At a recent CLT session on this subject, the delegates – mostly heads of family departments outside of London – found the following concepts most valuable for developing a privately funded family law practice:

Mind shift – from public service provider to profit generator

a)         Accept it’s not Legal Aid anymore – Those who have predominantly done Legal Aid work in the past have a different mentality. They take their duty to the Courts and the clients extremely seriously and work very hard to try to service an almost infinite demand with limited resources. There are always more files to open and always more work to do. The clients often make unreasonable demands and are a real drain on energy and morale. Of course, you must provide an excellent service to clients but they are now paying for that service. And therefore, you don’t accept clients where they won’t pay for the level of service they demand.

b)         Use a financial expert to understand the numbers – The working capital and the cash flow are different in the private market – especially if you adopt new approaches such as monthly billing or financing large work-in-progress for fees to be paid in instalments or at the end of a case. Some lawyers still don’t understand the profitability of different types of work or levels of fee-earners. Get an accountant who understands legal practices to help you build your understanding and the systems that you and your partners will need to manage the finance in your private business.

c)         If the local market can’t pay, find one that can – If those on your doorstep can’t afford the fees for the service you provide, then find a market that can. The key here is research to achieve a better segmentation. Creating a profitable niche is one of the most effective strategies for a smaller law firm yet many try to provide all things to all men/women and fail miserably. It’s back to the need to focus again.

Focus – Set goals to make the choice of strategy easier

a)      Clarity on the owner’s real goals – Too often, the only “goals” are the total amount of fees that are required. For the next year – far too short term. Profit is often missed from the equation and this is highly dangerous as fee-earners may end up super-busy but making a loss. The owners of a law practice need to be clear about their guiding objective – Do they want a lifestyle business with a modest but regular income? Are they prepared to invest to make greater profits later on? Do they want to build equity in the business, for, say an exit in five years’ time? Or do they want to wring out every last penny of profit in the short term? Are they looking to shape up to be attractive for a merger/takeover partner? Do they have regional growth ambitions etc?

b)      Break down the goals – Think what any financial goal really means. Is that 100 cases at £2,000 each or 10 cases at £20,000 each? Or is it a mix? What time frame will be required to achieve this? What is the time span between generating the enquiry and closing the case so it can be billed?

c)       Select one or two key strategies – Smaller firms simply do not have the resources to have all singing, all dancing marketing strategies that tap into every channel and use every promotional tool. Consider the best sources of the best work. Consider the strengths and preferences of the lawyers generating the work. Consider what might work best for the particular market you are targeting. Then select a couple of approaches, set up systems so that results can be measured and do them really well.

Pricing – Think differently about pricing

a)      Separate costs from price - There is, of course, an internal cost management element – this enables firms to determine how much it is costing to provide the service and therefore assess whether any investment in technology or training might help improve efficiency. But then we must think about the price from the client’s point of view - about what they value. The client does not care about the cost of production – only the value that they perceive. Therefore, if they perceive all legal providers as generating the same value then they will choose on the lowest price – it’s a commodity after all.

b)      Add value beyond legal advice - So we spent quite a bit of time thinking about how to add further value (even if this means breaking out from thinking about purely legal services) and/or packaging the service differently so that direct comparisons are no longer possible. The legal advice is the core produce – but the value comes from the lawyers around it in terms of service delivery, relationship, communication, billing practices, reassurance etc. There were some interesting ideas around a greater range of variables in different service options – at present, the market seems to concentrate on download forms only (DIY), lawyer assistance and fully represented. But with some creativity (i.e. thinking outside the box) we found over 50 possible service dimensions to give the client more choice and control whilst also demonstrating exactly what they get for their money.

c)       Differentiation – This is the key to fighting commoditisation. Whilst brands might be used by the larger providers in the market to good effect (e.g. the trust associated with a major financial or retail organisation), smaller firms can focus on differentiation generated by truly different service – whether that is embodied in the experience or style of a particular individual, a departure from the typical legal model (for example, we talked about the possible provision of child contact centres and other child related services with, perhaps, psychologists and counsellors) or some other aspect of delivery.

