MONEY & PEOPLE

Figure these out and Forget the Fear

Ilearned early on that ~90% of any organization’s problems are directly connected to the above two areas. In the midst of our third decade working with businesses, I would almost push that percentage higher as even things one would typically think that aren’t directly related (e.g., technology, marketing) are proximate. I recently had the opportunity to participate in the annual Managing Partner Forum conference; I’d like to share some key takeaways from it as well as some actionable and practical items for you to implement.

Key Takeaways1

The attendees of the conference listed as their Top 3 concerns the following:

• Associate Retention

• Firm Culture

• Succession Planning

Yep, all three smack dab in the “People” category (arguably, they can map into both because of the financial repercussions). The entire range is included below:

Perhaps as an outgrowth of the desire for change (ANY change!), there was also concern raised about attrition both on the partner AND associate level:

Partners:

Associates:

Interestingly, firm priorities for 2023 were rank ordered from 1-5 as follows:

“Firm Culture” wasn’t unpacked in this question, but (hopefully) the items reviewed above (Associate Retention, Succession Planning, Attrition) map into it - growth, marketing, technology, etc. will go nowhere if the ones who will be using the tools and executing the strategies are no longer there…

Action Items

You can’t boil the ocean, eat the elephant in one bite (or any other consulting expression you’d like to use) - spell out your priorities,what you’ll address, and when is the best way to move on what needs to be done (yes, while still doing your “day job” of practicing law!):

• Strategic planning: almost half of the surveyed firms had a strategic plan for “many years” or “had recently developed one”. A plan is more than the development of a “to-do list” or the creation of committees. A well constructed and executed strategic plan is the metronome for your firm. It determines the priorities based on multiple variables including:

• Mission/Vision/Values

• Current needs

• Competitive influences

• Use an external expert: the benefit of this is that an external service provider does this day in and day out. They will probably be expensive but will get it done in a fraction of the time you can (assuming you are able to do it) AND they should be able to bring external perspectives and market intelligence to you and the firm. The ROI on this expense needs to be at least 10X; if your vendor isn’t interested in measuring it, that could be a red flag.

• Designate an internal champion: if you can’t (or won’t) bring someone into the firm, then the implementation of the plan has to become someone’s new part-time job. This has spotty, at best, success metrics as it will likely be someone that already has a full plate. Nonetheless, at least you might get some of the things done.

Best practices indicate the creation and inclusion of a 3-5 year pro forma that is then updated annually in a “refresh” format (less time than the original one).

• Executing: there’s that word. In break out groups at the conference, there was an ongoing lament associated with the significant financial investment that had been made in the development of the plan only to have it languish on a shelf some place “gathering dust”. Nonetheless, the survey respondents indicated that over 80% had experienced “strong” or “some” improvement to their firm’s financial results as a result of the deployment of the strategic plan. The best way to tackle this is to:

CSR offers both the creation of the strategic plan as well as the implementation of it as part of its core service offerings. We partner with you - not just coaching, but getting on the field with you – to bring the plan to fruition. Please reach out to learn more - we’d love to help you achieve the benefit of this important tool and take advantage (as well as avoid the hazards) of today’s marketplace.