PART 3 OF OUR PROGRAMME FOR PROFITABLE GROWTH

Make the changes necessary to deliver what clients want efficiently and profitably

Of course, half the battle is understanding what your clients really really want and Sally covered that last week in Part 2 of the programme. I'm going to take that idea further this week - it's critical to understand that from the client's perspective there are some mission critical parts of your service that absolutely have to be delivered in the same way on time every time. If you mess up on the mission critical parts, there's a real problem. If you like, there's a sort of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs that can be applied to what your client wants from you - we've made it easy for you and added a free download to our site for you so you can see what we mean. You can also use this download to map out the mission critical parts of what your clients want from you.

But this programme is called the Profitable Growth Programme: we advocate growing business that is profitable. So you will see that we have marked on the download a reminder to map your own critical business requirements. 

We've tried "doing process" before. Why isn’t it as easy as it sounds?
Well, for one, the law is still (and will be until artificial intelligence takes over) a knowledge based business dealing in intangibles delivered by human beings to human beings. This can make the pursuit of delivering the expected level of service consistently a little tricky.


Tricky but not impossible. Here are my 10 top tips for success:

1. Accept that there will be change. Albert Einstein once remarked that it is a sign of insanity to keep doing the same things over and over again and expect a different result. Very true, although perhaps insanity is a bit strong – but then he was a bit of a show-boater if you ask me!
2. Keep it simple Too many transformation projects fail because they are either too ambitious (think NHS patient records project) or too complex. It's better to bite off smaller projects and make those work than try something larger and fail. That way you can keep adding small, simple projects that add up to major change over time. Credibility is important.
3. Get people involved Especially the ones who are going to be operating or benefiting from the process (including clients) early on. It is no secret that people are inherently resistant to change, or rather the fear of what change will mean for them! Not only does engaging and including people help to overcome the fear of change, they will identify where the current service delivery works, where it doesn’t and help generate ideas to do things better.
4. Keep going There may be times when the project seems embattled or bogged down in detail and argument. It's important at these times to have clear communication from the leadership team that the project is moving forward inexorably - and then to just keep going!
5. Start at the beginning Map your existing processes to serve as the benchmark from which to identify constraints, potential improvements and then model your “to-be” process. Beware though, many change programmes get stuck here. See top tip 4 above!
6. Always keep in mind the service is for humans and delivered by humans The purpose is to provide a platform to help your team deliver best practice, best service and best results. It should be an enabler and not a replacement or an inhibitor.
7. Match the right people to the right job Solicitors are a premium resource – don't ask them to do things they are not particularly good at. It's usually of little benefit to delivering on client or business expectations and can create unnecessary bottlenecks. Finding the right fit for tasks will help you optimise the capacity of your business and contribute real efficiencies.
8. Apply the right measures. Far too often businesses focus on the outputs of a process. Instead, concentrate on the inputs and the process and the outputs will naturally take care of themselves. Remember the critical to quality requirements we talked about above? These should form the basis of some of your Key Performance Indicators (KPI) as well as your own critical business requirements. Consider using a KPI tree to separate measures that are critical to the client, those that are important to the business and those that will help you manage exceptions and neutralise potential problems. 
9. Take extra care in how you collect data – I am sure we have all experienced how reporting results can vary greatly depending on what data is collected and how it is used! As they say "rubbish in, rubbish out". Thats's where experience can really help.
10. Before you open your wallet, stop! What do you really need from your IT systems to achieve the value your client expects and at a profit? We live in a technological age that is so fast-paced that, seemingly, whatever you invest in, it is invariably out of date before you have opened the box. Investment in IT is understandably one of the key debates for budgeting in firms every year and you will not hear me making a case against the importance that IT has in delivering process excellence. But firms rarely use (or even are aware of) the full functionality of the systems that they currently use.

Business improvement is not a magic bullet. It takes time, energy and investment. It also never stops: no sooner have you completed updating one process than you will find other open up before you. If approached correctly, though, the benefits can be fantastic: happy and loyal clients, more profitable business and happy and loyal staff who enjoy making things better. 
It is (apparently) insanity to keep doing the same things over and over again and expect a different result, so keep challenging what you are doing, who is doing it, how you are doing it and of course why you are doing it and you may just avoid the men in white coats!
Next week my colleague, John Campbell, will be explaining how to pitch your pricing at just the right point to grow your business profitably. John has a great way of looking at pricing which is both practical and straightforward. I'm looking forward to it!