On a more practical (as opposed to strategic) level, the other key point of interest was the use of the Internet and social media. Free software such as Google Analytics is vital to monitor web traffic from different sources and to learn the key words that get people to your site. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) can be complex but the basics need to be understood by anyone writing copy for the web site or blogs. It is also the main reason why firms should get to grips with social media – the value of the inbound links even if time prevents a proper listening and interacting approach.

Dates for future presentations of this CLT workshop are here: http://www.clt.co.uk/coursedisplay/1690354/3000

Allan Evans is global head of clients and markets at BDO accountants and in the UK leads a team of more than 60 people. Prior to joining BDO, Allan was the sales and marketing director for PricewaterhouseCoopers and before that he worked at Abbey Life, Lloyds TSB, Friends Provident and AMP.

I originally arranged to interview Allan to learn more about the highly successful Service2020 research and thought leadership campaign (as a case study for the forthcoming “Digital PR” course at Professional Marketing Forum http://www.pmforum.co.uk/training/index.aspx) but as BDO’s local government team had just won the 2013 Managing Partners Forum Award for Management Excellence for the “Most innovative use of social media” he agreed that it would make an interesting contrast. Top down versus bottom up initiatives.

From a germ of an idea do mighty campaigns grow

“Shortly after joining BDO I realised that I had a brand challenge to tackle. Our value proposition – “to be distinctly different” – was an invite to be just that ...different. But this had led to inconsistent client service behaviours and mixed market messages. I felt that we needed to be more consistent – not automatons doing everything in unison and without ‘local’ flexibility but with enough consistency to be clearly BDO.  After extensive research and engagement, we refined and refocused our brand proposition and BDO is now all about being the brand that provides exceptional client service by empowered people. We knew from our research that we were known as being personable, unstuffy, less structured and that we didn’t suffer from being “too consistent” like some of the major players. We wanted to find a way to ensure that we were all culturally aligned though – across all local practices – and that would also persuade our partners and staff that we were taking exceptional client service seriously – that it was here to stay. I also knew that we would get internal buy-in if we could develop something that was equally as relevant to clients.

We developed the idea of an externally sourced and authoritative piece of research, commissioned in conjunction with the EIU”, into real client needs that our people would be comfortable going out and talking to clients about. We saw it as a way to provide partners with content that would help initiate an open ended business conversation rather than a product sale. It took lengthy buy-in discussions but ultimately it became a valuable part of the relationship development process.

We launched our initiative with a ‘sold-out’ client conference where we introduced what we had anticipated to be the media friendly concept of client service megatrends. The concept certainly resonated with clients - in fact it was so successful that clients subsequently phoned partners to find put more".

The media launch

“However it proved much more difficult to engage the traditional media. It was hard persuading journalists to write about client service – bad news sells, good news less so. We had more success with LinkedIn as we had established a closed 2020 group – but this primarily attracted experts, academics, intermediaries and influencers (specialists in customer service) rather than actual clients.

I will admit that we didn’t have a fully developed social media strategy at the time – we didn’t moderate the group discussions properly and while we did post out some material using Twitter it was rather all rather passive and reactive....and as for hash-tags ..... all new to me at that time.  In a nutshell we were learning – rapidly.  These days we have a more structured and pro-active approach with clarity on the designated owners of different social media platforms and accounts – marketing generates the content and PR manages its distribution – it’s a shared approach”.

The road to client engagement

“So rather than let the lack of traditional media interest stop us in our tracks, we took the research out on the road. We hosted numerous client seminars where we were able to reach beyond our traditional contacts such as financial controllers and we took our messages into the C-suites of large companies and SMEs".

What next?

"Over the intervening 18 months we had become much more adept in the use of the various digital channels and have since recruited dedicated digital experts who work in our brand team. We also encourage a ‘skunkworks’ approach where the digital and social media piece is being considered in the context of communications, engagement and client service.

And for service 2020 ?  ....well for the next iteration, we will consider ways in which a value can be assigned to exceptional client service – in much the same way as there are techniques out there for valuing brands. This is a work-in-progress towards a real product so watch this space”.

