Barry Wilkinson is a British author,[1][2] speaker,[3] management consultant and business coach who specialises in helping Law Firms.[4][5][6]
Barry Wilkinson | |
|---|---|
| Born | 22 September 1953 |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Bolton School (Boys' Division) (Left 1970), Sheffield University (Dates 1971 to 1975) |
| Occupation(s) | Author, speaker, management consultant and business coach |
| Website | www |
Early career
editBarry's early career was spent as a cost and management accountant in the glass and motor industries. He then joined RTZ (now Rio Tinto) as an internal consultant, before acting as finance director in the turnaround of problem subsidiaries in manufacturing and service sectors. He founded Wilkinson Read & Partners as a cost-reduction consultancy in 1993. By chance, several of the early clients were law firms, though through the 90s the client base grew to include major organisations in Financial Services, Retail as well as professional services. In this period, his work at Bradford and Bingley won third place in "employee communication of the year".[7][8][9]
Since 2002 Barry and Wilkinson Read have focused exclusively on helping "human sized" Law firms become more successful. This not only means improving Financial Performance, but also developing the firm and its people so that both staff and clients are more satisfied.[4][10]
Some of Barry's more innovative approaches to Performance improvement have their roots in the "World Class Manufacturing" movement which came from Japan to simultaneously improve quality of products and services, whilst dramatically reducing costs and wastage.[4][11]
Current career
editAn example of this is his approach to cash-flow management, which focuses relentlessly on time elapsed, leading not only to greatly reduced borrowings, but also to improved client satisfaction, and reduced complaints.[12][13]
More recently, he has enhanced this approach to help fee earners develop the additional skills and confidence to handle client conversations – increasing their perceived value to the client and addressing the other source of Client complaints, Poor communication.[12][14]
In 2015 he introduced the concept of "beyond benchmarking". Whilst many law firms measure their performance by peer comparison, using benchmarking surveys to rate themselves, new entrants to the legal sector who have a financially driven agenda see opportunities to achieve much more, using techniques from other sectors in which they operate. After analysing the financial management approaches used by some of these entrants, Barry uses these in a programme to enhance potential and actual results.[5][15][16][17][18][19][20]
Books
editReferences
edit- ^ a b Barry Wilkinson (Author). Cash Flow Management for Law Firms: Amazon.co.uk: Barry Wilkinson: 9781783580798: Books. ASIN 1783580798.
{{cite book}}:|author=has generic name (help) - ^ a b "Cash Flow Management for Law Firms, 2nd Edition". Ark Group. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
- ^ "Event summary – the Law Society". Archived from the original on 25 January 2020. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
- ^ a b c "Wilkinson Read Specialist Consultants to the Legal Profession: Who we are". Wilkinsonread.co.uk. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
- ^ a b "Meet the Law Management Section committee | FAQ | Communities – The Law Society". Communities.lawsociety.org.uk. 21 October 2014. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
- ^ "Practical Law". Uk.practicallaw.com. 30 June 2016. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
- ^ "Membership Directory | Institute For Turnaround". The-ift.com. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
- ^ "Bradford & Bingley car scheme hands employees tax break. (getting rid of company cars)" Employee Benefits, September 1, 2000
- ^ "Open season | Feature | Communities – The Law Society". Communities.lawsociety.org.uk. 13 August 2013. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
- ^ Wilkinson, Barry (12 February 2014). "Cash in hand | Feature | Communities – The Law Society". Communities.lawsociety.org.uk. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
- ^ "It all adds up | Feature | Communities – The Law Society". Communities.lawsociety.org.uk. 12 February 2014. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
- ^ a b "Find a CIMA accountant". Cimaglobal.com. 27 January 2015. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
- ^ "Fund of information | Feature | Communities – The Law Society". Communities.lawsociety.org.uk. 10 February 2016. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
- ^ Bennett, Paul (3 November 2015). "Balancing the books | Feature | Communities – The Law Society". Communities.lawsociety.org.uk. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
- ^ "Association of Partnership Practitioners & professional service firms". App.org.uk. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
- ^ "Professional Speaking Association – Speak More, Speak Better". Thepsa.co.uk. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
- ^ "KPI and Big Data Experts | Advanced Performance Institute". Ap-institute.com. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
- ^ "Legal & CPD Training Courses from Central Law Training". Clt.co.uk. Archived from the original on 21 April 2016. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
- ^ Otterburn, Andrew (27 November 2014). "Webinar: Survive and thrive – growing your law firm in a competitive market | Event | Communities – The Law Society". Communities.lawsociety.org.uk. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
- ^ "Is less more? | Feature | Communities – The Law Society". Communities.lawsociety.org.uk. 15 February 2015. Retrieved 11 August 2016.