by Robin Dicks | Mar 24, 2020 | Robin's Blog
It feels right to talk about something more “normal” for the moment. We did an interesting project a few months ago for a firm which was keen to understand the truth about how its capability was perceived vs. competitors, and indeed if it could successfully differentiate itself. From speaking to their clients and key opinion formers across their high priority sectors, it was clear that the activities of their competitors had created a gap. The firm in question just needed to more clearly communicate its capability and ensure that its “brand” resonated more clearly, though key people confidently delivering all the elements of a trusted advisor. They now have a clear map and focus to do this, and I’m sure they will...
by Robin Dicks | Mar 13, 2020 | Robin's Blog
Thriving recently undertook a thought leadership programme for a major law firm. We found that some of the characteristics of the successful in-house legal team of the future included flexibility, clear goals, leadership and values, effective stakeholder and board management – and the ability to respond rapidly to the unexpected. That seems even more significant now. Contact me if you’d like to chat about thought...
by Robin Dicks | Jul 5, 2017 | Robin's Blog
A recent analysis conducted by Lexis Nexis and Cambridge University’s Judge Business School made for somewhat disturbing reading. The results suggest that even across the biggest clients of firms, key contacts believe their relationship partners and firms serving them have only a superficial knowledge of their business. The report notes that “All clients were uniformly of the opinion that not only do the law firms not provide relationship services, in many cases they do not seem to see the need.” This is causing some clients to look elsewhere for advice. Given this is a substantive risk to firm revenue, the authors recommend that firms stop focusing predominantly on a transactional approach to key clients and instead instil “a sense of partnership where the client feels valued and protected.” Do you know how clients view their relationship with your...
by Robin Dicks | Sep 16, 2016 | Robin's Blog
Brexit means uncertainty. Should leaders, marketers and other heads try and ignore it, in the hope that it will go away? Should they plan on the basis of an outcome they hope will happen? Or should they give in to the uncertainty and not plan at all? Should they promote hard, or accept reduced budgets? Or should they rethink where they can really add value – click here for some thoughts on how leaders can really respond positively to the challenge and help build the firm’s performance. I’ll talk about the role of scenario planning also in a future...
by Robin Dicks | Jul 27, 2016 | Robin's Blog
It’s felt like a good time over the last couple of weeks to rethink about strategies and talk to clients about “what next?” In this I’ve been reminded of a useful tool which was developed by Dr Tony Grundy. It’s very helpful as a means of determining the best choices from a range of options. You can see a top level view of it here At it’s heart it is a simple way of thinking about and evaluating different options, that you can use in decisions from “what corporate strategy should we use?”, “who should we acquire?”, “what client segment shall we focus on?” “what website agency should we use?” or even “what car shall we have next?” More about it is available online if you search on ‘strategic option...
