PCPS Update.

PCPS to Unveil Strategic Review at Practitioners Symposium

Does your firm have a written mission statement? A formal marketing plan? What services do you provide your clients, and how enthusiastic is your staff about performing them? These are just a few of the questions firms need to be asking themselves if they are to maintain maximum adaptability and competitiveness in today's fluid economic environment. PCPS has developed a Strategic Review program designed to add value to the Peer Review process by stimulating this kind of reflection and then providing suggestions for implementing new products and services. The Strategic Review program can also be offered as a service for clients.

What is strategic review?

One of the successes of the Peer Review program is that it enabled PCPS to pinpoint a broader need among its member firms to develop a process for planning and implementing change. PCPS responded with the Strategic Review program, modeled on and designed to be administered with Peer Review.

The steps in strategic review

In a Strategic Review, trained Strategic Review interviewers carry out a six-step process. These six steps are:

* Circulate a preliminary questionnaire to be completed by the participant.

* Tabulate the results in spreadsheet form, highlighting areas that require follow up.

* Conduct document review of the participant's mission statement, strategic plan, and similar vision statements.

* Interview questionnaire respondents to gain a deeper understanding of their perceptions of the participant.

* Formulate a preliminary assessment to share with the participant.

* Revise the draft report in light of input from the participant's...