Building the competitive strategy for ATS law firm co , in the period of 2018 2022

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI KHOA QUẢN TRỊ VÀ KINH DOANH - BÙI HỒNG HẠNH BUILDING THE COMPETITIVE STRATEGY FOR ATS LAW FIRM CO., LTD IN THE PERIOD OF 2018- 2022 XÂY DỰNG CHIẾN LƯỢC CẠNH TRANH CỦA CÔNG TY LUẬT ATS TRONG GIAI ĐOẠN 2018-2022 LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ QUẢN TRỊ KINH DOANH Hà Nội - 2017 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI KHOA QUẢN TRỊ VÀ KINH DOANH - BÙI HỒNG HẠNH BUILDING THE COMPETITIVE STRATEGY FOR ATS LAW FIRM CO., LTD IN THE PERIOD OF 2018- 2022 XÂY DỰNG CHIẾN LƯỢC CẠNH TRANH CỦA CÔNG TY LUẬT ATS TRONG GIAI ĐOẠN 2018-2022 Chuyên ngành: Quản trị kinh doanh Mã số: 60 34 01 02 LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ QUẢN TRỊ KINH DOANH NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: PGS.TS HỒNG ĐÌNH PHI Hà Nội - 2017 DECLARATION The author confirms that the research outcome in the thesis is the result of author‟s independent work during study and research period and it is not yet published in other‟s research and article The other‟s research result and documentation (extraction, table, figure, formula, and other document) used in the thesis are cited properly and the permission (if required) is given The author is responsible in front of the Thesis Assessment Committee, Hanoi School of Business, and the laws for above-mentioned declaration Date………………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor Assoc Prof Dr Hoang Dinh Phi for the continuous support of my master study and research, for his patience, motivation, enthusiasm, and immense knowledge His guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis Besides my advisor, I would like to thank to MBA studying course, and the team of HSB‟s lecturers and supporting staff Without partcipating the course, as well as the caring and responsibility of them, I could not have opportunity to access and absorb the useful knowdlege for framing my comprehensive understanding about business administration My sincere thanks also goes to Ms Vu Thi Thu Ha, director and Mr Tran Gia The, managing partner of ATS law firm, for offering me the opportunities to access, interview and discover the necessary information of the firm, for completing the thesis Hanoi, date _ ii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii LIST OF TABLES v LIST OF FIGURES vi THESIS STATEMENT CHAPTER 1: BASIC THEORIES ON BUILDING THE BUSINESS COMPETITIVE STRATEGY 1.1 Basic definitions 1.1.1 Competitive strategy and its classification Competitive strategy can be classified as follows : 1.1.2 Roles of competitive strategy 1.1.3 Competitive strategy of the business unit 1.1.4 Comprehensice competitive strategy of the business unit 1.1.5 Growth strategies of business units 11 1.2 Competitive strategy building process 16 1.2.1 Diagram of competitive strategy building process 16 1.2.2 Competitive strategy building process 18 CHAPTER 2: ASSESSING THE CURRENT SITUATION AND THE PRESENT COMPETITIVE STRATEGY OF ATS LAW FIRM CO., LTD 25 2.1 Introduction of ATS law firm 25 2.1.1 General introduction of ATS law firm 25 2.1.2 Vision and mission 26 2.1.3 ATS‟s business activities 26 2.1.4 Organizational structure 28 2.1.5 Current business operation 29 2.2 Analyzation of the external factors affecting the business operation of ATS law firm 30 2.2.1 Macro environment factors 30 2.2.2 Micro environment 33 2.3 Identification of opportunity and threat 38 2.4 Matrix evaluation of the external factors (EFE) 38 iii 2.5 Analyzation of the internal factors (IFE) 40 2.5.1 Executive capability 40 2.5.2 Human resources 41 2.5.3 Marketing activities 43 2.5.4 Financial situation of ATS 44 2.6 Identification of ATS‟s strengths and weakness 44 2.7 Matrix of the internal factor analyzation (IFE) 45 2.8 SWOT matrix of ATS law firm 46 2.9 The current business strategy of ATS 48 CHAPTER 3: PROPOSAL OF SOME SOLUTIONS TO IMPLEMENT THE COMPETIVE STRATEGY IN THE PERIOD 2018-2022 49 3.1 Orientation of the Government on the economic development by 2025 and expectation of changes on environment and market, and the development of the lawyer profession 49 3.2 Development orientation and operation target of ATS law firm in the period of 20182022 50 3.3 Competitive strategy of ATS in the period of 2018-2022 and the action plan 50 3.3.1 Building the competitive strategy of ATS in the period of 2018-2022 50 3.3.2 Competitive strategy of ATS in the period of 2018-2022 and action plan 55 3.4 Appraisal of the supervision and result of the action plan 59 3.5 Suggestion to ATS 59 3.6 Disadvantage of the thesis and the possible next coming research 59 CONCLUSION 60 LIMITATION 61 IMPLICATION 62 REFERENCE 63 ANNEX 65 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Revenue in period 2014-2016 