British Professions Today - PM/Managing Partners’ Forum Summer Social

Arriving at the fabulous roof top garden of Allen & Overy in Bishops Square at about 6pm last night, the weather was so hot, hot, hot that it looked like there might be a cloud burst. But we were lucky as the weather remained glorious.

Sipping on chilled sparkling rose wine it was nice to meet up with old and new friends. It was especially nice to chat to a couple of my former CIM students – Angela Rook (DMH Stallard) who I learned was an expert on international organised crime and fraud (a subject of great interest to a few of my litigation clients) and Mark Wileman of Sacker & Partners (pension law specialists).

I touched base with Gavin Ingham Brooke from Spada (one of the sponsors) to learn about some great new research they have done called “British Professions Today: The State of the Sector”. This 48 page report contains a veritable treasure chest of information about the history, regulation and contribution of the professions that should be read and absorbed by all those involved in the professions. Some bits that particularly caught my eye were:

• Professional services as represented in SIC category 74 account for the largest single share of UK output contributing 8% of the UK real GDP. It also accounts for £15,849m of British trade in services (over half the total).
• Professional services continue to expand and are forecast to grow 3.4% average annually from 2004 to 2014 (compared to 2.4% average for the whole economy in the same period).
• It is the largest single category of employment – 11.5% of the UK total

The report uses Langland’s 2005 definition of the professions “where a first degree followed by a period of further study or professional training is the normal entry route and where there is a professional body overseeing standards of entry to the profession”.

It was nice to make new friends at WSP Environmental and also with a former DTZ senior business developer. Surprise catch-up of the evening was with Nick Richards – who I worked with many, many years ago when he was in the property industry. He then moved across to the legal profession before landing a fantastic job in the Cayman Islands. Nick is now back and heading up marketing/BD at Vantis. And the haysmacintyre team were there – who I will be seeing again this evening as they are hosting my book launch (thanks guys!).

Thanks to the team at Practice Management International for organising the event and best wishes to Richard Chaplin who awaits the arrival of his second grandchild at any minute. And thanks for an inspired party bag from sponsors Hubbard One – a bottle of water and a battery operated fan. Perfect for the journey home in the sweltering heat.

Top 50 Accountants

Accountancy Age reports that of this year’s top 50 firms, 39 (78%) have seen their growth rates squashed and nine saw their revenues decline. Only nine saw their growth rate increased. 3,000 jobs in the top 50 firms were lost. In the next 50 firms, almost half had growth rates lower than 5%.

The top 20 now looks like this:

1. PricewaterhouseCoopers £2,244m (+7%)
2. Deloitte £2,010m (+16%)
3. KPMG £1,619m (-11%)
4. Ernst & Young £1,282
5. Grant Thornton £394m
6. BDO Stoy Hayward £353m
7. Baker Tilly £204
8. Smith & Williamson £189m
9. Tenon Group £160m
10. PKF (UK) £141m
11. Moore Stephens UK £126m
12. Mazars £102m
13. Vantis £97.50
14. RSM Bentley Jennison £80m
15. Begbies Traynor Group £61m
16. Haines Watts £58m
17. Saffery Champness £51m
18. Horwarth Clark Whitehill £46m
19. UHY Hacker Young Group £46m
20. Kingston Smith £43m

Top 50 partners by gender – 88.7% male, 11.3% female.

Celebrity Divorces

One of the weekend newspapers did a hotlist of the most expensive celebrity divorces:

1. Michael Jordan – 17 year marriage, £110m settlement
2. Neil Diamond – 26 year marriage, £95m
3. Steven Spielberg - £64m. Pre-nuptial on a napkin thrown out
4. Harrison Ford - £54m and share of future earnings
5. Kevin Costner - £51m
6. Madonna - £49m to Guy including the Wiltshire estate
7. James Cameron - £30m cos she failed to wait til after Titanic was finished
8. Phil Collins - £30m to wife number three. Previously £20m to wife number two
9. Michael Douglas - £30m (half his fortune)
10. Paul McCartney – £24m (£100m less than she asked for)

Future Marketing Manager

Last Friday, I led one of the PM Forum’s popular “Future Marketing Manager” courses with delegates from firms such as Allen & Overy, Birketts, Field Fisher Waterhouse, Grant Thornton, Martineau, Wragge & Co and Conyers Dill & Pearman.

