Convergence
0 Comments - Posted By Rob Millard In Mega-Trends , , , , - Permalink -
Attached is an article that I wrote as the cover article of the current edition of FD Legal in London. I have received gratifyingly positive feedback to it from managing partners and executive directors on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond, to whom I sent advance copies, so am posting it for all readers that do not see FD Legal (which is a journal aimed particularly at law firm financial directors in Europe.)
The article concerns changes that might emerge over the coming 5 - 10 years in the way that legal services are delivered to clients across the globe. Feedback, comment and constructive criticism, as always, is most welcome.
Surviving the Slide
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It's not often that no fewer than three of my friends are simultaneously featured in the leading article of a journal, but that is the case with Gerry Riskin, Karen MacKay and Merrilyn Astin Tarlton in the current edition of LawPro, which is a Canadian journal that features "information and updates on the Lawyers' Professional Indemnity Company malpractice liability insurance program and policy; the risk management and claims prevention resources from practicePRO; and TitlePLUS and title insurance."
Gerry, Karen and Merrilyn together with Ed Flitton collaborated in a round table that resulted in an article titled:
Surviving the Slide: What firms should and shouldn't do to ride out the economic storm.
Hat tip to Dan Pinnington at Slaw for the heads-up.
The New Facebook
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Facebook is in the process of launching an entirely new layout and design, which aims to revolutionize the way that people use the platform to collaborate and share information. (The picture above shows my own profile page with the "new look" .... the SCUBA diver is my 11 year old daughter and diving buddy Shannon a couple of weeks ago.) Given the importance of Facebook to so many professionals in so many firms, stand by for some perhaps quite significant impacts on the way that people use Facebook in their practice, too.
Continue ReadingSteam, Electricity and Law Firm Management
0 Comments - Posted By Rob Millard In "Off the Wall" Insights , , , , , , - Permalink -
At 3 PM on September 4 1882, Lower Manhattan was transformed as Thomas Edison’s spectacular, cutting edge electric illuminating system went into operation. The American public was astounded at this revolutionary new energy supply. Clearly, it was only a matter of time before it would take over as the primary energy source in industry too.
So it did, of course, but four decades later, only half of America’s factories were fully electrified. Why did it take so long for a clearly superior technology to establish itself?
The reason is simple: The very best, state-of-the-art factories at the time (the product of a century of refinement and innovation through the course of the industrial revolution,) were designed in such a way that electricity provided little advantage. Unlike today’s factories, where every piece of machinery has it own electric motor, factories at the end of the 19th Century were designed around central energy sources. Machines were powered by elaborate systems of pulleys and shafts called “group drives” that transferred energy from the central source (typically a water turbine or steam engine) throughout the factory. The most efficient way of doing this was to minimize the length of the drives. Factories, as a result, were multi-storey buildings with one or more shafts per floor, each driving a group of machines. The entire factory, in effect, was designed around the limitations of the power supply.
So what use was this newfangled electrical energy? Initially, it was used to provide lighting and steam/water turbines were replaced with central electrical motors. Electricity only came into its own when a new generation of factory buildings started being built, where machinery could be arranged and rearranged to optimize production line efficiency. These were typically sprawling, single storey plants. Small, efficient electrical motors powered each machine independently. Electrical wires replaced the cumbersome group drives. There were no more awkward steps and elevators to navigate between floors.
Replacing the factory buildings was a slow and expensive process, however. One does not simply through out such capital investment and the know-how built up over a century or more.
This little case study provides a valuable lesson in how innovation progresses in law firms too. Many of the great ideas out there today provide little advantage to law firms as they are currently constituted.
The Chairman of a very prominent national US law firm mentioned in a conversation that we were having recently that except for the computers, there is little difference in a law office today, to what existed 50 years ago. The arrangement of offices, structural hierarchies and suchlike are still “just as they always have been.” Other practices like hourly billing and aversion to alternative work arrangements would fall into the same category. This is more than just generational differences in perception between Baby Boomers / Gen Xs / Gen Ys. The changes that people talk about today are challenging the very foundation of the way in which legal services are being provided to clients.
