In previous columns, I’ve highlighted the benefits of enhancing collaboration between business services and fee earners, as this increased unity can enhance the service that firms provide to their clients.

The days of an individual partner owning a client relationship are shifting to firms delivering the business of law for their clients. It is our strong belief that if the foundations are, or can be put in place, to enable a culture of firm-wide collaboration, those firms will be highly effective at growing their client base. This is why we will always advise executive leadership to instil a culture that encourages business-wide cooperation, facilitated by efficient processes and access to data-driven insights.

Collaboration is often viewed as critical between departmental peers in both fee generating and business services. However, our position is that a firm-wide approach to collaboration is needed, supported by a holistic data strategy. This presents the opportunity to deliver an enriched client service by empowering the firm’s biggest asset: the people. Ultimately, this can deliver the differentiation needed to succeed in the highly competitive legal services landscape — a key strategic challenge for firms, particularly as competition is expanding outside of traditional channels.

In many businesses across industries, collaboration is often only viewed from the lens of connectivity — while this is significant in enabling a flexible workplace strategy, it does not foster a culture of competitive differentiation. Often a connectivity-driven approach to collaboration leads to a culture of 24/7 availability, which continues to damage productivity.

If a firm can address its data strategy and processes to deliver information accurately and in a timely fashion, it opens the opportunity to embed a culture of competitive differentiation through collaboration. Using data and technology can enable individuals within the firm to focus on value-added activities. When supported by a culture that encourages teamwork between colleagues, departments, and clients to enrich value creation, this will ultimately deliver an enhanced service to all stakeholders.

However, embracing a holistic approach to collaboration is not something that can be embedded overnight. Many businesses look at transformation only from the perspective of the end state, but if this is being driven through technology, the opportunity to create a collaborative culture is often missed.

The readiness phase is commonly overlooked, despite being a critical one in determining the success of any transformation programme. The opportunity to engage with all firm stakeholders to understand the current situation presents the ideal opportunity to define the desired end state and align these to the firm’s strategic goals. This process will highlight the extent of business-wide collaboration and provide a platform to foster or enhance this across the firm.

The opportunity to deliver agility into commercial and operating models will enrich client services, while attracting the best talent and positively impacting partner profit share. However, these cultural benefits of a transformation programme can only be achieved with collaboration across business and fee generating services.

My belief is that a collaborative culture will be a factor in the success a firm can achieve in the increasingly competitive marketplace — and I would encourage executive leaders to consider whether the firm is fostering a culture which drives collaboration among all colleagues to deliver the best outcomes in their respective roles.