29 Table 2.2 Matrix evaluation of the external factors of ATS law firm 39 Table 2.3: Partners/Consultants/lawyers qualification analyzation sheet 41 Table 2.4: Partners/Consultants/Lawyers professional analyzation sheet 42 Table 2.5: Partners/Consultants/Lawyers hospitality analyzation sheet 42 Table 2.6 Financial situation of ATS 44 Table 2.7: Internal factor analyzation matrix 45 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 Traditional process of providing values to customers Error! Bookmark not defined Figure 1.2 Modern process of providing values to customers Error! Bookmark not defined Figure 1.3 Strategy management model of F.David Error! Bookmark not defined Figure 1.4 Five-competitive pressure model of M.Porter Error! Bookmark not defined Figure 2.1 Organizational structure of ATS law firm Error! Bookmark not defined Figure 2.2 : Vietnamese GDP over the recent years Error! Bookmark not defined vi THESIS STATEMENT Necessity of the thesis: The thesis is necessary, because the competition in the legal industry is very hard The barrier entry of the industry is very low Due to the low investment cost for such an intangible service industry, it is very easy for the new competitor to join the industry Besides, there are many law firms who have the similar strategy and market share They focus on the foreign direct investment, commercial and enterprise law consultancy, and providing such services to the foreign invested companies, and the large or medium Vietnamese companies Meanwhile, the demand for the legal service has not developed significantly over the recent years.The acknowledgement of the public in general and the enterprise community about the importance of law compliance and role of lawyers is not high The enterprise community, sometimes, dare to violate the laws, and when they have to face with the penalties from the government authorities, they are ready to pay the under the table lobby fee to the government officers, rather than fully comply with the laws, or hiring the lawyers to protect themselves Due to the Vietnamese old fashion culture of respecting the “friendly and emotional relationship, and avoiding solving the dispute or conflict through legal proceeding or lawyers”, they see the lawyer fee is an unnecessary They just find lawyers after already facing with the troubles or dispute, instead of seeking the assistance from lawyers in advance, for avoiding any possible risk in the future Due to the economic crisis which has been happening over nearly ten years, both the foreign investment volume into Vietnam, and the domestic economic investment or commercial activities reduced or standstill, resulting in the significant reduction of demand for lawyer services Otherwise, the legal consultancy industry is saturated, after nearly sixteen years of development Therefore, for surviving and developing in such hardship situation is the critical target, for not only the long term established law firms, with the large market share, but also the young and medium- size law firm like ATS From the above reasons, the writer decides to choose the topic “Building the competitive strategy for ATS law firm in the period 2018-2022” with aims to find out the effective strategy for the stronger stability of the law firm in the current situation, and its development in the future Objective of the research Purpose of the research: Basing on the theories on the business strategy management on designing the practical business strategy, and analyzing the actual impact of the business environment on the company business operation, as well as basing the future business operation of ATS law fim in the period of 2018-2022, with aims to enhance its competitive advantages and development in the situation of harder competition and international economic integration Research duties: The specified duties that the thesis aims to is as of follows: 1) Why is it necessary to research the business strategy design in ATS law firm ? The answer of this question serves the identification of the necessity and meaning of the research purpose, research situation, the approaching method, as well as using of research methodology for achieving the planned target 2) What is the theoretical bases of the business strategy design? Which theretical models are used for analyzing and defining the business strategy of ATS law firm? The answer of the research aims to identify the theoretical bases for defining ATS law firm‟s business strategy by using models such as five forces, value chain, SWOT matrix, etc 3)Which factors that can impact the actual business operation of ATS law firm in the period 2014-2017? Strenghth, weakness, opportunities and threats that ATS has and faces with? The question is answered by developing the theoretical bases in Question above for collecting