Strategic Planning Questionnaire

Section A

Following are listed some possible improvements in your career and working life that you might desire.

You are asked to rank these possible goals, to indicate the improvement in your working life that you would like to achieve in the next few years (say, 3 to 5 years). Note that you are indicating your preference for changes from today, not what is important to you in some absolute sense.

Please note that a “1” is your top-rank ( i.e. most important priority) and a “12” is your lowest priority. PLEASE RANK ALL ITEMS, NO TIES.

1	Earn More Money
2	Achive higher position within the firm
3	Obtain more autonomy in my work-life
4	Greater recognition and respect from clients
5	Greater recognition and respect from colleagues inside the firm
6	Greater recognition and respect from others in the profession
7	Get more interesting / challenging / prestigious clients
8	Get more interesting / challenging work from the types of clients I do have
9	Become more involved in decision-making in the firm
10	Have better juniors to work with
11	Learn new things / build new skills
12	More teamwork / colleagueship inside the firm

Section B

The Business Processes of a Professional Firm

Rate how well we are doing on the following processes. Use the following scale:

5 = We’re the dominant firm at this

4 = We’re ahead of our competitors at this

3 = We’re typical compared to our competition

2 = We’re a little behind our competitors at this

1 = We’re weak at this

1	Creating Innovative Solutions to Client Problems
2	Finding New, Efficient Ways to Lower Cost of Performing Professional Tasks
3	Earning Unprompted Referrals from Client Work
4	Turning Individual Client Assignments into Long-Term Relationships
5	Continuously Gathering Market Intelligence and Tracking Emerging Client Needs
6	Generating Awareness of Capabilities in Important Markets
7	Turning Inquiries into Assignments (“Sales Process” Effectiveness.)
8	Developing New Services
9	Attracting High Quality New Recruits
10	Transferring Skills to Ju &D Professionals
11	Developing and Growing New Partners from Junior Ranks
12	Disseminating and Sharing Skills and Knowledge Among Partners
13	Helping Partners to Continue to Grow and Develop their Capabilities Throughout Their Careers

What other action category would you put on this list?

Section C

Please rank from 1 (our best shot) to 10 (not likely to work) what you consider is the most practical ways for us to become more valuable to our clients than our best competitors. You will want to take into account cost, likelihood of coming up with something effective, ability to implement, etc. PLEASE RANK ALL, NO TIES.

1	Hire better/different types of people
2	Train people faster / better / in additional types of skills
3	Do more productive research and development
4	Develop methodologies for doing our work that are more efficient or thorough than the competitors’
5	Develop ways of being better client counselors in addition to top technicians
6	Staff projects in innovative ways that render extra value
7	Be better at accumulating, disseminating and building on our accumulated expertise and experience
8	Be better at being “close to the client” through more systematic listening and tracking of emerging needs
9	Develop superior quality assurance mechanisms that provide greater confidence and reassurance to clients
10	Reorganize and redeploy our resources in ways (e.g. cross-disciplinary industry teams) that create extra value for clients

What other category would you put on this list?

Section D

Please rank the following actions according to the degree to which you think we should give them priority. Put a “1” by the action that you think we should give most attention to, and a “12” by the action we should give least attention to. PLEASE RANK ALL ACTIONS, NO TIES, PLEASE.

1	Change the incentive system to influence partners to act differently
2	Invest more in new services development
3	Change our approach to building knowledge and skills: in technical matters, knowledge of clients’ business, consultation skills
4	Implement new approaches in tracking and capitalizing on emerging client needs
5	Change our approach to disseminating intelligence on market needs around the practice
6	Change our recruiting patterns to obtain the right non-partners for our current and future practice
7	Change the means by which we generate awareness of our capabilities
8	Reorganize our practice to serve our clients better
9	Enhance our ability to be “advisors” to our clients
10	Change our current approach to targeting market segments
11	Change our approach to targeting specific clients
12	Change the degree of specialization of our people (at any level)

Section E

Following are some statements about some of the firm’s goals. Please rate how well the firm is achieving each goal on the following scale:

