Leveraging
Actionable
Competitive
Intelligence
Winning today is not achieved simply by listening to what competitors
are saying; you must also develop an action plan based on real-time
information that allows you to act on your big data analysis.
Gaining and analyzing competitive intelligence has been
a large part of the corporate playbook in most industries
for many years. Airlines, for example, are so competitive
and have such robust operations that they typically match
competitors’ prices on any route in a matter of seconds.
Now, as a result of increased legal regulation, tightened
budgets, and rising cost of recruiting and holding onto
partners, law firms too are facing increased market
competition and are turning to competitive intelligence.
According to the ALM 2013 Competitive Intelligence
Report, 82% of firms are doing more competitive
intelligence than they were two years ago with 30% of
respondents saying that they increased their competitive
intelligence in the last year alone. On average, firms with
competitive intelligence initiatives have won 17 new
clients from these efforts in the past three years.1
While firms recognize the staggering potential of
competitive intelligence, they have not yet learned
1
ALM 2013 Competitive Intelligence Report
2
to leverage it to its fullest potential. Only 16% of firms
believe that their competitive intelligence function has
reached the desired impact and 49% believe that lack of
focus is one of the factors keeping it from reaching this
level.2 Firms are struggling to turn big data into reliable
information in order to inform key strategic decisions,
causing them to risk missing opportunities or not reacting
to moves made by competitors.
It is important today to review the competitive intelligence
strategy of your firm and ensure that it is reaching its
greatest potential. Start by making a list of what questions
should be answered, and then decide what data is
needed to leverage competitive intelligence. Focus on
which features of competitive intelligence have proved
to be the most valuable for improving strategic decisionmaking and explore how instant information, tracked
and organized on a frequent basis, can provide the right
springboard to growth.
ALM 2013 Competitive Intelligence Report
Advantages of Centralized and Timely
Competitive Intelligence
Competing involves understanding basic information
about one’s competitors. In which areas do they
specialize? On which industries do they focus? What is
their position? How are they perceived in the marketplace?
What can we find out about their pricing? A state-of-theart competitive intelligence initiative takes competition
to the next level and allows the firm to react quickly to
changes within the competitive environment.
Industry changes happen quickly and frequently. In just
a single week in March 2013, Am Law 200 firms added 36
new partners while losing 59. At the associate level, 193
new associates were added while 161 were lost.3 Since the
most actionable information is related to movement, it is
crucial to track those transitions, but they are not always
contained on firms’ websites. Evidence of movement
resides in too many places to manually monitor and
control. Data must be collected from social media,
conference websites, magazines, blogs, and many more
locations across the web.
Collecting large quantities of data quickly, however,
is not the same as organizing information into usable
intelligence. Once collected, information must be
centralized in one place for review, analysis and quick
action. Good technology is required to quickly collect and
organize large quantities of big data that supports robust
competitive intelligence initiatives.
Collecting the Right Data
In order to get a complete picture of competitors, firms
should collect data from a number of different of areas,
including:
• Comings-and-goings. An understanding of how
many—and which—attorneys have come and gone
can be crucial to growth, as many firms’ strategies
revolve around “buying business” by recruiting
attorneys from competing firms. This is especially
3
ALM Rival Edge Attorney Moves Report from March 19 to
March 26, 2013
important in today’s environment where clients are
pushing back on rate increases and turning to lateral
hiring to help growth strategies.
• News. Firms that are opening a new office or gaining
a practice area may turn out to be increasingly
formidable competitors, as are firms that are in
the news for representing a high-profile client or
commenting on a high-profile case. Keeping abreast
of what firms are saying—and having said about
them—is a key to understanding how to compete
with them.
• Publications and Events. Law firms often put their
marketing dollars behind partners and practice areas
they believe in. Knowing who is speaking where and
who is writing about what can provide some key
insight into where a firm thinks there is opportunity.
Budgets are tighter than ever before, so it is important
to target marketing dollars wisely. Furthermore, many
firms co-author and co-present with clients; careful
study of speaking and writing opportunities can
provide hints about the relationship between a firm
and its clients.
• General information. It is crucial to know how the
firm is trending: whether is it growing or shrinking,
whether it is improving or declining in terms of
revenue and profitability and perceived value in the
marketplace. For example, in late 2010, it became
clear to many that Washington stalwart Howrey was
in trouble4; the market flooded almost instantly with
partners looking to make a move. Firms that were
tracking Howrey closely were able to act quickly and
emerge with entire new practices areas or offices.
Winston & Strawn, for example, opened a brand
new office in Houston with almost all of Howrey’s 45
attorneys there.5 Slower firms walked away empty
handed.