information, analyzing data for identifying the business strategy of ATS 4) What is the competitive strategy of ATS in the future? What are the solutions for implementing the future competitive strategy? This part will solved by suggesting the optional competitive strategies for ATS, as well as its action plan in the next coming time Subject of the research Subject of the research include the following factors: (a) Analyzing the current internal and external factors impacting to ATS law firm corporate law firms all over the worlds (iii) Promote more legal professional news and publication, articles and legal updates written by the firm in the website, communication channels, and networking events held by both Vietnamese governmental authorities, and the foreign associations (c) Expand better the other marketing activities Despite the fast and hot development of ATS, ATS brandname is mostly awared in a specified groups of clients, and developed basing on the personal relationship of the company‟s owners With the future more competition, it is not enough to develop the market basing on just only the personal relationship As a result, the setting up of other marketing channel is critical necessary ATS may consider to set up the professional business development department for specializing the marketing activities, as well as building the other marketing channels, besides the personal relationship of the managing partners The business development department should have the following functions: (i) Conducting the market survey, collecting the necessary information relating to the market requirement, demand, trends of the clients, advantages and disadvantages of the competitors (ii) Analyzing the collected information and finding appropriate solutions for submitting to the managing partners (iii) Assisting in the process of competitive strategy identification and marketing plans (iv) Performing the PR marketing plans (v) Finding clients and conducting customer care services 3.3.2.2 Market development strategy (a) New market segment development: (i) Expand to the new market segment, with the Vietnamese medium and small enterprises, not only the Vietnamese giant corporation (ii) Being the sub- contractor to the foreign law firms, consulting firms in some important projects that the foreign law firms face with obstacles in dealing with Vietnamese government authorities, so that ATS can get more job from the foreign law firms 56 (b) New geographical market area: (i) Expand the operation to Hochiminh City and Mekong Delta River (Binh Duong, Dong Nai, etc), where the industrial zones with the foreign invested companies locate, which is the larger market, compared with the Northern ones (ii) Cooperate more closely with the foreign business associations for promoting further the firm‟s image and fame out of Vietnam 3.3.2.3 Service development strategy (a) Continue to upgrade the service quality With the harder competition in the futurer among not only the domestic players, but also the new joining competitors from Japan, Korea, etc , it is required that the managing partners of ATS always focus on the continuous upgrade of the service quality, by improving the knowledge and the skills of the human resource, as well as to be more caring and hospitality to their clients The following criterias can be considered to improve the service quality: (i) The consultancy team should be always update the new legal knowledge and skills (ii) The managing partners should be more caring and welcome the new clients (iii) The managing partners should pay more attention to the economic aspects, for maximizing the usefulness of the advices to clients (b) Developing the new products/services Once the competition becomes harder and more challenging, finding the new products/services which can bring better profit margin and avoiding the copy from the other competitors become an important task When the other competitors can also update their skills and knowledge for performing the current and popular services such as licensing, contract drafting or dispute resolutions, it is necessary for ATS to find the more expertise and complicated services which are qualified for serving the multinational companies, especially in the financial and tax structuring services With aims to get this target, ATS should: (i) Cooperate with other experts in the financial and tax consultancy fields, for providing the more complicated services to clients (ii) Promptly update/follow the information of the new complicated projects of the clients, discovering the economical demand of the clients, so that the final 57 consultancy results of ATS will serve not only the legality, but also the economical benefits of the clients 3.3.2.4 Strengthen the effectiveness of the competitive strategy action plan For achieving successfully