Internal communication, events and engagement

Allan kindly showed me a copy of the fantastic internal A5 book entitled “The art and science of exceptional client service”. It was entirely written by BDO people and features the input of 350+ authors from 135 different countries when, in October 2012, BDO partners came together in Lucerne, Switzerland to discuss, debate and be inspired by the BDO vision – to be the leader for exceptional client service.

Its high impact content is an energetic – and beautifully designed – collection of action photos, drawings, cartoons, quotes, checklists, word clouds, case studies and examples divided into five chapters: client needs, communication, commitment, people and value.

Each chapter contains five themes; do’s and don’ts, international engagement, success stories, going the extra mile and “Houston, we had a problem” (fabulous storyboards). Throughout the guide there are standards statements that explore how client service achieves competitive advantage. It’s testament to the total engagement that the firm has achieved in involving its people in this important strategic initiative.

The emergence of the local government initiative

“As sometimes happens in large organisations, the best ideas come from unexpected places and more often than not, from the front line.  The younger, edgier members of the local government team – those who were familiar with the whole social media scene - decided to initiate their own campaign. They produced a guidance video on the use of social media for their local government clients who had expressed concerns about the use and value of social media.

Early on the marketing team provided support and guidance and the campaign went from strength to strength. They produced an infographic-filled research report and organised round table discussions. The local government team were very active on social media channels – using #Litter2Twitter. They are very proud of the campaign and absolutely they own it. They have had some great results – it was covered in the main trade media – Municipal Journal – and earned them an invitation to the London Councils Social Media forum. The campaign enabled them to initiate dialogue with many local authorities where previously we had had little success”. The campaign was recently awarded the ‘Innovation in Social Media’ award at the Managing Partner forum awards.

About Service 2020: Megatrends for the decade ahead

This BDO report was written by the Economist Intelligence Unit and further details are available from: http://www.bdo.uk.com/library/service-2020-megatrends-decade-ahead The first edition surveyed 479 business leaders on their ideas of “perfect customer service” in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific spanning all industries. It also included interviews with eight experts. The main findings were:

·         Global competition will drive up service standards

·         Companies must maintain service standards in the face of “the need for speed”

·         Firms must learn to use new sources and types of data to rethink the way they track and personalise their service

·         Good employees will remain fundamental to good service but with technology as an enabler

·         More firms will outsource aspects of customer service to new kinds of specialists

·         The rise of the mass affluent and other customer segments will force companies to find new product or service niches

·         Customer expectations, including the purpose of the store, are evolving with technology

Related blogs where BDO is mentioned:

http://www.kimtasso.com/blogx/post/Managing-Partnerse28099-Forum-e28093-Awards-for-Management-Excellence-2013.aspx

http://www.kimtasso.com/blogx/post/BDO-strategy-Price-Bailey-time-sheets-knowledge-management-and-client-expectationsAccountancy-Age-Best-Practice-Conference-2012.aspx

http://www.kimtasso.com/blogx/post/Book-review-Arke28099s-e2809cBest-Practices-in-Legal-Marketinge2809d.aspx

The following article was published today on Legal Technology Insider http://www.legaltechnology.com/latest-news/business-development-mishcon-de-reya-in-the-spotlight/

Business Development: Mishcon de Reya in the spotlight

Kim Tasso* shines the spotlight on marvellous marketing at large and small law firms.

Let’s start with Mishcon de Reya. At number 45 in the charts and a fee income of £73m it’s one of the bigger firms – straddling both consumer and business markets, although 90% of its income derives from the latter. Its marketing fortunes changed when it appointed Elliot Moss as director of business development in May 2009. It was a brave appointment as his background was in advertising. He has worked all over the world and with some of the world’s leading brands. He also dabbles in broadcasting – on jazz fm. After several flat years pre 2009, the firm has grown dramatically from £47m revenue in 2009.

Elliot is a powerful PR weapon in his own right – he’s a much sought after speaker at conferences and open to candid interviews with both the legal and mainstream marketing media. I have written numerous blogs on the unfolding strategy and numerous campaigns. His philosophy appears to be based on a number of sound marketing principles: differentiation, positioning (It’s business, but it’s personal) and doing a few things really well. This is in stark contrast to the typical “try to please every partner and practice area” scatter gun approach we see in many firms. In his words, success comes from “singularity and focus”.

