Current campaigns

Productivity

Share your leadership, management & training ideas and expertise with corporate organisations, business schools, professional bodies and Government to boost firm, client and UK productivity. More... 

Artificial intelligence

The Forum is helping sector firms adopt Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning through free-to-join AI Consortia and a £1m Government-funded Next Gen Services project with four business schools.

Independent NEDs

Forum members make ideal NEDs at corporates. We therefore urge corporates and recruiters to revisit their selection criteria for NED positions to focus on those with hands-on experience of ‘challenge & support’ leadership.. More...

Vital contributors

Professionals make a vital contribution to the UK economy, local communities and public life. UK firms have the largest share of GDP in the G7. Our campaign sets the record straight. More...

Inclusive leadership

Encouraging firms to increase the number of women in leadership roles. More...

Philanthropy

The 340,000 individuals in the UK with more than £1m of investable wealth give some £1.3bn annually to good causes. Most advisers are seen as reactive with little awareness of their impact. Yet, those who are well advised give up to 17 times more to good causes. More...

Previous campaigns

ABS into the mainstream (2013-2017) Although many hundreds of ABS and NewLaw firms have now been registered under the Legal Services Act, many faced legal and regulatory barriers to growth and were also treated as a stand-alone and relatively minor tier of the legal sector. The Forum's ABS & NewLaw Advisory Council brought together firm leaders, regulators, competition authorities, Government, professional bodies and topic experts to encourage regulators and Government to eliminate unnecessary structural barriers and the sector to treat ABS & NewLaw firms as part of the mainstream.

Well-managed firms (2011-12) Increased business uncertainty is leading clients to demand more consistent service and commerciality from their advisers. Clients know that firm management plays a critical role in making this possible, with 54% saying that the impression of being a well-managed advisory firm is an essential pre-condition of selection, according to the FT/MPF Study into effective client-adviser relationships. The Study also confirms that while advisory firm management believes that it is performing well, this view is not shared by clients.

Digital and social technologies (2013-14) The Forum suspected, that although marketing ‘got’ social media, the same was not true of management, so organised a major survey with Elephant Creative into attitudes towards digital and social technologies in 2013 and 2014.

Managing client relationships (2009-2013) The Forum partnered with The Thriving Company to survey CRM activities and results specific to professional firms for five years, with well over 1,000 contributions from firms during the life of the study

Listed professional firm index (2009) The success of our campaign to encourage investors to appreciate the profitability, growth and resilience of professional firms can be judged when our Professional Services Index compiled by Noble, consistently outperformed superficially comparable indices.

Carbon Footprint (2008) Far too often (and in many cases wrongly) professional firms are perceived to be commercial laggards – slow to adapt to change, conservative in their behaviours and unlikely innovators. In joining our Carbon Footprint campaign, professional firms were the first major industry group to join together to tackle what is surely one of the greatest challenges facing our society.

Best Professional Firm to Work For (2008) The Forum partnered with Best Companies to compile the first-ever listing of the UK's best professional firms to work for in the eyes of their own people

The Global 500 (2007 - 2010) The Forum compiled the first ever ranking of the world's largest professional firms. The real achievements of professionals are not that widely known – partly because caricatures are easier to present in the press than flesh and blood. Without professionals and the infrastructure they have created, the world would be a much sorrier place. What is most surprising, perhaps, is not the extent of their contribution – but the fact that it is so little known.

Unsung heroes (2004) In theory, a partnership stands for collaboration and team work; in practice many partners are highly competitive animals, focusing on client-based financial measures to determine relative status and reward. If partners see success in these terms, it is hardly surprising that those who neither directly bring in fees nor deliver services to clients are referred to in pejorative terms, for example 'non-fee earner'.