Practice Management

Law Firm Strategic Planning - An Overview Of Models

By Brian J. Ritchey

When some talk of strategic planning, they are talking about retreats and consultants, about mission statements and long term goal setting.  Strategic planning can be all of this - however, it doesn't necessarily have to be a complex document that takes weeks or months to develop.

In a more simpler form, strategic planning consists of reviewing the current environment, setting goals to improve it, and implementing them, measuring performance along the way.  How you get from "review" to "do" is the focus of several posts this week.

 There are several different "models" of strategic plans.  Some listed on The Free Management Library include:

• "Basic" Strategic Plan - this is the plan typically implemented in firms that invest in developing a strategic plan;
• Goal-Based Model - this model is more focused on goal setting and performance metrics relating to meeting the goals;
• Alignment Model - this model is targeted to driving the organization to align itself with the firm's mission;
• Scenario Model - this model uses scenarios to help identify strategic issues and goals;
• "Organic" Model - this model focuses on embracing the shared values and evolving the plan through the continual dialogue that will hopefully eventually increase the values that are shared. 

74% of the respondents to the 2007 Law Firm Economic Survey from LexisNexis stated they did not have a written strategic plan.  However, 89% of those who did plan said that there was a correlation between their plan and income.  What is your firm's plan?

For a look at reasons why strategic planning has been a problem for law firms to implement, look at an earlier post on the subject:  Law Firms With Strategic Plans More Profitable.

Full post as published by More Partner Income on March 31, 2008 (boomark / email).