POWERING BUSINESS PERFORMANCE THROUGH MORE EFFECTIVE CLIENT FOCUS AND TEAMING
THE COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE
Competition across the legal market is tough and will become progressively tougher as clients’ expectations continue to rise, competitors continue to invest and to build more powerful capabilities and the world becomes ever more uncertain and less predictable. The inevitable consequence of greater competitive intensity is to amplify the stark differences between the ‘winners’ and the rest. One characteristic of the ‘winners’ will be those that successfully leverage firm strengths and resources for maximum market impact. It is our strong conviction that this will require firms to develop a sharper strategic client focus and build a stronger platform of teaming on which success is based. This paper sets out some of our experience-based insights on how firms might best work through the organisational complexities that characterise high value professional service firms in order to build more powerful client and resource teaming to deliver stronger market position and consistently superior performance. THE CHALLENGES In the face of political and economic uncertainty, it is no surprise that most firms are posing basic questions about strategic positioning and competitive posture, the shape of the firm in terms of practice, industry and geographic positions and drives, and the organisation and management requirements for success. Frequently the outputs of such reviews are simply restatements of strategic aspirations, goals and priorities. But, as we all know, ‘the devil is in the detail’ and the real challenge lies in execution! For most firms today the key challenge is to achieve a performance improvement in line with, or ahead of, the market. Whilst growth and profitability are key drivers of success, most would agree that they are consequences of doing other things and, in a competitive market, doing these things better than the rest! It is these other things perhaps that represent the most fundamental challenges. Building ‘rich’ and ‘privileged’ relationships with strategically important clients, both current and potential, and positioning the firmas the ‘firmof choice’ for highest value work is, in our view, the ‘heart of the matter’ and what should drive the strategies for success. Architecting and implementing effective teaming of the firm’s practice, industry and geographic resources, skills and insights in order to deliver the most powerful performance and service to clients is central to meeting that challenge.
“..this will require firms to develop a sharper strategic client focus and build a stronger platform of teaming..”
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