So let’s take a look at three of my favourite campaigns and maybe you’ll see what I mean:

Private client – The web site contains a neat graphic that shows the range of services for wealthy individuals. There’s a tie-up with Quintessentially (the leading luxury lifestyle group) providing an added value 24-hour, 365 days a year, global concierge service to clients. There are specialist “products” for key groups such as Mishcon VIP China and Mishcon Repute. And there is participation in organisations in key segments such as the Gay Women’s Network.

Divorce – The family market remains turbulent and challenging. But rather than participate in the race to the bottom, the firm staked its ground at the top of the market. It did this with an inspired partnership with Debretts – “the modern authority on all matters of etiquette, social occasions, people of distinction and fine style” and the publication and promotion of Debrett’s Guide to Civilised Separation.

Corporate – At the centre of the programme is an integrated marketing campaign with partner FT celebrating the entrepreneurial nature of deals – Deals and Dealmakers. Every three months there’s a branded supplement within the paper, backed up with weekly advertisements. There is also a dedicated microsite. The FT also delivers email campaigns reaching chief financial officers, chief executives, and chief operating officers. Additionally the programme has been embedded with a training and internal communications campaign to ensure that all lawyers know what to say about the firm.

There is also a product development process for commercial legal services – with 15 products launched since 2009 including Protect for insurance, Enlighten for mobile knowledge, Enable to allow HR people to “DIY” and the Change Review for the Companies Act.

* Kim Tasso is a management consultant specialising in the professions, a freelance journalist and author www.kimtasso.com/blog2 Twitter: RedStarKim

A recent article in The Lawyer (18 February 2013) focused on innovation in smaller law firms. I have summarised the ways in which the featured firms achieved their innovation:

Anthony Collins  (£14.4m, Birmingham) – Niche in social housing, health and social care, local government, education and faith communities.  

Flint Bishop (£9.4m, Derby) – From 2004 online conveyancing services to fixed fee employment services, access to templates and “how to” video guides, sale of solicitor packages in packets of 12, 24 or 36 hours and niche employment law advice for education sector.

Goodman Derrick (£10.5m) – Lateral hires secured large transactional work.

Harper Macleod (£19.2m) – Retained and redeployed around 20% of its corporate, real estate and private client lawyers into insurance, debt recovery and insolvency.

Keystone Law (£11.2m) – Dispersed law firm – 118 consultant solicitors working from home using document assembly and collaborative technology.

Kemp Little (£8.9m) – Boutique TMT/technology practice and provides free face-to-face advice to start up technology companies.

Matthew Arnold & Baldwin – (£15.8) Flexible pricing model for large corporations attracting transactional work and creation of Pharmaceutical Industry Networking Group.

Taylor Vinters (£16.2m, Newmarket) – Technology focus, originally on Cambridge Science Park and then opening in London and Singapore.

Veale Wasbrough Vizards (£21.3m) – Mergers to enter London (from Bristol) market and lateral hires with a focus on public sector market.

Wiggin (£12.4m) – Media boutique created its own technology incubator in East London and has its own executive producer group. Launched its own content protection business.

All examples show an early recognition of impending market changes and positive action to change in anticipation. Apart from Flint Bishop where new service development dominates, the core element of most of the strategies is a focus on core markets in order to create real differentiation.

I’ve written a fair amount about strategy in the past (see some example links below) but I thought it might be worth going back to basics with some simple strategy ideas. Mintzberg (who I often talk about in training sessions in the context of emergent strategy) provides five definitions of strategy:

·         Plan

·         Ploy

·         Pattern

·         Position

·         Perspective

Essentially, strategy is about formulating ideas about and implementing change. It requires shared thinking, shared analysis and shared action. In particularly turbulent times, like now, you might use scenario analyses to explore what actions you might take depending on how the environment and situation develops http://www.kimtasso.com/blogx/post/Book-review-Chaotics-The-business-of-managing-and-marketing-in-the-age-of-turbulence.aspx

A key element of your research might include a review of the far external environment – using SLEPT (Sociological, Legal, Economic, Political and Technology trends – use Statistics and Trends in the word cloud to see information that might help you here) and near environment competitor analysis. And you will probably use SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) to summarise all your preliminary thinking, research and analysis to identify the key issues on which to focus.

