Celebrating a milestone for any
business is an important moment, whether that’s 10, 25, 50, 75, or even 100
years. But how much does it really matter to your clients?
Everyone
likes a party and turning a ‘significant’ milestone is always good reason to
have one, whether for yourself or your business. It’s a celebration of
endurance and perseverance and hopefully also a celebration of some sound
business management skills, good marketing and a business that’s moved with the
times.
It’s become
an honoured tradition to mark these milestone events with a variety of
initiatives from cocktail functions to special publications or revised
letterheads. I would be the very last person to find a reason not to run some
sort of client engagement exercise, but I would caution against thinking that
reaching that significant milestone really means as much to your clients as it
does to you.
From what I
have heard in many discussions about how professional service firms are
selected for shortlists or how they receive ‘preferred partner’ status, the
length of time the firm has been operating doesn’t rate. What does rate highly are the skills of the
people they believe they’ll be dealing with. And there’s no point suggesting
the people you’re asking clients to deal with today are the same ones
responsible for getting your show up and running 50 or 100 years ago. Or at
least I hope not.
Some of the
downsides of emphasising the age of your business can include:
- An old firm may suggest ‘stodginess’ as opposed to adventurous
- An old firm may suggest ‘traditional’ and conservative, as opposed to contemporary and innovative
- An old firm may suggest laboured systems and governance traditions designed to suit the business more than clients, as opposed to lean, efficient and client friendly
On the
positive side, longevity can say a lot, provided it’s presented as a positive
sign of a business that knows how to survive, adapt and respond to changing
markets. But if longevity alone is promoted as the businesses’ main virtue, it
can suggest a sense of ‘entitlement’ culture: that feeling you get when the
people you’re paying for a service treat you and your opinions with disdain and
give you that ‘father knows best’ paternalism treatment. You definitely want to
avoid that.
Some law firms
can be especially bad at this. Visualise collateral that emphasises wooden
panelled offices, rows of leather bound law volumes, portraits of founders
Smitherington or Smythe from 100 years ago or even a feather quill as part of a
logo. You get the picture.
Other law
firms try aggressively to disown their heritage, with the emphasis on super
sleek modern offices, rows of computer screens, and twenty-something lawyers
dressed to kill. That, for me, is going a bit too far the other way.
In summary,
it’s nice to know you’re dealing with a business that’s got some history, and
isn’t a fly-by-night outfit. But beyond that, I think there is a tipping point
beyond which it starts to matter less about how long you’ve been around and
more about the sort of business you are trying to be today.
