s partnership agreements require an annual meeting for the election of member of management, selection of new partners, approval of compensation and other similar issues. These are important issues, not only because they concern day-to-day operating concerns but because they go to the fabric of what it means to be a […]
Strategic Pricing
In the world of professional services, pricing isn’t just a number—it’s strategy. With powerful effects on profitability and no downside to raising it, smart pricing may be the most overlooked competitive advantage your firm has.