Page 56 - Strategic Planning for Law Firms

Strategic Planning for Law Firms
What Business Does Your Firm Want?
Your firm should define the business it wants. No meaningful planning can occur unless you can answer this question. What practice areas does it want to pursue? What reputation does it want? What business sectors does it want to serve? What specific clients does it want to pursue? Who does it want to get to know better? A firm must first define the target so it knows what it wants to hit.
How Do You Plan to Pursue this Business?
After defining the target, the firm needs a plan to reach and hit the target. What are the goals to achieve this business? What are the action steps to achieve those goals? First define the desirable business you want and then devise a plan to get it.
Client Experience
You want to know your clients’ experience. Is it positive or negative? What do they like? What don’t they? What impresses your clients? What gives them pause? Client surveys are an effective means to capture your clients’ feelings, concerns, needs, wants and desires.
The Firm’s Culture
Define your firm’s culture and define what you want it to be. You may have a great firm culture that requires no changes. You may have a good one that only requires tweaking. You may have
a poor one that requires wholesale reformulating. Surveying your team and speaking with key members will help the firm explore and determine its culture. Remember that culture is the glue that holds your firm together or the virus that destroys it. Every firm has a culture even if you don’t realize it. You must pay attention to culture.
SECTION 08 WHAT SHOULD YOUR STRATEGIC PLAN ENCOMPASS
48
©2021 Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel