Growth

This month saw publication of the 2016 High Growth Study by Hinge Research Institute. Although not limited to law firms, law firms (along with “Healthcare & Other”) made up 12.9% of the 968 respondents who answered Hinge’s survey and, therefore, the Study’s findings help provide some insight into whether or not “High-Growth” firms share common traits.

First, “High-Growth” was defined as being a firm with:

“Over $1 million in revenue and had an average yearly growth rate of at least 20%”.

Not exceptional. Having said that, of the firms surveyed:-

30% generated over 88% of new revenue growth and were 45% more profitable than their No-Growth counterparts

so most definitely desirable.

So, did these High-Growth firms share any traits? In short, “yes”; and these included:

Target Clients: High-Growth firms are 75% more likely to have a highly specialized practice – i.e., not all things to all people or full services firms
Client base: High-Growth firms are more likely to target the larger clients (over $10 million in revenue)
Research: High-Growth firms are 2X more likely to conduct research on their target client
Differentiation: differentiators favoured by High-Growth firms are twice as likely to be easier to prove and are more relevant to clients. Importantly, these don’t include “reputation” and “awards won” (favour of No-Growth firms) and do include “culture” and “people”
Marketing investment: High-Growth firms invest 23% less in traditional marketing than No-Growth firms. This is because what marketing High-Growth firms do is targeted and measured

While some of these may surprise, they reinforce that in order to grow in today’s market firms need to have a clear understanding of who they are, who they work for, who they would like to work for, and the value/benefits they provide. In short, they’re focused.

RWS_01

I read with interest yesterday‘s news item in the UK’s The Lawyer that Jones Day intends to double in size in Australia – with a particular focus on its Corporate practice following the recent lateral hire of ex-Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) deputy senior partner Mark Crean.

I am increasingly coming to the opinion that headlines like the one in yesterday’s The Lawyer represent as close as we will get to ‘clickbate’ in the legal industry.

Why do I think this? – because it is now well established that “growth isn’t a strategy, it’s a result“.

So, aside from being potentially good media exposure for the firm – in which case I do wonder why none of the Australian legal press picked up on this story – all this article does is highlight the misnomer that “growth is always good”, when all research around lateral hiring and aggressive purchasing of market share points to the opposite (think Dewey & LeBoeuf).

Going a step further, in a recent (23 November 2015) article in the Am Law Daily, Felix Oberholzer-Gee, professor of business development in the strategy unit at Harvard Business School, argues:

“If you start by saying that we want to grow our market share, or we want to be a particular size, as a strategic goal that is a terrible choice for a number of reasons”…

… “First, and most important, is that market share is not that correlated with profitability. The second is that the most natural way to gain market share is by charging lower fees, which is what we see throughout the industry in this misguided effort to gain size and market share.”

Have to say that I agree with Professor Oberholzer-Gee: – market share [ie, size] doesn’t matter, what matters is if your firm is profitable.

And therein lies the problem: I have yet to be convinced that any firm on an aggressive growth trajectory in Australia – and there are a few out there who are taking the same approach as Jones Day – are any more profitable for it. Conversely, I think that while being larger in partner numbers and office outlets many are probably less profitable with a lot more administrative headaches to boot.

So, while I feel for law firm partners who are continuously being told post-GFC that mergers and market growth are safe haven ways to continue their existence post-2020, I would caution this approach and recommend, at an absolute minimum, that the firm:

take an audit of their client base to see who they do profitable work for;
ask your most profitable client if your firm’s growth plans will have any impact on them giving you greater levels of profitable work and, if so, who you need to bring on board to do that work;
analysis what your increased cost-base (and there will very likely be an increased cost-base) is going to mean in the medium and long term;

and to share this information as widely as you feel comfortable doing with your top clients so there is transparency around your strategic growth plans.

Otherwise you could always remember the idiom:

“Marry in haste, repent at leisure…”

RWS_01's B[D]log

Report: Do high growth firms share common traits?

Growth is not a strategy