SWOT in the 21st century

I’m intrigued by a couple of articles in AccountingWeb on the use of SWOT analysis for practice development work. The image above shows the approach of one practitioner. Colour me dopey but where’s the client in all this? According to Sarah-Jane Sinnot, the recipient of advice:

Briefly, our key strengths are that we are a young team, that my staff think that they work well together, that our clients trust us and that we have a high level of customer satisfaction.

Our weaknesses mostly centre around staff development and workflow organisation. Another key point is that we sometimes do great work for low fees – and I know this sounds ridiculous, but sometimes no fees at all. When the work hasn’t been positioned correctly from the outset making a fee announcement is not always possible.

We face many opportunities but mainly in the relationships we have with people (clients and others) and in the tax planning that we can offer.

Threats include the reliance the practice has on me and the fact we lack time to explore more interesting work.

Where is the evidence for any of this? It’s always been my view that in a service business of any kind, the key to success lies on the nature and quality of the relationships that are held between a firm and its clients. Technical expertise is a given.The billing is issue is no surprise. Too many firms are frightened of charging what they’re worth in the fear clients will run away. That’s simply not true.

As technology dissolves the barriers between the cloistered world of professional accounting and clients (or rather litigators) then why isn’t the client at the centre of SWOT analysis?.