You will need to do a stakeholder analysis to check who has a vested interest in strategy and you can use POWER to make your strategy effective:

·         Personal, professional and past performance

·         Organisational and positional (e.g. Board level authority)

·         Web of contacts

·         Evidence, enthusiasm, passion and tenacity

·         Resources (finances, people and other)

And of course you will need to involve people and communicate it in an appropriate way if you are to ensure that the entire organisation plays it part in execution.

Recent strategy blogs:

http://www.kimtasso.com/blogx/post/Competitive-strategy-for-business-growth-Process-practice-and-performance.aspx

http://www.kimtasso.com/blogx/post/Seven-deadly-sins-of-business-plans-e28093-and-how-to-fix-them.aspx

http://www.kimtasso.com/blogx/post/Book-Review-Good-strategy-Bad-Strategy-e28093-The-difference-and-why-it-matters-by-Richard-Rumelt.aspx

http://www.kimtasso.com/blogx/post/Strategy-and-scenario-planning-Blowing-the-cobwebs-off-your-mind-workshop-(with-Allen-Overy).aspx

http://www.kimtasso.com/blogx/post/McKinseye28099s-e2809cManaging-the-strategy-journeye2809d-says-spend-more-time-on-strategy.aspx

Last week, I presented a webinar for CLT on this subject. It was very well attended and there was some interesting discussion at the end. This built on the debate that had taken place on various LinkedIn discussion groups beforehand and as a result of the publicity surrounding the research I conducted in conjunction with www.onlydads.org and www.onlymums.org in advance. More information on the client research is shown here http://www.kimtasso.com/blogx/post/The-price-of-divorce-survey-results.aspx

Whilst it isn’t possible to cover all the points raised during the webinar, here are some of the highlights:

Pricing research

The participants were mostly from full service law firms where there were between one and five family partners. Of those who participated:

·         44% said pricing was the responsibility of the head of the family department and 33% said that it was down to individual partners/lawyers

·         63% used hourly rates and 37% used a mixture of hourly rates and fixed fees

·         50% had done internal analysis of historic costs, 15% had researched client views on pricing and 20% had done no pricing research at all

Market developments

A review of developments in the market (e.g. www.quickie-divorce.com, www.managed-divorce.co.uk) showed that the advertised low prices effectively anchored the perceived price of divorce at the low end. We also looked at examples where a range of options for commodity services – with different fixed price points – were offered (e.g. Curwens and Co-Operative Legal Services).

Examples of small and medium firms bringing greater clarity, transparency and choice were also considered. Acknowledging the accepted wisdom of offering “free” services (the “freemium” model is prevalent in the Internet environment) and the growth of apps to provide advice and generate leads, we discussed the need to qualify potential clients.

I also pointed out micropayment models such as the brand new www.honestyBoxx.com widget which allows visitors to pay a small amount (according to their perceived value) for an answer to their question.

We also considered some of the strategies of firms at the top end of the market where differentiation and unique (non-law in some cases) packages of services were used for effective positioning.

Recent research on the cost of separation from the Legal Ombudsman – and the ensuing media coverage - was considered before we looked in detail at the client research mentioned above. Participants were urged to check out the excellent guidance on price communication issued by the Legal Ombudsman http://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/aboutus/publications.html.

Pricing basics

Some of the basic theories of pricing (e.g. Kotler) and value propositions were considered. Similar information is shown in this blog:  http://www.kimtasso.com/blogx/post/The-pricing-(and-value)-of-legal-services.aspx

We also considered the other side of the equation – managing costs, efficiency and automation – by looking at systems provided by Epoq. http://www.kimtasso.com/blogx/post/(Just-about)-everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-automated-legal-documents-but-were-afraid-to-ask.aspx It was noted that entry level systems start at £50 pcm per lawyer for family law.

Guidance

Towards the end, I offered my views on the state of pricing in the legal profession, explained seven general principles of pricing, considered how segmentation and different service/value propositions might be developed for the family market and talked through some aspects of my 12 step pricing model.