the above mentioned competitive strategies, the below steps should be taken (a) Develop quality of the human resources Legal consultancy service is the intangible industry, it does not require much investment in the fixed or tangible asset, but the quality of the human resource is the key for the success of a law firm Therefore, the below human resource management policy should be addressed: (i) Setting out the atractive salary/benefit scheme and good working environment for attracting the high quality human resources (ii) Regularly operate the training (internal and external) for the human resources (iii) Setting up the attractive cooperation scheme with the external experts for diversifying the complicated service that the firm can provide (b) Invest more for the PR and marketing activities With aims to achieve the planned PR and marketing activities, it is necessary to invest more in the additional PR and marketing channels, to optimize the expansion of the firm‟s fame and the amount of clients to be accessed The below PR and marketing activities should be invested more: (i) The legal updated newsletter should be sent more regular to the clients, so ATS should arrange a specified person to be in charge of this activities (ii) ATS should take part more regularly to the networking events of the business communities As a result, the professional marketing staff(s) should be hired for performing the activities (iii) ATS image should appear more in different marketing channel like TV, radio, training programs, as a result, setting up the closer relationship with such mass media tools is an important task (c) Managing directors of ATS should spend more time on studying the market, and improving their business leadership skills by attending some leadership training courses, or hiring strategic consultancy services, etc… (d) Prepare the available financial resources for the competitive strategy in the future 58 For ensuring the completion of the above mentioned competitive strategy, the below financial resources should be planned and prepared: (i) Increasing the capital contribution from the owners (ii) Mobilizing the loan from the banks, if necessary 3.4 Appraisal of the supervision and result of the action plan For ensuring that the competitive strategy performance get the most successful result, it is necessary for the managing partners of ATS to: (i) Frequently checking the performance of the strategy conducted by different departments (ii) Comparing the planned target and the achieved result, to see the gap between them, and finding the reasons, solutions The checking could be done through the internal information channels such as the financial statement, the monthly or quarterly reports Besides, the collection of the external information of the client‟s response, the other competitors is very important 3.5.Suggestion to ATS (a) The managing partners of ATS should pay more attention on the role of a comprehensive anddetailed competitive strategy (b) ATS managing partners should update their business management skills (c) ATS should set up the more open and friendly working environment to their human resouces (d) The firm should be more frequently in checking the performance of the competitive strategy and timely adjust any shortcoming, for ensuring that the firm could update and keep pace with the change in the market 3.6 Disadvantage of the thesis and the possible next coming research The thesis is made basing on the research of ATS law firm in the identified current timeline and situation, with the information scope provided by ATS managing partners Therefore, the information may be exact within the current scenario, with the assumption that the information provided by ATS is truthful and correct In the future, once the internal and external factors may change, another research should be carefully done again 59 CONCLUSION The increasing international economic integration creates the favourable conditions for the development of the lawyer profession Meanwhile, a long with the favourable environment, the competition between the law firms become harder as well Therefore, it is critically necessary for the Vietnamese law firms like ATS to find the appropriate competitive strategy for the stronger and more stable development in the future With the relevant theories on business strategies and the collected data from the market and other competitors, the thesis “Designing the competitive strategy of ATS law firm in the period 2018-2022“ somehow solved the demand for an efficient strategy in the current situation and next coming period of ATS Despite the limited timeline for researching, the writer hopes that this thesis can contribute an useful information for the competitive strategy identification of ATS, as well as its prosperity of the firm in the future 