by Robin Dicks | Sep 20, 2023 | Uncategorized
It’s very noticeable that we’re seeing some increasingly common and important themes from feedback given by clients of professional services firms. Hugely abbreviated, the key needs are these: Better project management Better communication of progress and status More use of technology to allow self service and ‘close to real-time’ information updates Client contacts of firms are under pressure to achieve speed, and efficiency. Firms that don’t get this are going to lose...
by Robin Dicks | Jul 17, 2023 | Uncategorized
My article on how law firms can ask the right questions of clients, in order to boost their performance and the health of the firm, has just been published in the Law Society’s magazine, “Managing for Success”. Take a look at the...
by Robin Dicks | Jan 10, 2023 | Robin's Blog, Uncategorized
The events of the last few years have made many of us think about improving work-life balance and our wellbeing. Some research we did last year flagged up the widespread risk of ‘burn-out’ amongst staff in professional services. So this link includes our thoughts on some New Year resolutions worth considering for those managing firms or wanting to reduce the risk of...
by Robin Dicks | Nov 21, 2022 | Uncategorized
“GDP” is back in the headlines again after the news that the UK is (probably) in recession, and ex PM Liz Truss’s comments about wanting to “grow the pie”, irrespective of how it is distributed. I have a couple of problems with GDP as the “be all and end all” measure, being: Growing it is all well and good, but what if huge swathes of the population don’t gain a share of that growth? Study after study suggests that, after a certain point, more wealth doesn’t mean more happiness. Does any country look at it differently? Yes, they do. Bhutan doesn’t focus as much on Gross Domestic Product as it does on GNH. Gross National Happiness. Not a bad idea. See more about it here. ...
by Robin Dicks | Oct 6, 2022 | Uncategorized
We’ve just done a study with 68 participants from professional services firms, about approaches to pricing and the impact on profitability. One of the things that struck me was the examples given of the most profitable matters and relationships. When people talked about how they approached pricing, all of these took into account the broader context – i.e. not just “what’s our hourly rate.” In the most successful examples, people had understood the value to the client, understood what the client really wanted to achieve, had a sense of competitor pricing, and been absolutely transparent in nailing the real deliverables of value. These tended also to be the firms who were confident about future...
by Robin Dicks | Mar 24, 2022 | Uncategorized
As the founder director of Thriving, it feels pretty good to reflect on the fact we’ve raised about £10000 over the past year for various causes, including over £1000 for the people of Ukraine. I know its very little compared to what major PLCs may raise, and sometimes it feels like it may be a drop in the ocean – but on the other hand, it’s definitely helped people dealing with huge challenges and sadness. All of us can do more good. It’s not particularly difficult. It just requires a bit of will and...