Such was the level of interest that I plan to produce a White Paper offering guidance in this area in due course.

PS I would like to thank Kerem Gokce, the technician at CLT, for remaining utterly calm when we were without a broadband connection for the 1.5 hours before the webinar. A true professional, I thank him for ensuring that absolutely “the show must go on”!

For lawyers, accountants and surveyors in a network of offices, the challenge of generating referrals (cross-selling) will be all too familiar. Extend the network into strategic alliances and across other firms and the problem is compounded.

It’s a tricky and multi-faceted issue, and there is no easy solution. But here are some tips for making progress.

Reward - Start with motivation. Answer the question "What's in it for me?" from the referrer’s point of view. This will force you to consider the value to the individual who is doing the referring. It takes time to refer someone – doing the relevant research and effectively taking a brief. And to ensure that they are looked after appropriately once they have been referred. And this time could probably be used more productively generating a direct fee for themselves. So how do you make the reward for referring more valuable? Sadly, reciprocity is unlikely on a personal basis (it may be firm or department or network oriented) so you need to look beyond that as a reward. It’s not enough to keep a register of referrals .

Recognition – Professionals should focus on what is important to the client. How does someone know that their client needs to be referred to you? Often advisers will wait until a client asks about something (a reactive opportunity) whereas a more proactive approach requires a broad knowledge of other areas of expertise available and a strong nerve when it comes to engaging with the client on a wider range of issues. Here you need to think about the selling and relationship management (account management) skills amongst those you want to do the referring. Without those skills they may not have the type of relationship that makes it easy to spot the opportunities nor the ability to engage with the client in a way that reveals them. You might find it helpful to provide guidance on the “triggers" – and what to do – when an opportunity to refer occurs.

Relationship – For a referral to take place you need both the right sort of relationship with the client (and the right decision maker there) as well as with the person to whom you are referring. Whilst information about the experts available is good what will facilitate the referral is a strong relationship (built on face-to-face regular contact) with the person to whom you are referring.  The referrer needs to trust the person to whom they are referring their cherished client. There is much evidence to show that people are more likely to refer their clients to people who they have met, and know and like. There’s a raft of internal marketing tools that can help here – including socials, shadowing and secondments.

Research – Rather than plead for “general” referrals, be more specific about what you want. So, for example, research may reveal that another office or firm has lots of a certain type of client. So focus the efforts to achieve referrals in this specific area (e.g. small technology companies that are experiencing fast growth who may have international ambitions). Target one or two  offices or members from whom to generate referrals – or a particular type of work. Perhaps with internal and external campaigns lasting 3-6 months focusing on one type of referral before moving onto the next. Or an even more focused approach would be to research the particular clients from whom you want referrals – then approach their primary contact with the evidence and a suggested strategy to make an approach for the referral. You should have internal systems to track referrals (and reward them) that can be interrogated to identify the “best practice” of the most successful referrers and referees from which others can learn.

Risks - To refer a client requires trust in the person/place to which you are referring them.  There are risks in referring so you must be clear what they are and do your utmost to address/minimise them. Bad news (referrals gone bad) travels faster than good news. Sometimes this requires protocols so that both the referrer and the referee know what will happen once a referral takes place. There should be clear “rules of engagement” (How much to charge? Who to check with? Briefing notes? Who bills? Who pays? Who manages? Who is in control?) about how the referrer will be kept in the communication loop, “handed back” at the end of the transaction and what happens if there is a problem. Needless to say, if the risks outweigh the rewards it simply won’t happen. There are also the risks of “not referring” (e.g. the client goes to a professional or firm outside the firm or network and the core client/business is lost or a non-specialist tries to do the work and it goes pear-shaped).

Reassurance – This links back to rewards. Communication about successful referrals (for the client, the referrer and the referee) keeps it top of mind and provides ideas for clients/matters that might be appropriate for other referrals. But the key point is to communicate that referrals take place and are successful….

