Page 44 - Law Society of Hong Kong MPMC Manual v8 - With checklists (1 March 2018)

Practice Management Course | Unit 5
Business Planning

the validity of the project and they become open to playing a role in the
implementation.

6. In structuring the practice audit or analysis, it is useful to develop a questionnaire
that can deal with the following issues:

Market Review
This involves a review of the market/s in which the practice competes and how the
practice compares with its competitors. Questions that need to be answered are:
• Where does the practice obtain its work?
• What is the range of legal services provided?
• What is the market for each legal service and are they different?
• What is the size of each market and its special characteristics?
• Of the total market available, what is the market share that the practice
controls?
• What is the marketplace's perception of your practice’s reputation for the
delivery of legal services?
• What is the current projected growth of the market and of your market share?
External factors • Who are they?
Analysis of competitors

• Where are they?
• What are the characteristics of their practices and the legal services they deliver
(e.g., price, quality, responsiveness)?
Analysis of clients
• Who are they?
• Where are they?
• What characterises them (e.g., are they small, medium or large in the context of
your practice)?
• Who makes the decisions to buy your services?
• How did they develop a relationship with your practice?
• Why do they use your practice?
• Are there any major trends or developments occurring in your client's
marketplace?
• Practice areas in percentages?
• What is the identifiable level of client loyalty?
• Who are the new clients in last 12 months?
Human resources
• What does a skills audit reveal?
• How do the staff ratios compare with industry ratios?
• What are the provisions for career path planning?
• What is the remuneration policy?
• What productivity measures are applied to the performance of key people and to
the overall productivity of the staff?
Internal factors Management structure
• What is the impact of any personal goals and ambitions?
• What are the characteristics of the practice and its management structure?
• Is the structure in alignment with the current business strategy? (For example,
is the practice pursuing a new quality management program, which aims to
devolve responsibility to the lowest appropriate level, but at the same time
maintaining a pre-existing management structure that is inconsistent with this?)
Technology
• Prepare a schedule of all hardware and software currently operated by the
practice together with sources of supply and service
• Who has responsibility for developing and managing the technology plan?
• Is the technology plan congruent with the management structure and the
business strategy?

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