Although there are many book references in the slides and other handouts, I promised the delegates that I would provide the following additional information:

Book references

Two key David Maister books are “True Professionalism” (insights into the mind of the professional) and “Trusted Adviser” which explains the trust equation and provides details of where you can assess your trust quotient online.

For help in understanding partnership finances, I recommend Andrew Otterburn’s book “Profitability and law firm management”.

Richard Susskind’s latest book “The end of lawyers?” updates his predictions for how the legal profession might develop in the future and considers trends such as the information revolution, legal market deregulation and commoditisation.

Philip Kotler and John Caslione’s work on “Chaotics” considers how business strategy – and marketing – can adapt to the major economic and technological changes in the global market place.

Influence and buy in

We spent quite a lot of time considering how to influence partners and colleagues and I particularly like the book “The psychology of persuasion – influence” by Robert Cialdini. I have also written a FAQ on gaining buy in.

Marketing careers

The For Students section of this web site provides information about marketing and related qualifications.

The “advice to a new marketing manager” that you compiled during one of the exercises was as follows:
• Demonstrate effectiveness – be results driven
• Take time to understand the partners, stakeholders and culture
• Communicate (Listening is important)
• Win people’s trust and confidence
• Be clear about your aims and priorities
• Sell yourself and your contribution
• Get to grips with the financial drivers
• Challenge people – don’t always say “Yes”
• Develop strong commercial skills and market knowledge
• Learn about the products/services
• Delegate appropriately
• Make decisions
• Be forward thinking and proactive
• Network within and outside the firm

Your summaries

As a reminder, the favourite images of the day were: the helicopter, the road ahead, the mountain, the finishing line, money and self. The key ideas you selected were: the inner critic, review successes, develop your own brand, understand the mind of partners, sell yourself, self-confidence and concentrate on outputs (results) rather than inputs. The one word summaries included: refreshing, plan, focus, analysis, helicopter, outputs and results.

You can follow me on Twitter (RedStarKim) for further thoughts.

Women in Business – Trends

Private businesses

66% of privately held businesses (PHB) in the UK have a woman in the boardroom – compared to 94% in the Philippines, 88% in Russia and 81% in China. The International Business Report (IBR) by Grant Thornton interviewed 7,200 PHBs across 32 countries and 22% felt the pay gap between men and women will never close.

Self employed women

There are approximately 1,013,000 self-employed women (7.6% of women in employment) and 2,706,000 self-employed men (17.4% of men in employment) in the UK. In the UK, women-owned businesses comprise approximately 16% of the business stock and women comprise approximately 27% of the self-employed population (Women’s Business Ownership, Professor Sara Carter, 2006).

Entrepreneurial women

There are 602,000 female owned businesses in the UK representing just 14% of all businesses (Annual Small Business Survey February 2008).

FTSE women

Research from Cranfield (August 2006) shows that women hold just 7.2% of all FTSE 100 directorships. Non-executive women directors are making slightly better inroads into male-dominated boardrooms, having achieved 10% of top non-executive seats. Only one woman has made it to CEO, and only one woman chairs a FTSE 100 board.

Unchallenged women

Accenture’s 2009 women’s research into 3,600 professionals (Untapped Potential: Stretching Toward the Future) found that almost half of female business professionals around the world — and a similar number of their male counterparts —believe they are insufficiently challenged, despite being confident of their skills and capabilities. Almost six in 10 women (59 percent) believe that their careers are successful or very successful. Additionally, nearly half (46 percent) of women who consider themselves very successful reported that they are in jobs that require them to stretch beyond their expected responsibilities.

New book published – Growing your property partnership

Well, after conceiving the original idea back in June 2007 – just after the book I co-wrote with Graham Norwood on media relations was published – my latest book “Growing your property partnership – Plans, promotion and people” has finally arrived.

Few people know how much hassle it is to write a book. There’s the development of the idea, market research, persuading the publishers, identifying contributors – and then the writing starts. A minimum of a 1,000 words a day til I reached the target of 132,000. And I sacrificed my New Year’s Eve celebrations this year to ensure that I submitted the manuscript on time for the 31 December 2008 deadline. And then six months of editing, checking, proof reading and marketing.

I have to admit that after starting this project back in June 2007, I stopped in the Autumn of that year as I could see the property market problems on the horizon. Lucky that the publishers at EG Books supported me in my decision to postpone the book’s writing so that its launch takes place in June 2009 rather than the original plan of June 2008!

