The Opportunity
The 2007 - 2008 global financial crisis was a period of profound change worldwide. In the legal sector, competition for new business intensified as clients looked for further efficiencies, and law firms consolidated in pursuit of competitive advantage. At this time, leading UK law firm, Lewis Silkin, needed to establish effective investments it could make to grasp market share when signs of recovery started to show.
My Role
Investigating the strategic options available to its corporate team’s pursuit of growth.
Qualitative information collection, plus subsequent analysis allied with strategy literature and market data review.
Effecting integrated and sustainable strategies the firm and its corporate practice subsequently successfully deployed.
Results
I authored a report that:
Established five priority customer needs.
Analysed the threat of competitors and how those law firms were better serving customers’ needs.
Identified common themes as to why, in some circumstances, Lewis Silkin’s corporate practice had lost new business pitches.
Proposed where the firm and practice should make interventions to re-establish competitive advantage.
A further report I authored reviewed the wider firm’s management of how new business was won or lost. Analysis I conducted established firm was achieving a much lower RFP/tender win rate compared to the professional services industry ideal. Implementation of my recommendations shifted firm’s win rate and catalysed improvements in its pursuit of new business, seeing Lewis Silkin successfully grow revenue beyond the 10% increase of the prior year.