Here are a few related links that might help

http://www.kimtasso.com/faq/2006-12/how-can-i-increase-the-strength-of-my-relationship-with-referrers-and-intermediaries/

http://www.kimtasso.com/blogx/post/A-E-of-cultivating-a-culture-of-relationship-management.aspx

http://www.kimtasso.com/faq/2013-01/how-can-i-improve-the-effectiveness-of-secondments/

http://www.kimtasso.com/faq/2011-10/how-do-i-ensure-a-successful-sales-meeting/

Working in the professions requires resilience. Marketing and sales roles require resilience. So those who have a business development role in the professions must need a double dose! But what is resilience and how can you be more resilient?

Definition

A Harvard Business School report found that there are three fundamental characteristics that set resilient people and organisations apart:

·         A capacity to face reality

·         An ability to find meaning in testing times

·         An ability to improvise

Psychological resilience

Psychological resilience is an individual’s tendency to cope with stress and adversity – whether through bouncing back, not being affected negatively or developing better strategies for the future.

Resilience is a process rather than a personality trait (although scores on psychometric scales for things like anxiety, depression, vulnerability to stress, assertiveness, positive emotion and self-discipline may be indicators of resiliency).

It is a two-dimensional concept spanning both the adversity and the positive attitude/behaviour adaptations. So two judgements are involved – the significance of the risk and the adaptation required.

Most research shows that resilience is the result of individuals being able to interact with their environments and the ways in which they promote well-being or protect themselves against risk factors – whether by themselves or supported by their relationships or policies.

Much historical research into the subject focused on how children adapt to adversity and considered:

·         Good outcomes despite high risk status

·         Constant competence under stress

·         Recovery from trauma

·         Using challenges for growth that make future hardships more tolerable

Developing resilience

There are many ways to develop resilience. The American Psychological Association suggests 10 ways:

1.     Maintain good relationships with family, friends and others

2.     Avoid seeing crises or stressful situations as unbearable events

3.     Accept circumstances that cannot be changed

4.     Develop realistic goals and move towards them

5.     Take decisions or actions in adverse situations

6.     Look for opportunities for self-discovery after a struggle with loss

7.     Develop self-confidence

8.     Keep a long term perspective and consider the stressful event in a broader context

9.     Maintain a hopeful outlook – expect good things

10.  Take care of your mind and body – eat properly, exercise regularly and pay attention to your own needs and feelings

The following is a summary:

·         Harness your thinking and think strategically and objectively rather than being overwhelmed in the moment

·         Cultivate your own self-control through a better understanding of your preferred styles and usual reactions

·         Apply your strength and skills to take some action in challenging situations

·         Nurture your connections and seek reassurance, another view, support and advice when you need to

·         Develop positive habits to put things in perspective, focus on the upside and look after yourself

·         Tap into your inner strength

If stress is a big issue (and prolonged exposure to stress can lead to burn-out), read the review of “Crazy Busy” http://www.kimtasso.com/blogx/post/Crazy-busy-e28093-Overstretched-overbooked-and-about-to-snap-(Book-review).aspx

A recent Open University Business School (OUBS) webinar provided a summary of a January strategy summit. The panel included Peter Wainwright, Professor Thomas Lawton, Jo Salter and Antoine Boatwright (Dell) and included numerous case study video clips.

The strategy for positioning for business growth framework comprises three elements:

1.     Innovation (product and promise)

2.     Internationalise (product and people)

3.     Integrate (market and non-market)

To illustrate:

Tripadviser – Innovation was introduced to its proposition by embracing user generated content (UGC) and “frenemies” who might be competitors, suppliers or customers. It is driven by outrageous ambition (driven by BHAG – Big Hairy Ambitious Goal from Jim Collins). They mentioned that SEO was the key reason for success – they don’t pay for advertising but have 1,000 software engineers. Other core values include: “speed wins” and “try things and don’t think about being crappy”.

Ryannair – Adapted the South West Airlines model for the European market and then asked “Are we where we should be?” and further adapted the structure and management to succeed.

Capita – From a situation where it had 3,000 seats in telephone contact centres, it had to find way to make money in a new world where social media and the web changed the market. Its innovation and integration stemmed from the recognition that it listened to 150m customer interactions a year and had a significant asset in its knowledge and analytics.

