What Harvard has to say about making a conveyancing practice truly great

If only we knew the secret of success for creating a great business. Almost no one provides scientifically credible answers to every business leader’s basic questions about superior performance: Which companies are worth studying? What sets them apart? How can we follow their examples?

Dont read on if you are fixated in your belief that solicitors are a profession rather than a business.

Harvard Business School, frustrated by the lack of rigorous research, recently undertook a statistical study of thousands of companies, and eventually identified several hundred among them that have done well enough for a long enough period of time to qualify as truly exceptional. This pattern matching exercise revealed something startling: The many and diverse choices that made certain companies great were consistent with just three seemingly elementary rules:

1. Better before cheaper—in other words, compete on differentiators other than price.

2. Revenue before cost—that is, prioritize increasing revenue over reducing costs.

3. There are no other rules—so change anything you must to follow Rules 1 and 2.

Upon reading this it hit a nerve as over the last 20 years I have witness law firms compete increasingly for conveyancing work by lowering their price. Competing on price is a race to the bottom. There will always be providers (whether they be brokers or firms) wanting to undercut you, albeit that the service offered may well be inferior to your offering and standards.

For more information visit http://hbr.org/2013/04/three-rules-for-making-a-company-truly-great/ar/3