August 29, 2005
Key Challenges to Achieve Law Firm Growth
The 2005 Survey of Law Firm Managing Partners conducted by Juris, Inc. and the Managing Partner Forum identified three key challenges that firms face to achieve their growth objectives. While growth may not be so hard to achieve, we believe that profitable growth in terms of increasing profits per equity partner while growing fee revenue will be more difficult to realize in today’s climate without thoughtful strategic planning. Strategic planning is more than saying “we want to grow” or “we want every partner to make a million dollars a year.” Those are objectives. The objective in war is to win. But that’s not the strategic plan. The strategic plan is the methodology to achieve the objective. Big difference. Here’s what Peter Drucker has to say on the subject:
“Strategic planning is the continuous process of making present entrepreneurial (risk-taking) decisions systematically and with the greatest knowledge of their futurity; organizing systematically the efforts needed to carry out these decisions; and measuring the results of these decisions against the expectations through organized systematic feedback.”
Drucker also believes that the fundamental and most critical role of management is strategy…determining strategy and ensuring that the organization is aligned and has the resources and systems and processes to execute the plan. Anything else not consistent with management’s strategic imperative should be delegated. In other words, if somebody else can do it then it’s not the job of the chief executive.
The three challenges include:
- Planning
- Management
- Outsourcing
Each of these will be covered in detail in subsequent postings.
Related posts
Filed under Planning by Tom Collins