with John Jameson, the Jameson Group
There are two basic strategies for lateral hiring. The first is what we call opportunistic and reactive growth. The other is strategic and proactive growth.
Opportunistic and reactive growth is exactly what it sounds like. It describes a situation in which a firm has decided it would like to grow, but it doesn’t necessarily have a specific goal or timetable. The firm is essentially letting it be known that it’s looking, it’s waiting around to see who happens to apply to the firm or be submitted to the firm, and then it reacts to that submission of a partner or a group. It’s leaving things a little bit more to luck as to who happens to have interest in submitting to a firm at a particular time, because you’re not really following a specific growth strategy or time frame. That doesn’t mean it’s not effective if that is what your firm wants to do, but it does mean that you are leaving circumstances more to chance.
The second strategy is what we’re calling strategic and proactive, and that’s the deliberate and strategic growth of your firm, which is based on a very well-thought-out and reasoned business plan. You have a strategy, you know where you are, you have now made an analysis of where you want to go, and you’re going to be executing that plan.
For more tips, check out our marketing seminar “Growth Through Lateral Partners.”