60 LIMITATION Although the research has reached its aims, there were some unavoidable limitation Firstly, because of the prudence of ATS law firm‟s managing partners in confidential nondisclosure policies, the information provided to the thesis writer is somehow limited, and not very much detailed, especially relating to the financial aspects, as well as the information of each projects provided to the specified clients Secondly, the thesis writer overloaded work, to some extent, might affect the result of the correlation between the writer‟s motivation in collecting the opinion from the interviewed persons, because it is required to take part in many studies at the same time Finally, the thesis writer, although have profound experiences in making business report to the enterprises, is not familiar with writing in the researching style As a result, stylistically, the thesis seems to be not very professional and smoothly 61 IMPLICATION The implementation of the research had great significance in terms of both practice and theory as follows: First, in terms of theory, the thesis had systematized some theories of ATS law firm strategy and built the process of proposing solutions to improve the current shortcomings in ATS law firm and its business operation Second, in terms of practice, the author proposed solutions for finding more clear and effective competitive strategy based on the promotion of strengths, taking advantage of opportunities to limit weaknesses and threats This will help improve the business efficiency of ATS law firm in the upcoming time 62 REFERENCE Books  Chan Kim.W-Mauborgne.R 2008 The Blue Ocean Strategy Nxb Tri Thuc  Porter, M 2010 Competitive Advantage Nxb Tre  Porter, M.2010 Competitive Strategy Nxb Tre  Porter, M 2014 Competitiveness of Nations Nxb Tre  Hai H.V.2010 Strategy Management.Nxb DHQGHN  Phi, H.Đ 2012 Quản trị công nghệ Nxb ĐHQGHN Online documents  Khanh Phương 2015 How is the current development ò lawyer profession in Vietnam http://www.baoxaydung.com.vn/news/vn/xa-hoi/nghe-luat-suo-viet-nam-hien-gio-ra-sao-163139.html Accessed September, 2016  General Statistic Bureau 2015 https://www.gso.gov.vn/default.aspx?tabid=621&ItemID=15507 Accessed September, 2016  World Bank 2016 http://www.worldbank.org/vi/news/press- release/2016/07/19/vietnams-growth-moderates-amidst-severe-droughtslow-industrial-growth Accessed September, 2016  Asian Development Bank 2016 https://www.adb.org/countries/viet- nam/economy Accessed September, 2016  Larry Bodine-Web and Marketing Consultant 2014 Marketing strategy for law firm http://www.larrybodine.com/articles.asp?Action=GetOneArticle&ArticleID =70 Accessed September, 2016  Lexis Nexis Business of Law Blog 2016 For ways to win more client works http://businessoflawblog.com/2016/05/four-ways-to-win-more- client-work/ Accessed September, 2016  Jacqueline Jubb Legal Insight.-Best Practice and Trend for Legal professional 2015 Developing successful strategies for your law firm http://insight.thomsonreuters.com.au/successful-law-firm-strategies/ Accessed September, 2016 63  Thomson Reuters 2015 http://thomsonreuters.com/en/products- services/legal/small-law-firm-business-development.html Accessed September, 2016  Larry Bodine 2014 The 10 Most Effective Law Firm Marketing Techniques http://www.larrybodine.com/articles.asp?Action=GetOneArticle&ArticleID =70 Accessed September, 2016  Dr John W Olmstead.2003 How To Get More Business: 25 Tips On Marketing The Small Law Firm http://www.olmsteadassoc.com/resourcecenter/25-tips-on-marketing-the-small-law-firm.aspx Accessed September, 2016  James Bliwas 2015 10 Reasons Why Lawyer Business Development Fails https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/10-common-reasons-why-lawyer-businessdevelopment-efforts-bliwas Accessed September, 2016  Tom Kane 2016 Turning Associates into Rainmakers http://www.legalmarketingblog.com/ Accessed September, 2016  Amy Burton-Bradley 2015 Seven marketing and business development musts for law firm prosperity in 2015 http://www.alpma.com.au/a-survivalguide-for-legal-practice-managers/marketing-and-business-developmentmusts-for-law-firm-prosperity-in-2015 Accessed September, 2016  Elizabeth Butcher 2014 Really good marketin ideas-Attorney at works.https://www.attorneyatwork.com/wpcontent/uploads/2013/01/ReallyGoodMarketingIdeas_AttnyatWorkEguide_ 011713.pdf Accessed September, 2016 64 ANNEX QUESTIONAIRES TO THE CUSTOMERS AND/OR COMPETITORS OF ATS LAW FIRM To: Dear Valued Customers Firstly, we would like to send our best gratitude to the Valued Customers who have accompanied with ATS law firm over the recent time For improving the service quality, we would like to conduct the market survey for evaluate the Valued Customers‟ comment with the below questionaires We commit that all the collected information shall be used only for researching purpose, without any commercial purpose Thanks and Best Regards, Hanoi, 2017 Part 1: Customer Information Please provide the following information: 1.1 Name of enterprise………………………………… 1.2 Address………………………… 1.3 Foreign direct invesment enterprise or Vietnamese enterprise? Nationality? 