POWERING BUSINESS PERFORMANCE THROUGH MORE EFFECTIVE CLIENT FOCUS AND TEAMING
DIFFERENTIATION THROUGH INDUSTRY INSIGHTS Clients sit within industries (sometimes a number of industries) and within geographies (sometimes many geographies), never within a practice area! Yet most professional firms organise themselves along practice lines and take a very practice- centric view of the world. It is critical for long run positioning that firms build a strong industry perspective and capability to complement practice and geographic strengths. This particular ‘mind-set’ is properly reflected only in a minority of law firms, but is fundamental to how firms can best present themselves in the market and deliver their services most effectively to clients. Clearly there are good reasons for keeping strong practice lines. In a world of ever-increasing complexity there is a clear requirement for specialist advice from professionals. Clients want to feel confident that the professionals are expert in their fields. To ensure that specialist technical skills are kept sharp, it is argued, it is important that people with shared technical specialist skills are grouped together. The professionals themselvesmaintain this way of organising resources; ultimately litigators are more comfortable with litigators; corporate finance lawyers with corporate finance lawyers, and so on. “..the answer to differentiation lies in the depth and quality of insights demonstrated by the professional to the client..” It is becoming, however, increasingly difficult to build a meaningful differentiation based on technical practice-oriented skills, depth, range and reach. However, in a relatively overcrowded legal market the issue of differentiation is of fundamental importance! Increasingly the answer to differentiation lies in the depth and quality of insights demonstrated by the professional to the client about their business and the critical factors for success. This is supported by the professional understanding industry structure and dynamics, the competitive context and forces at play, the business structure and economic performance, the organisational deployment and geographic reach, and leveraging these insights into extra value for the client.
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