Dell – Recognition that over the past 20 years working globally has evolved with broadband as an enabler and the dominance of the West has been challenged. On integration, they changed their metrics from tight central control of revenue and margins to free up the regions to decide how to operate based on broad strategic directions – this encouraged more long term, strategic thinking. There were also some insights into the importance in cross-cultural management and communication by focusing on the individual in terms of one-to-one conversations, things like etiquette, taking a genuine interest and translating the value proposition into meaningful guidance for all levels of employees.

There was a lot of discussion about alignment – particularly between the business strategy and policy (tactics, rules), market and non-market (e.g. political, social and cultural space, regulatory issues, communities and Government) as well as the company and its supply/value chain.

There were felt to be four criteria for success:

1.     Market leading growth and ambition – be clear about approach and stretch

2.     Strong situational awareness – behaviour driven by creating shareholder value

3.     Strategies have to be adaptive – direction of travel rather than the destination important

4.     Align the board room and the front line – Big goals don’t work, decide what you want to be famous for

There was also a good example of how the pharmaceutical development model was adapted for the record business to sign artists.

Throughout the session there were polls to assess the reactions of the 150 participants, for example:

·         Focus - 33% concerned with improving the quality of strategy, 30% with delivering strategy to the front line

·         Criteria for success – 32% better alignment, 22% improved situational awareness, 15% adaptive strategy

Perhaps not surprisingly, strategy implementation emerged as the biggest issue with the need to embed the strategy into the DNA of the organisation – its people.

I continue to be one of the judges at these important annual awards (which were this year in association with the Financial Times and Harvard Business Review) and last night I attended the best-ever-attended gala dinner at The Marriott Grosvenor Square to see the winners announced.

Sir Nigel Knowles, Joint CEO of DLA Piper, having spent ten years as Chair of the Managing Partners’ Forum reflected on the Management Excellence Summit that had taken place earlier in the day, thanked the team of judges led by Alistair Rose and handed over the baton to new Chair Michael Strong of CBRE (how good will it be to have a property sector influence amongst the many legal and accountancy firm members!).

After a short address on “What leaders should be thinking about” by Michael Watkins (chairman of Genesis Advisers, a professor at IMD in Switzerland and author of “The first 90 days: Critical success strategies for new leaders at all levels”) we were onto the awards. I’ve noted the winners here for ease of reference – and congratulations to them all:

Client categories

·         Best thought leadership campaign – Browne Jacobson (school academies)

·         Best use of know-how to enhance commerciality – A&L Goodbody (knowledge team in client-facing roles)

·         Best use of systems to enhance the client experience – CBRE (research client extranet)

·         Most innovative client service initiative – Dundas & Wilson (contract query service for financial institution)

·         Best performing brand:

o    Law – Linklaters

o    Accountancy – KPMG

o    Property – Jones Lang LaSalle

o    Consultancy – Tata Consultancy Services

·         Best brand – PwC

People categories

·         Best leadership development programme – Hogan Lovells (“Leading edge” for junior partners and “Momentum” for senior lawyers)

·         Best talent management and retention – Perez-Llorca (International Career Academy)

·         Most innovative approach to performance measurement – Weightmans (balanced scorecard dashboard)

·         Lifetime achievement – Sir Michael Snyder of Kingston Smith

Collaboration categories

·         Best collaboration across international frontiers – PwC (Netherlands developed knowledge management platform Pulse adopted by six territories)

·         Most innovative use of social media – BDO (Local authority campaign)

·         Best community engagement – TLT (coaching children)

·         Best social mobility programme – PRIME (legal work experience for less privileged)

Leadership categories

·         Exceptional achievement – Norton Rose

·         Best performing listed firm – The Mission Marketing Group

·         Best strategic leadership – Bird & Bird

·         Best emerging firm – Riverview

·         Best managed national firm – TLT

·         Best managed international firm – Clyde & Co

Sitting with me at my table were a team from Dublin’s A&L Goodbody (and it was great to share their celebrations) as well as a couple of the award’s many sponsors – “old” pal Ben Kent of Meridian West (formerly known as Lighthouse Research) and a new friend (I’d met one of its leaders last year) from accessprofessions.

Full details of the awards and all the winners, runners up and highly commended entries are at: http://www.mpfglobal.com/awards/index.aspx