Thanks to all those who supported and helped me – they are listed in the dedication and the acknowledgements section of the book.

Property merger - Segro and Brixton Estates

Newspapers carried reports yesterday that Segro (formerly Slough Estates) had agreed to rescue its troubled rival - which had long been leading in the marketing stakes - Brixton Estates in a deal worth £107m.

Whilst they both operate in the same market place (industrial property) they have rather different cultures. It will be interesting to see how things develop.

Insurance industry facts from ABI

Several of my clients are interested in the insurance industry. The Association of British Insurers provides an excellent overview of the (2007) UK market:

• Largest in Europe and now second largest in the world – 11% of total worldwide premium income
• Employs 309,000 people – a third of all financial services jobs
• Controls 15% investment in London Stock Market
• Paid £6.2m in liability claims (accidents at work, professional liability, injuries to the public on commercial premises etc)
• Has 1,017 companies authorised by the FSA
• Top 10 general insurance groups account for 71% of the business written
• Total net premiums amounted to £32.9 billion

Between 1997 and 2007, claims paid increased by 57%, from £14.2 billion in 1997 to £22.3 billion in 2007.

The proportion of people buying insurance through brokers has fallen from 55% in 1997 to 34% in 2007. 16% is now sold by banks and building societies – 10 years ago the figure was less than 5%.

Within life and pensions, 75% of business was sold by Independent Financial Advisers. This compares with 59% sold this way in 1997.

Fathers and nurseries - Social trends

A couple of interesting facts reported during the week with implications for planning in family legal and property teams:

Fathers

The number of full time fathers in Britain who stay at home and look after their children has increased from 192,000 in April 2008 to 342,000 today - an 80% increase in little over a year. New research also confirms that three quarters of mothers see nothing wrong in men looking after children full time.

Families need fathers (www.fnf.org.uk) fact sheets show that between 150,000 and 200,000 parental couples separate each year and that of 12m children in the UK, 25% suffered separation. 93% of residential parents are female and 89% of non resident parents are male.

The UK census report that between 1991 and 2001 the number of married couples with dependent children fell from 73% to 60% and the number of cohabitating couples with dependent children rose by 102%. The number of children living with lone parents is 23%, a rise from 22% in 1998.

The parenting statistics from US sites www.dadsworld.com indicates the awful impact of fatherless kids.

Nurseries

Another report indicated that two thirds of all pre-school children spend at least part of their week in nurseries. This has more than trebled over the past three decades. This is despite warnings about the potential effects on children’s behaviour in childcare.

64% of all three and four year olds were enrolled in early years education according to the Office for National Statistics – compared to 21% in 1971.

Last month the ONS estimated that 62% of mothers of children under five who are married or cohabitating have a job. 6m children, just over half, live in a home where every adult goes to work. 1.8 m children live in “workless household”. 48% of children of single women have a mother who does not work.

Various studies show that children who spend long hours in childcare can become more aggressive than other youngsters and that they may fall behind in some areas at school.

There are now 3,273 state run nursery schools (five times the 723 in 1971). £10 billion has been placed in the Government’s Sure Start network aimed at helping the poorest children.

Marketing to make you smile

As I passed by a City pub I noticed a folded £10 note on the window ledge. I looked around and no one was about. So I picked it with the intention of taking it inside to the pub owners in case the unlucky owner came back to claim it.

Imagine my surprise when I unfolded it to see that it was actually a promotional card for a local barbers.

The large letters announced "We give FREE COLD BEER and haircuts that may give you SEX appeal"

and provides "Top ten reasons we should be your barber":

10. We cut hair
9. You have hair
8. When we cut your hair you get a free beer
7. We enjoy cutting hair and it shows
6. A free beer
5. We have a sense of humour
4. A free beer
3. You can join our secret handshake club
2. A free beer
1. A top quality haircut and 15% discount with this flyer

Well, it made me smile.

Personal injury lawyers marketing campaigns

My working world contains a lot of lawyers. And a number of personal injury lawyers. So imagine my surprise when it entered my non-working world twice in the same morning.

Catching the news on GMTV before leaving the house to travel to London, I saw the Claims Direct television advert from Russell Jones & Walker. Then as a strode across the concourse at Waterloo station a rather serious looking chap thrust a black leaflet in my hand which read:

Qualitysolicitors.com - A new way to make your compensation claim.

Tired of all those terrible television ads for "National-injury-claims-compensation-accidents-direct-online-4U"? Us too. So we decided to do something about it.

