Richard Chaplin | LinkedIn, Founder of the Managing Partners’ Forum |, hosted the 101st “Retuning your firm” webinar this morning. Guests included: Jeremy Beard | LinkedIn, John Rowland | LinkedIn, Alastair Beddow | LinkedIn and Alex Hamilton | LinkedIn. It was a masterclass in how to pack a 45 minute webinar with valuable insights. The theme was the accelerating rate of change. Managing Partners’ Forum – Political, Practice and Marketing Trends
Political update – John Rowland
John Rowland, the award-winning public affairs advisor at H/Advisors Cicero provided a rapid update on the fast-moving political scene
- Polls – with four years to the next election
- Reform at 27% are the party polling best in the country – over several polls over several weeks “Gliding upwards”
- Labour at 25% are descending gently (at the election they were at 33-34%)
- Conservatives at 21% are drifting downwards – sustainable for Badenoch?
- Reform hasn’t said a lot but are creating a mood – we are at the ceiling of Reform support which is not capable of forming a majority government but could form strong alliance. But they are setting the agenda – and professionalising their operation
- The Government has its Spring Statement on 26th March – Rachel Reeves says it’s not a budget but might look like a Budget. There are public concerns about the economy and cost of living crisis and the fiscal gap (tax receipts lower, rates higher, growth not there yet)
- The UK is not the “problem child” it was – there’s a focus on Germany and US economy. The UK may turn the corner on investor confidence – although Government action is needed to unpick damage done to business confidence
- A more subtle issue is the Government exerts more control on the regulators to prioritise growth. Several heads of regulatory bodies have gone (CMA, Financial Ombudsmen and NHS England)
- Starmer handled the trip to Washington well (as did President Macron of France). He announced an increase in defence spending (funded from overseas aid) before he went and handed over a letter from the King for an historic second State Visit. He appeared to be supported on the Chagos Islands deal. UK’s position outside the EU and the trade surplus with the US may be helpful in avoiding tariffs
- More of a concern is the 5m UK people who are not working
Practice update – Alastair Beddow
Alastair Beddow, Managing Director at Meridian West , ran through the results of Strategy and Marketing Benchmark 2025 (conducted with the Managing Partners’ Forum and ICON.
He shared four headlines:
- Despite a drop of economic activity and political uncertainty – the majority of firms anticipate continued growth this year
- However, concerns about fee pressures and margin erosion mean that efficiency and commerciality dominate the management agenda
- CMOs are planning for above inflation budget increases but they are under pressure to manage a diverse range of MBD investment priorities
- Six in 10 firms are increasing their spend on client listening as this becomes more embedded in business as usual across firms with insights gained being used to inform future strategy
Then he looked at data supporting those trends.
Marketing/BD update – Alastair Beddow
With regards to the marketing and business development topics dominating the agenda, the following activities were highest up the priority list for the marketing and business development team
- 36% Improvements to client service and experience (CX- Client Experience)
- 34% Providing training and support to fee-earners
- 30% Enhancing team productivity and engagement
- 28% Investing in automation and artificial intelligence (AI)
- 25% Research into growth markets and segments
- 23% Establishing/improving account management
- 22% Creating thought leadership and insight campaigns
- 20% Obtaining feedback from clients (client listening)
- 19% Refreshing or relaunching the firm’s brand
- 13% Marketing via social and digital channels
- 13% Personalising more content to individual clients
- 8% Improving project management on client engagements
- 6% Launching new products and services
He added:
- CX remains a clear focus for CMOs and BD leaders
- Firms anticipate a 6.5% increase in marketing/BD budgets this year
- 57% firms saw their team headcount increase over the last year
- A 5.5% increase in MBD team headcount
- Six in 10 firms are increasing their spend on client listening (four in 10 have a structured approach to client listening)
- Two thirds say their firm’s Managing Partner is a key CX champion
Technology disruption (but not AI)
Alex Hamilton, CEO of Radiant Law, was a partner in a top US law firm. Whilst technically a law firm, his tech-enabled, timesheet-free and fixed-price business welcomes market concerns about fee pressures as he has created great relationships with clients improved lawyer productivity.
