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The strategic choice of a local firm is to provide full service with price and quality balance to the clients in the area. All choices are originated with keeping this strategy in mind. Following the sequence of reading this diagram let’s look at the central choices. The central varying choices are to hire staff that designs per budget, to lease or buy office space in the area, to use the best software they can afford and to make connections with local officials.
Hiring local staff that designs per budget will enable the firm to satisfy clients’ expectations of quality and price-balanced service. It will also gain more local clients through the staff's personal connections in the area. Just as in the other firm types it will be necessary to hire the right type of people or reconsider the strategy.
Locating an office in the area is another core choice. It will enable the firm to attract local businesses to become clients, and attract potential staff in the area who are available to work. Compared with design firms, local firms do not need to have a luxurious office. It may harm them to invest in upgrading the office by repelling budget-conscious clients who will question how their money is spent. Choice of location sends a message to the client. If the office is located far from the client it may imply that the client is not a priority (CABE, 2005, p. 59). Knowing the location is an important element in getting a project. Primarily, the office has to be in proximity and its design should march the client’s needs.
Using the best software per budget leads to better illustrations compared to competition in the area, and is a way of attracting clients. In addition, it will help during the CD and CA phases of a project by checking for mistakes in the drawings. This reduces the risk for the firm and helps earn a good reputation for project delivery.
Good reputation for project delivery can also be earned by the choice of making connections with local officials that approve the project. The process of approving a project is lengthy, and for outsiders to the community it is even more so. By having a trusted relationship with the officials a firm can cut the time of the approval process. In this way, the firm saves their clients time and allows for the possibility of opening the building for business earlier.
Let’s now look at the reinforcing choices. In comparison with the design firm, in local firms there is a higher risk of staff stealing clients and opening their own office. This leads to the reinforcing choice of staff retention strategies to keep the staff from leaving with clients, and contractual agreements to keep them from stealing the clients. The retention strategies were discussed in the design firm section, but despite these strategies it must be noted that some employees will still be interested in starting their own practice. One way to discourage them is to create a contractual agreement upon their hire that they will not open a similar practice for a certain amount of time and they will not take away with them the client contact information. While a cleverly-constructed agreement will certainly protect the rights of the firm and discourage employees from opening their own practice, it must be noted that legally the clients do not belong to a company and they are free to choose who they work with (Sardelic, 2005). However the combination of contractual agreements, risk of owning a firm, and retention strategies should offer a degree of protection. Unfortunately, some employees may refuse to work at a company that required contractual agreements and there is a risk of missing talent, so a decision needs good consideration.
In this firm type, and following types that will be discussed, there is no reinforcing choice to provide full architecture service because it is assumed by the client that this will be the case. Therefore, this choice will not be discussed.
Now that all the choices have been discussed we can look at the virtuous cycle consequences that are the result. Unlike in design firms, the demand is elastic, and there is no opportunity to raise prices because of local competition. However, the amount of projects will increase with the growing reputation of good project delivery. This will lead to profit gain in the office that decides to grow to satisfy all the demand. If the office maintains a consistent size the profit will remain the same because of price elasticity of demand.
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