The good news is that just as electricity was around for 40+ years before it was fully adopted, so many of the solutions to the problems facing law firms today are also out there, in plain sight, in the market. The challenge is not so much in finding the solution, as in overcoming the corporate inertia of the firm’s business model, to get those solutions implemented.
Billing by the hour a problem? Fine … replace it with value pricing or risk sharing models. But how does one actually do that with the same ease as filling in time sheets? (My view on the billable hour is that it is an excellent example of something that will eventually go the way of the dodo, but first the "factories need to be reinvented.")
“Generation Y’s” want flexible work arrangements and a work/lifestyle balance? Fine … let them work from home and other remote locations. But how does one actually do that while maintaining teamwork and service quality?
You want to be able to harness the combined intellect of your firm whenever necessary, to craft strategy, to develop virtual client teams, to share knowledge? Fine … create an online collaborative system using one of the emerging Web 2.0 internet based tools (see here and here.) But how does one actually do that in an environment where there is deep suspicion about such tools?
Performance levels differ widely amongst individual lawyers and sometimes, truth be told, some (ever more expensive) junior associates do better work and are more valuable to the firm than some of their senior colleagues. Fine … develop a system that easily measures performance and links it to reward in a way that is seen to be transparent and fair. But, how does one actually do that where the hierarchy of partners and associates/assistants developed over a century is heavily entrenched, true performance is difficult to measure and compensation discussions are often a source of considerable stress?
Some firms are quicker than others in developing ways to implement solutions. Market changing revolutions that effectively deconstruct the environmental parameters of a profession, like those that will follow final enactment of the Legal Services Bill in England and Wales will catalyse a whole slew of innovations and firms elsewhere would do well to watch those in England carefully. Likewise developments in Australia. Sometimes, there may be some “first mover advantage” for firms that adopt new practices quicker. More often that not, though, it is the “second mover” that gains the real advantage. Innovations are typically adopted sequentially. First: by small, fringe firms with entrepreneurial leaders and less corporate inertia. Second: by market leader firms that can afford to “try” something new without the change (or possible failure) being threatening. Last: by the mainstream in the middle, who are driven (rightly, in most cases) by precedents.
If you are a leader in a mainstream firm, the key is therefore to constantly be a thoughtful observer of what your competitors are doing and what your people are saying. Then, to have the courage to shamelessly “steal” the best ideas that others come up with and build them into your firm.
Hat tip to Alan Greenspan, who wrote of Edison and the adoption of electricity in industrial America in his book The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World
, on page 474-475.The IT Flower - How IT is evolving (very, very rapidly)
0 Comments - Posted By Rob Millard In Mega-Trends , Tools for Strategists , , - Permalink -
If you're unclear about how the new Web 2.0 internet based IT tools that are emerging are different from the conventional software solutions that we have become used to, then this 5 minute video by Rod Boothby at Innovation Creators will give a pretty good overview. Also some solid insights into how this is going to affect knowledge work as the new tools increase dominance over the old. I think that it is IMPERATIVE that firms track this trend. If the topic interests you in greater depth, there is a white paper (still in draft) available too. Click the image above to access the video.
Jerks in the Workplace
0 Comments - Posted By Rob Millard In Strategic People Issues , , , , - Permalink -
The latest McKinsey Quarterly (a journal of strategy and management published by McKinsey & Company) has an excerpt titled Building the Civilized Workplace, from a book by Stanford Professor Robert Sutton.
Jerks and bullies in the workplace are a widespread problem. All too often, those exhibiting the behavior do so because they feel secure in their seniority or fee-earning credentials. (Which is not to say that high-performers are always jerks. Usually, quite the opposite is the case. Not tolerating poor performance, for instance, is not the same as being a jerk.) Research shows that jerks and bullies not only hinder recruiting and retention but also raise levels of client churn and damage reputations.