“We’re not really using AI and not terribly excited by AI. We do things differently. We improve lawyer productivity and perform at a much higher level by using deterministic tech. We have a focus on continuous improvement and a lean approach. There’s a lot of waste in law”.
He reflected that client stakeholders want different things. The legal team wants stuff off their desk and to show they are adding business value. The business people want faster contracting. The legal and business people talk completely different languages – so who do we listen to?
Others points discussed
- Decline in the number of people entering the accountancy market – will there be enough to support growth ambitions? Alastair reported that clients are concerned about capacity issues and the challenge of firms delivering great service.
- Richard noted management’s focus on efficiency whilst at the same time, MBD teams are looking for growth. Alex suggested that it was not a clash between marketing and productivity as they are bringing down the budget in marketing but doing more – industrialising how we do that
- John indicated that marketing was not an area where they are looking to trim – they see it as a core function of the business. The market has become more competitive – and marketing has a role to play in cutting through that. Having been through a sale, rebrand and acquisition, people need to know who we are
- Alastair noted that firms are looking at new markets, service diversification and international expansion – and must learn the lessons of past economic recessions where marketing was slashed. Meanwhile, client satisfaction has decreased, there are capacity challenges, there’s people churn and firms have grown quickly with new services and markets – so it hard to be consistent. Ways of working have changed and more people are pushing back.
- Jeremy commented on the need to have a strong management team around you – both operational heads as well as partners to ensure you continue to act for the right clients. . Richard asks Jeremy – video of how you start and end the day – how did you cope?
The next Re-Tuning your firm | Managing Partners’ Forum is on Friday 28th March – Live at Institute of Directors which is where Summit | Managing Partners’ Forum takes place
Other trends data
Brexit impact
Five key impacts of Brexit five years on – BBC News (31st January 2025)
- Negative trade impact
- Big fall in EU immigration but increases in net migration from the rest of the world
- The end of Freedom of movement affected tourists and business travellers. The impact of the new electronic Entry Exit System (EES) and European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS) is unclear
- According to the latest government count there were 6,901 individual pieces of retained EU law
- The UK’s gross public sector contribution to the EU Budget in 2019-20, the final financial year before Brexit, was £18.3bn, equivalent to around £352m per week. It has not paid since December 2020. The net fiscal benefit to the UK from not paying into the EU Budget is closer to £9bn per year
Professional Services Trends
Navigating the Professional Services Landscape: Top Business Trends to Watch | Kantata Software (July 2024) Originally published in Forbes
- Prioritising exceptional client experiences
- Cultivating existing talent and removing barriers to success
- Tackling rising technical debt
- Staying ahead of emerging business trends
CIM marketing Trends for 2025
Top marketing trends for 2025 | CIM Content Hub (10th January 2025 – paywall)
From 10 industry experts from Uber Advertising, Tripadvisor, McKinsey & Company, Global and others
- Commerce media’s role in personalised advertising
- Leveraging data-driven partnerships for smarter advertising
- The expanding role of the CMO
- Generative AI reshaping audio advertising
- Growth of programmatic out-of-home advertising
- AI-driven hyper-personalised content
- Embracing composable architecture for marketing flexibility
- The end of Google’s market dominance
- Remix culture: a game changer for brand building
- A shift towards fandoms and peer trust
Related trends articles
Private client commercial conversations March 2024
International Marketing Benchmark 2024 from Meridian West February 2024
Book review: The Strategy Book by Max McKeown November 2023
Managing Partners’ Forum – Highlights September 2023
Professional services benchmark and accountancy profession September 2023
Context and curiosity drive commerciality and pricing September 2023
know about commercial awareness by Christopher Stoakes August 2023
Managing Partners’ Forum Strategy Summit July 2023
Key Account Management (KAM) – Research companies June 2023
Annual International Marketing Benchmark – PM Forum and Meridian West January 2023
Be more strategic – PESTLE, Positioning and Plans December 2022
Nine Marketing and Business Development trends in 2021 December 2021
Law Society Research Report – Future Worlds 2050 July 2021
Law firm analysis – MHA Legal Benchmarking Annual Report 2020 January 2021
Digital and soft skills – Microsoft on skills needed for an inclusive economy September 2020
Emerging marketing and business development roles September 2020
Marketing basics – Marketing audits with onions and pestles August 2020