Did you know that "claims companies" typically just sell your case details to the highest bidder and then insist on being kept involved in your case even though they are not lawyers?

To spread the word about our service and help put these "claims cowboys" out of business, we're offering £100 to anyone who recommends our free, specialised claims service to family or friends.

Promoting estate agents to the YouTube generation

Interested to see the web site of London estate agents Brian Lack - a series of videos introducing the firm and its services, interviewing key partners, providing adverts of related advisers and showcasing key properties.

But would digital immigrants (those who didn't grow up with digital technology)prefer the option to see the material as text?

See what you think - www.brianlack.co.uk

Chaotics: The business of managing and marketing in the age of turbulence

I have just finished writing a review of this book by Philip Kotler and John A Caslione and I have to say that I found it a thoroughly gripping read offering immense reassurance to those of us who did our MBAs a long time ago - some of those favourite tried and tested models can still serve us well in these troubled times.

In essence they are advocating that we beef up our information collecting early warning systems, spend time developing alternative future scenarios so that we have a chance to “rehearse the future” and then have dual vision (planning for today and planning for tomorrow) as well as triple planning (short term (50% projects), intermediate term (30% projects) and long term (20% projects). An organisation can then be responsive, robust and resilient and achieve Business Enterprise Sustainability (BES).

Oh. And by the way. The book provides numerous warnings against across-the-board cost cutting, supports the need for maintained/increased marketing spend, offers guidance on cut/delay, outsource and increase/accelerate decisions and re-emphasises the need for continued authentic communication.

Read the full review next month in Professional Marketing magazine

Managing a law firm - Top ten tips

A while back I did a presentation on this topic - with a bias to bridging the gap between partners/management and the BD/marketing team - for Conscious Solutions conference. The ten tips were:

To survive:
1. Get a grip on the finances
2. Do a reality check
3. Prepare a plan
4. Get big, get small, get niche or get out
5. Love your existing clients

To thrive:
6. Use new technology
7. Develop new services and markets
8. Be creative about pricing
9. Innovate
10. Look at LMPs, MDPs and ABS

Golden rule - Take care of your people

I included some research information about whether the legal market changes were a seismic shift or a temporary blip, financial frighteners, flexibility or fear, code of conduct rules, merger mania, so long loyalty, relationship management, what do clients really, really want and uncomfortable bedfellows.

Let me know if you would like a copy of the materials.

Legal/property markets - Rise in fraud cases

City of London Police reported that the number of reported frauds rose by 64% last year.

They advocate changing its name from the gentlemanly "white collar crime" to "organised crime". They highlight mortgage fraud in the property market caused by deliberate over valuing of new developments requiring conspiracies of lawyers, estate agents and developers working together.

The City of London Police has appointed 50 new fraud specialists who, within a year, have started to investigate £1 billion of new frauds and gathered intelligence on further cases with potential losses of £500m. They want to create a National Fraud Intelligence Bureau where police, banks and insurance companies work together.

The value of reported frauds was £14 billion in 2005 and academics said with unreported frauds the figure was likely to be closer to £20 billion.

Facebook tops Internet chart - Web brands

Nielsen Online research shows that Facebook beat Google, MSN and eBay to become the most used web brand in the UK.

Facebook has 12.7% of UK Internet related time - up by over 5% from April 2008.

Time spent on Facebook rose by 3.8 billion minutes to 6.2 billion minutes. MSN/Windows Live (messenger and hotmail) had 9.2% share of time - 4.5 billion minutes. Google came third with 5.3% (2.5 billion minutes).

Also in top ten were eBay, Yahoo, AOL Media Network, the BBC, YouTube, Microsoft and Apple.

The research also showed that the top ten web brands accounted for 45% of all UK Internet time - compared to less than 42% in April 2008.

The average Briton spent 22 hours 20 miutes online or using Internet applications. A 34% rise on last year when the figure was 16 hours 36 minutes.

London still top for Euro investment

There were several media reports on Ernst & Young's annual survey that London remains Europe's top choice for foreign investment.

London attracted 262 foreign investment projects last year making it top City in Europe for 11th year in a row. However, this was 14% down on 2007.

The UK was also Europe's leading country for foreign firms for the seventh successive year. The UK attracted 686 total investments from overseas last year, down 4% on 2007.

The largest investor was the US - with 263 projects, followed by India.