4
Washington Post, “Why Howrey law firm could not hold it
together,” March 19, 2011. http://articles.washingtonpost.
com/2011-03-19/business/35207602_1_law-firm-howreysimon-robert-ruyak/
5
Houston Business Journal, “Howrey’s demise brings Chicago
firm to Houston,” March 18, 2011. http://www.bizjournals.com/
houston/print-edition/2011/03/18/howreys-demise-bringschicago-firm-to.html?page=all
What You should be doing to turn
competitive information into action
Maximum value comes from turning information
about positioning and the movement into
actionable intelligence. This is where many firms
fail. Among the 84% of firms that believe that the
competitive intelligence function at their firm has
reached the desired impact, 33% still believe that the
process is too haphazard and inconsistent.6 If built on
good process, a competitive intelligence initiative can be
the cornerstone of strategic growth plans, tactical client
development efforts, defending clients or markets, and
effective recruiting of new partners and associates. Some
specific examples include:
1. Recruiting of new attorneys. The biggest
opportunities that can be leveraged from
competitive intelligence are the recruiting of new
attorneys—especially lateral hires. Lateral hiring
is, for many firms, the single biggest growth path.
According to the 2012 Survey of Law Firm Economics,
a firm’s average revenue per lawyer is $426,000,7 so
each lateral hire increases a firm’s top line by that
amount each year.
Detailed competitive intelligence allows the
firm to create lists of potential targets and act
upon them quickly. The firm includes law school
information, previous employment and LinkedIn
connections in its research and compares all that
to its existing attorneys, deputizing them to make
the initial overtures towards targets where there is a
connection.
2. Let your voice be heard in the market.
Potential clients often simply call on the firms they
are thinking about at that moment, so “share of
voice” is essential. A good calculation of how much
press competitors are getting will show where a
firm must increase visibility in order to have the
opportunity to win business.
6
ALM 2013 Competitive Intelligence Report
Start Listening with ALM RivalEdge
RivalEdge is a social listening tool that
monitors countless law firms, news, and social
media websites to capture and organize up-tothe-minute information related to the top 600
law firms. Firms can analyze how competitors
are marketing themselves, the comings and
goings of hires, press mentions and upcoming
events in order to build strategic and tactical
plans and spur firm growth.
RivalEdge uses a highly customized and
sophisticated algorithm to monitor law firm
websites, news sites, industry sites, social
media and other web sources to find, filter, and
aggregate information about news, events, and
publications. It sends out daily email alerts and
saves all the data in easy-to access databases.
RivalEdge is updated every day to track:
•S
tatistics on number of partners and other
professionals by firm, location, and practice.
•D
etails of people joining and leaving firms, at
the partner and associate level.
•O
ver 150,000 professionals, searchable by
name, firm, title, location, or practice area.
•S
tatistics on the number of partners a firm has
in a specific practice area
•C
urrent location of your firm’s alumni.
•E
vents and industry conferences by location
and practice areas
• Lateral moves.
•T
rending topics being covered by law firms in
the legal and mainstream press.
With RivalEdge, law firms can turn myriad data
from many sources into actionable intelligence
to compete successfully and win.
For more information please contact
[email protected] or call: 866.866.8677
Visit rivaledge.com.
7
For firms with between 76 and 150 attorneys. Survey of Law
Firm Economics, 2012 edition.
3. P
ower in the press. Tracking who is receiving press
in both mainstream and legal publications—and
publishing in their own newsletters and blogs—can
show what other firms think are important trends
as well as strong and growing practice areas. A
competitor writing about a particular topic may
mean that they see opportunity there (either
because the area is growing or because the firm is
growing in that area) and a firm may want to build
up its own skills and outreach in that area quickly,
before the competitor has achieved a dominant
position.
Attorneys who are in the press frequently also tend
to be good recruitment targets themselves, as they
come aboard with some already established name
recognition.
4. Be unique. Partners can develop their own set of
skills and expertise around holes in the market. If
there is no one in a particular city talking about a
particular issue and the firm has a partner who is an
expert in that area (or a related one), he or she could
win by reaching out to existing or potential clients
and offering assistance in that specific area before
competitors do.
5. K
now about trending topics. Tracking who is
speaking at firm-sponsored and association events
can provide insights into trending topics, as well as
areas that may be oversaturated. However, there
are so many events being promoted in so many
ways at any given time that this information can be
overwhelming. There is a limited audience base and
they have limited time for events, so it is essential to
develop new and interesting topics for each market.
Tracking events also ensures the events you plan do
not conflict with other events at the same time.
Conclusion
The market for law firm services is getting more
competitive every day, with new entrants, disruptive
technology and alternative resource providers (such
as LPOs) fighting for fewer dollars. Winning is not
accomplished by just hearing what competitors are
saying; firms win when they listen to the marketplace and
put together an action plan based on real information.
While it is tempting to start by thinking about what data
can be collected, a better strategy is to start by making
a list of what questions should be answered, and then
deciding what data is needed. Collect that information on
a timely and frequent basis so it is always up to date. Keep
it organized so it is actually usable. Automate as much as
possible to maximize the quality of the information while
minimizing the effort. Put together a plan for competing
by leveraging the right strategies and tools, as turning
disparate data into actionable intelligence is the key to
winning in today’s tough legal environment.
For more information on how you can leverage and
strengthen a competitive intelligence program of your own,
please contact [email protected] or call 866.866.8677.