Firms that harbor jerks may also suffer from reduced levels of creativity and innovation, as well as impaired or dysfunctional cooperation, within and outside the organization. That is no small matter in an increasingly networked world. Continue Reading
Climate Change Practice Areas
1 Comments - Posted By Rob Millard In Innovation , Mega-Trends , Specific Issues , , - Permalink -
Holland & Hart has joined the small but growing ranks of law firms with a dedicated practice group focused on legal issues surrounding climate change / global warming. This according to an article in the Denver Business Journal. I haven't time to search anything like a comprehensive list of other law firms that have established climate change practice groups, but to date they include Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, Morrison & Foerster, Davis Wright Tremaine. If your firm also has a climate change practice group, or you know of any others, please post the details in comments below so that readers of this blog can take note.
The Department of Geosciences at the University of Arizona has a truly excellent interactive set of maps, one of the whole world and one of North America, that illustrate the levels of inundation that will occur with different degrees of sea level increase. It is truly terrifying! Even with just a three foot (one meter) increase, for instance, much of Florida disappears. (See below.) Countries like Bangladesh and the Maldives would cease to exist.
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Where Should We Mine?
2 Comments - Posted By Rob Millard In "Off the Wall" Insights , Innovation , - Permalink -
I've just read a great story in Mavericks at Work - Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win about open source innovation. Goldcorp, a Canadian gold mining company, buys a risky but promising mine (Red Lake) and spends $10 million on exploration. Comes up with positive but ambivalent results. Posts all their geological data on the internet and holds a contest with a $500,000 prize to be divided amongst 25 semifinalists and 3 finalists chosen by judges, for best solution to question: "Where should we mine?"
More than 1400 experts across the world download their raw data, model it in whatever way they choose, and tell them what they think. (Such exploration data is usually HIGHLY secret so his colleagues think CEO Rob McEwen is crazy.) The result: they get a wealth of data that indicates several possibilities that they hadn't even thought of. Net result: A $100,000 investment in 1993 in Microsoft was worth $895,000 in late 2005. A similar investment in Goldcorp was worth more than $2,9 million!
Learning: How often do we scramble around reinventing the wheel with solutions that have already been discovered elsewhere in the world by others, where we could access those solutions if we were to share knowledge ("secrets") more freely?
Positive Deviancy
1 Comments - Posted By Rob Millard In Culture , Innovation , Inter-Generational Issues , Strategic People Issues , , , - Permalink -
One of the worst things that can be said of any professional practicing in a professional service firm is "he/she doesn't fit in here." Career-wise, it's often a death blow. This is particularly true in the precision-based professions such as law and accounting (as opposed to creative/design professions, where deviancy is more tolerated and sometimes even encouraged.)
Herein lies a clue as to why these firms often experience such difficulty innovating or even changing. Probably without even realizing the impact of what they are doing, they positively stamp on anything or anyone that goes against the norm.
Continue ReadingFinancial Times Launches Law Firm Innovation Survey
0 Comments - Posted By Rob Millard In Innovation , - Permalink -
I was told a while back that it is pointless trying to sell consulting services aimed at helping law firms become more innovative. They are so conservative and precedent-driven, I was told, that they simply don't "do" innovation.
Well, things may be changing. Today's Financial Times (London) contains an article titled In Pursuit of Modern Practice, announcing an innovation ranking that they have just launched, to find out who the most innovative lawyers and law firms in the UK are. The article identifies several market pressures that are forcing UK law firms to become more innovative, whether they are comfortable with it or not:
Continue ReadingHarnessing the Phoenix
0 Comments - Posted By Rob Millard In "Off the Wall" Insights , Competitive Intelligence , Culture , Innovation , Inter-Generational Issues , Leadership , Strategy 101 , Tools for Strategists , , , , , , , - Permalink -
Surely the most dramatic mythological example of rebirth and renewal, is the Phoenix (or "Firebird.") It is found in ancient Egyptian mythology, various myths derived from it and, most recently, in Professor Albus Dumbledore's study in Harry Potter.
Said to live for 500, 1461 or for 12594 years (depending on the source), the phoenix is a bird with beautiful gold and red plumage. At the end of its life-cycle the phoenix builds itself a nest of cinnamon twigs that it then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix arises. The bird was also said to regenerate when hurt or wounded by a foe, thus being almost immortal and invincible.
Imagine, for a moment, that you were able to regenerate your firm in this way. Miraculously, you were able to instantly transform it into an organization of the highest performance with, what's more, that performance being sustained.
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