1.4 Business activities? 1.5 Registered charter capital? 1.6 Have you ever used the legal services of ATS law firm? 1.7 How long have you been using/how often you use the legal services of ATS law firm? (a) More than year (b) More than years (c) More than years 65 Part 2: Questionaires on the service quality of ATS A Question on the professional knowledge of ATS lawyers Please mark X into the below blanket with your different level of satisfaction to the quality of ATS‟s service as follows : (1= Extremely dissatisfied; = Not satisfied; = average (Neutral); = Satisfied; = Extremely satisfied) FDI Crite establishment ria licensing Contract Tax consultancy drafting/reviewing Accur acy Comp liance Risk mana geme nt Benef it prote ction Econ omic effici ency Fast time Avera ge score 66 Dispute settlement B Questions on customer care and professionalism Please mark X into the below blanket with your different level of satisfaction to ATS customer care and professionalism as follows : (1= Extremely dissatisfied; = Not satisfied; = average (Neutral); = Satisfied; = Extremely satisfied) Price Question 5 ATS service price is reasonable ATS service price is competitive compared with that of the other competitors ATS has the different service package relevant for different customer groups The service quality is appropriate with the price Customer care Question Customer care attitude of ATS lawyers when receiving the request from customers Customer care attitude of ATS lawyers when performing the services The comments from customers are always positively received and adjusted by ATS Professionalism when working Questions with customers Working process is professional, detailed and well organized or not? Interaction freequency with customers Practition and flexibility in finding the most efficient solutions for the consultancy activities 67 Satisfaction Question The customers are satisfied with the service of ATS I will continue to use ATS‟s services I will introduce ATS services to other customers I will support in appropriately way to ATS activities and development C Other comment Would you please provide us any other comment for improving ATS‟s service in the future? 68 Part 2: Result analyzation Important customer groups Frequency Valid Percent Valid Cumulative Percent Percent Korean enterprises 10 31.58 31.58 31.58 Japanese enterprise 15 50.00 50.00 81.58 18.42 18.42 100 30 100 100 Vietnamese enterprises Total ATS service using frequency Frequency Valid Percent Valid Cumulative Percent Percent >1 year using 18 57.89 57.89 57.89 >2 years using 26.97 26.97 84.87 >3 years using 15.13 15.13 100 30 100 100 Total Descriptive Statistics N Minimum Maximum Mean Std Deviation Accuracy 30 4.02 0.853 Compliance 30 4.78 0.764 Risk management 30 4.78 0.774 Benefit protection 30 4.78 0.929 Economic efficiency 30 3.38 0.556 Fast time 30 4.02 0.715 Average score 30 4.02 0.864 69 Descriptive Statistics Reasonable price Minimum Maximum Mean 30 3.53 1.082 3.57 0.948 3.57 0.828 3.65 0.922 3.6 0.758 3.58 0.804 3.66 0.858 3.67 1.004 3.86 0.962 3.93 0.85 3.76 0.932 3.86 0.871 3.58 0.784 3.54 0.792 Competitive price 30 Differentiation the price in line 30 with different customer groups Service quality is relevant with the 30 price Customer care attitude of ATS Std N Deviation 30 lawyers when receiving the request from customers Customer care attitude of ATS 30 lawyers when performing the services The comments from customers are 30 always positively received and adjusted by ATS Working process is professional, 30 detailed and well organized or not? Interaction freequency with 30 customers Practition and flexibility in finding 30 the most efficient solutions for the consultancy activities The customers are satisfied with 30 the service of ATS I will continue to use ATS‟s 30 services I will introduce ATS services to 30 other customers I will support in appropriately way 30 to ATS activities and development 70 ... development in the period of 2018- 2022 (e) Building the future strategy for ATS law firm in the period of 2018- 2022 Scope of the research The scope of the research is within ATS law firm, its external... ATS law firm in the period of 20182 022 50 3.3 Competitive strategy of ATS in the period of 2018- 2022 and the action plan 50 3.3.1 Building the competitive strategy of ATS in the. .. Ha, director and Mr Tran Gia The, managing partner of ATS law firm, for offering me the opportunities to access, interview and discover the necessary information of the firm, for completing the