Continuing our five-part article on business development from FICPI Practice Management Committee’s Business Development & Marketing Group, we learn how a medium IP firm tackles BD and sales
Sharad Vadehra represents the medium-size stage of the business development journey. His account traces the evolution of Kan and Krishme. The New Delhi-based firm began as a sole practitioner practice and grew, over three decades, into a recognised mid-sized IP firm with a defined market position and a deliberate approach to business development (BD).
“Our firm is large enough to have specialist depth but small enough to retain a highly personal service model,” he adds.
Sharad experienced the reality of building a firm without the benefit of an old and established brand. He joined his father (a retired Indian Army colonel turned patent agent), who was then a sole practitioner, after leaving a much larger and older Indian firm where he began his career in 1989.
In the early years, business development was simply essential for survival. The firm operated in a market dominated by longstanding competitors, and in the mid-1990s there were none of the digital tools now commonly associated with professional visibility. There was no social media, no LinkedIn and no easy way to create online presence. Reputation had to be built almost entirely through direct human contact.
The importance of trust and delivery
As Sharad describes it, their business card was really the equivalent to a handshake and the promise behind it. He and his father spent much of their time travelling, meeting clients in person, listening carefully and proving that they could deliver what they said they would. His father’s maturity, life experience and war stories helped create trust and open conversations. But the deeper point is that in the absence of institutional reputation, trust had to be earned personally and repeatedly.
As the firm grew, its business development challenges changed:
- Initially the issue was competing against old and powerful firms.
- Later it became a matter of competing against newer entrants willing to offer very low prices.
- Today the challenge is to stay at the forefront while balancing competition from both sides.
Throughout that evolution, however, Sharad has retained a view of BD that is rooted in consistency, values and adaptation.
Values at the heart of reputation
One of Sharad’s most important insights is that values themselves are a strategic asset. He points to fair pricing, refusing conflicting work, respecting different cultures and not underselling the firm as choices that have helped generate client loyalty over decades. In this situation, business development is not merely about visibility or persuasion. It is about the reputation produced by how a firm behaves over time.
“As firms grow, business development must become a team effort rather than the burden of a founder or a few rainmakers,” Sharad emphasises.
In his firm, prosecution and litigation teams work together to offer seamless service, and the firm deliberately invests in emerging sectors and niche practices. He gives the example of recognising early that computer-related inventions would become increasingly important, and hiring and training talent with the skills to meet that future demand.
Professional etiquette and success planning
Investment in people is central to this model. Young attorneys are trained not only in law and procedure, but also in communication, in representing the firm internationally and even in the etiquette of professional interaction.
Sharad is particularly attentive to the varying ways that business development operates across cultures. In some jurisdictions, knowing how to exchange a business card properly or how to greet someone in their own language can itself be a meaningful part of relationship-building. For that reason, he strongly favours taking junior attorneys to conferences and exposing them early to international business settings.
This training raises an obvious concern: what if those people later leave? He acknowledges the risk, but his answer lies in succession planning and institutional continuity. Firms must build structures in which younger attorneys can see a future for themselves and understand that they are being prepared not just to work, but to lead. A client should feel confident that the firm is stable, well-managed and capable of enduring beyond its current leaders.
In addition, a mid-sized firm can turn its scale into a strength. It is large enough to provide specialist expertise and a full-service offering, but still small enough to ensure responsiveness, accessibility and direct partner-level attention. In that position, business development is no longer only about survival. It becomes a way of building something durable.
Sharad’s summary is especially persuasive: business development is not a sprint; it is a marathon. It is a habit, formed through repeated conversations, trust-building and presence in the market.
Read on
- In part one, read the business development consultant’s view
- In part two, read the small-firm viewpoint
- Part four reveals the larger-firm experience
- Part five brings the essential lessons and takeaways every firm should master
(links become live as pieces are published)
Next steps
Find out more about FICPI’s PMC Committee and how to get involved at: https://ficpi.org/organisation/committees/practice-management-committee
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