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We want to help firms build great businesses and sustain them. Being future proof is a critical part of that. Over the last months we focused a lot of our blogs on the topics of people and processes but to build future proof businesses firms need to do a lot more. We see the following areas as critical for success: Being agileAgility is the organisation’s ability to respond quickly and flexibly to change, which could be driven by various factors, such as changes to client demands, markets, regulations, or other unforeseen events like pandemics. To remain at a competitive advantage…

Nowadays, most initial interviews are conducted via video calls and ‘old fashioned’ telephone interviews are seldom incorporated into the interview process. While potentially controversial, I’m about to argue that a simple telephone conversation could prevent you from making a bad hire. Here is why. Our ability to make ‘good decisions’ when it comes to hiring is affected by numerous factors, and some of these are unconscious. While I hope your recruitment process is always consistent across candidates and responses are marked using a uniform approach, fundamentally your decisions are subjective due to being based on your perception of what you…

In the words of Steve Jobs “innovation is the only way to win” and understanding your clients’ needs and wants is fundamental to creating winning products and services. Design thinking, a customer centric methodology for innovating, asks one fundamental question that you need to answer in order to get this right and that is ‘Who needs a way to do what and why?’. Empathy mapping is a smart way for everyone in a business to get on the same page about who their customer(s) are, their needs, and wants in order to develop service propositions and processes tailored to the…

Our last blog focused on helping you work out your capacity for work using a simple calculator. This time, we are taking a deeper dive into understanding how your client numbers and other factors affect your capacity. 🚘 Do you know how many spaces are in your car park? No, not where you actually park your car when you go to work! The car park I have in mind, allows you to understand how many clients you can successfully service in your firm. Knowing this number is critical. Put simply, the number of spaces in a firm’s car park is…

Managing Time & Capacity: Part 1 Do you ever feel like there isn’t enough time to get all your priorities done? It’s possible that it’s simply down to the fact that you haven’t got sufficient capacity to deal with all that you set out to do. I’m afraid that time isn’t elastic and we have a finite number of minutes, hours, days, months, and years to play with.   If, like many, you tend to think you are a superhero and can achieve tons of tasks in a day, you’re just going to set yourself up to fail as they…

‘Lack of engagement from the team’ is an issue that comes up frequently and there may be a good reason why! Afterall, how often do you truly enable and empower your employees to be part of the ‘decision making’? How often do you create opportunities for solutions to be generated as part of a truly collaborative process? How often do you ask for feedback and take it onboard? I’m guessing the answer is, “not often enough”! Some of you will no doubt be saying “I haven’t got time for this” but please hear me out. If you can remember back…

Many moons ago and prior to becoming a practice management and operations consultant, I was a Practice Manager and Partner of a financial planning practice. While Richard, the Managing Partner and the main Adviser and I used to work extremely well together, there were some challenges that we both faced as we came at things from two very different perspectives.  In his book, “Traction – Get a grip on your business”, Gino Wickman says:  “An entrepreneur’s lust needs to be counterbalanced with a  manager’s prudence and discipline. … When it’s structured correctly, the dynamic between the two ‘Unique Abilities’ can be…

Great entrepreneurs and innovators tend to have an infinite capacity for generating ideas, but implementation is typically overlooked by them. It’s important to remember that any idea is only as good as its implementation and poor execution can kill the best of them. Despite this, not many firms take the task of implementation seriously. The team’s appetite for change and the impact that a new idea may have on operations are often underestimated. What do we know about the ‘Psychology of change’? When implementing changes, it’s critical to remember people, and the cyclical journey we all go on that accompanies…

For most firms I work with ongoing client servicing contributes to a very large proportion of their annual revenue (in the region of 70-90%). Aside from regulatory obligations of ensuring ongoing suitability of advice, annual reviews are a core component of the ongoing service most of you provide, so it’s critical that they are excellent. Surprisingly despite this being one of the core activities, often the annual review process isn’t up to scratch due to factors such as: Sub-optimal distribution of tasks among the team – in addition to creating a team that works to their strengths (please see our…

Despite great people being the foundation of a successful business, not enough firms think strategically about creating top teams. By strategically, I mean long-term, at least 10 years’ long-term. I’m frequently contacted by firms seeking help with various aspects of recruitment; what hire to make next, when to hire, how to go about the process of attracting the right candidates and identifying the right person for the job. All immediate reactions to urgent needs. Very few, in fact, almost none get in touch seeking help with creation of an organisational structure to match their 10-year vision. Meaning very few have…