How many times have you reflected back on a firm retreat and thought “wow, that was money well-spent”? I worry that we’ve become far too comfortable with the underwhelming performance of one of the most expensive management tools a firm will ever engage in. Most professional service firms have held a retreat before and are [...]
Business success requires evolution, and that means new strategic and marketing programs. This can be difficult to roll out in firms at the best of times – but it’s almost impossible when the first attempt was a failure. Professional services organizations exist for the delivery of a service to clients and a living to professionals. [...]
I write (and preach) frequently about the value of different kinds of plans that would benefit professional service firms. This post will focus on how all of those plans would ideally work together. You’ve probably heard of “top-down” planning, as well as “bottom-up” planning. Each is a valid approach but the best firm planning includes [...]
Strategic thought and logical action are within us; we just don’t always tap into them when the context is our business. If you have ever had to make a decision about your future, it’s likely you’ve considered it from three different perspectives: your goal, your ability to get there, and the impact of the goal [...]
The purpose of marketing is to fulfil the business objectives of an organization. It therefore follows that: Marketing expenses should result from marketing plans, which should be focussed on accomplishing the firm’s business objectives; and Before creating a marketing budget (and before that, a marketing plan), you need to know the firm’s business objectives. For many firms, [...]
Ideally, once a business professional joins a firm they would have a few years to get the ground under their feet, learn the profession from the basics up, and be gently introduced into the skills of business development. In reality, that seldom happens. Professionals are almost immediately expected to build and exhibit marketing skills and [...]
These days, most professionals can expect to change firms three or four times in their career. Firms seek out warm bodies to fill those vacancies, hoping for a better fit and a strong incoming book of businesses. It used to be that once landed, an incoming professional had some time to get settled and build [...]
Last week I described four typical leadership scenarios that work against strong marketing ideas: leading blindly, leading cautiously, leading exclusively, and leading self-centrically. This week I’ll talk about how these situations can easily be addressed. My belief is that over time and through trial and error, firm leadership learns that profitability is best achieved by [...]
Law firms work hard at doing the right thing. We can see aspirations for this in their mission and value statements. We sometimes read about their innovative programs in legal journals. They seem to be focussed on treating their lawyers, staff and clients well. Then why is it that so few law firms end up [...]
(While focussed on the legal industry, the information in this post is valid for most professional services industries). Most service professionals are at the top of the food chain in terms of intellect. Take lawyers, for example. To make it through law school, let alone make it through the lock step hierarchy of a law [...]