1 = not at all

2 = a little

3 = we’re OK

4 = we’re doing well

5 = we excel at this

N/A= not applicable

1	Clients perceive us as the quality leader in the areas in which we practice	NA	1	2	3	4	5
2	We are well-known among the market segments we are interested in	NA	1	2	3	4	5
3	We are good at developing future leaders for our practices	NA	1	2	3	4	5
4	We establish and maintain strong long term client relationships	NA	1	2	3	4	5
5	We are innovative in the services we bring to market	NA	1	2	3	4	5
6	We invest sufficient time and money in the development of new services	NA	1	2	3	4	5
7	We communicate openly and honestly with our people	NA	1	2	3	4	5
8	We respond quickly to changing client needs	NA	1	2	3	4	5
9	We function well as team players	NA	1	2	3	4	5
10	We take advantage of our firmwide network	NA	1	2	3	4	5
11	We encourage risk-taking	NA	1	2	3	4	5
12	We reward our people for their performance	NA	1	2	3	4	5
13	We develop and implement effective business plans	NA	1	2	3	4	5
14	We maintain a balance between short term and long term	NA	1	2	3	4	5
15	We motivate our people to do the best possible job for clients	NA	1	2	3	4	5
16	We are sensitive to local and cultural differences between practice areas	NA	1	2	3	4	5
17	We attract and retain our fair share of the best individuals	NA	1	2	3	4	5
18	We are successful in fostering commitment and loyalty	NA	1	2	3	4	5
19	We provide challenging work to our partners	NA	1	2	3	4	5
20	We provide challenging work to our non-partners	NA	1	2	3	4	5
21	We provide good training opportunities to improve skills	NA	1	2	3	4	5
22	We provide rapid opportunities to take on more responsibilities	NA	1	2	3	4	5
23	We reward people at levels at least as high as they could obtain elsewhere	NA	1	2	3	4	5
24	We keep our people informed about what is happening in the firm	NA	1	2	3	4	5

Section F

Here is the same list of goals. This time, please give each goal one of three scores:

1 = Important

2 = Very important

3 = Critically Important

Here’s the catch: please give exactly eight 1’s, eight 2’s and eight 3’s!

1	Clients perceive us as the quality leader in the areas in which we practice
2	We are well-known among the market segments we are interested in
3	We are good at developing future leaders for our practices
4	We establish and maintain strong long term client relationships
5	We are innovative in the services we bring to market
6	We invest sufficient time and money in the development of new services
7	We communicate openly and honestly with our people
8	We respond quickly to changing client needs
9	We function well as team players
10	We take advantage of our firmwide network
11	We encourage risk-taking
12	We reward our people for their performance
13	We develop and implement effective business plans
14	We maintain a balance between short term and long term
15	We motivate our people to do the best possible job for clients
16	We are sensitive to local and cultural differences between practice areas
17	We attract and retain our fair share of the best individuals
18	We are successful in fostering commitment and loyalty
19	We provide challenging work to our partners
20	We provide challenging work to our non-partners
21	We provide good training opportunities to improve skills
22	We provide rapid opportunities to take on more responsibilities
23	We reward people at levels at least as high as they could obtain elsewhere
24	We keep our people informed about what is happening in the firm

Section G

All of the following goals are important. However, to the extent possible, please rank order their importance in your mind, as a guide to what you think the firm should focus on in the next few years. Which measures of success would you put as high priority, and which is the one that should get the least (direct) attention? A “1” means this goal is most important, and a “12” means least important. PLEASE RANK ALL, NO TIES. (This will be tough, because many goals are consequences of others: but that’s part of the point. Where should we first think of attacking this?)

Please remember, A “1” means this goal is most important, and a “12” means least important.

1	Increase growth in profitability above historical levels
2	Increase market share/growth rate above historical levels
3	Increase rate of innovations brought to market
4	Reduce cost of delivery on existing services
5	Increase level of client service
6	Increase degree of specialization by partners
7	Speed up the integration of new technology in our firm
8	Increase rate of skill building among non-partners and partners
9	Change qualitative mix of practice,(different mix of clients)
10	Change qualitative mix of practice,(different mix of services)
11	Find new ways to improve partner satisfaction and motivation
12	Find ways to improve non-partner satisfaction and motivation

Section H

Below are listed some ways in which our profitability might be improved. Please rank these “tactics” in order of what you see as our priorities. “1” should be our top priority, “2” the next, and so on. PLEASE RANK ALL, NO TIES.

As you assess these opportunities, note that you will be evaluating both the size of the profit impact, and the likelihood that we can make a change in this area. Note also that there is duplication on this list.

Please note: 1 is our TOP priority, and 16 is the LOWEST priority.

1	Charge higher fees
2	Increase utilization (billable hours per person)
3	Increase leverage in the delivery of services
4	Drop unprofitable services
5	Drop unprofitable clients
6	Improve speed of billing
7	Improve speed of collections
8	Use marketing to get “better” work
9	Invest in new (higher value) services
10	Eliminate duplication of effort from the firm
11	Train project leaders in project management skills
12	Reduce turnover of non-partners
13	Speed up skill-building process in non-partners
14	Make greater use of paraprofessionals
15	Reduce overhead costs
16	Deal with underperformers

What other tactics should be on this list?

Section I

If you could invest $1 mm in the next year (above and beyond our current level of investment) with the goal of improving the competitiveness of our firm and make its future more secure, what would you spend it on?

If you could change one aspect of the firm-wide management practices and policies that affect the success of the firm (measurements, reward systems, organization, compensation policies, selection and appraisal of partners, etc.) and thereby improve our competitiveness, what would it be?

Seminar Notes