Post Mortems
Posted By Rob Millard - 0 Comments -
Post mortems are never pleasant to read but if they specify the maladies that caused death in sufficient detail then sometimes they can be useful for others wishing to avoid the same fate.
Here's a good one from law.com titled "Why Heller Died." Unsurprisingly, it suggests that although the final cause of death was "mass partner defections," the root causes were more complex. To wit:
Putting "avoiding hurting peoples' feelings" ahead of good strategy. (In 2004, when they decided not to change the terms of their partnership agreement to allow managing partners to serve a third term and so removed an excellent leader [Barry Levin] from the head of the firm.)
Botching its downsizing. (What should ALWAYS be a quick, objective and clinical exercise dragged on for months as partners jockeyed to try to prevent "favorites" from being fired. The result was severe trauma as people waited to see who would get the axe and in the end, the cut was compromised and not deep enough to restore profitability.)
Failing to communicate when it changed direction. (In 2006, the firm developed an aggressive new strategy to grow its way to profitability, aiming to expand to 1500 lawyers worldwide. Offices were opened in Shanghai and London, the US operations took on laterals. But how the expansion strategy was actually going to work was never articulated by the firm's leadership. So partners starting voting with their feet.)
Fundamental basics!
Putting collegiality ahead of business sense, botching a downsizing exercise and failing to communicate a compelling vision of how a radical strategic change is going to work. I could name several more firms that I know that have fallen or could easily fall prey to the same foibles. Is yours one of them? If so, then what are you going to DO about it? Now .... before it's too late.
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