|
http://www.patrickmckenna.com/blog
Page << Prev 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 Next >> of 95
Post #172 - Thursday, January 25, 2007
Survey Says!
 A recent recognition and perception survey, conducted of U.S. managing partners from law firms of 100 attorneys or more, named Edge International Inc. (once again) among the top three best and most well known consultancies – according to the just released January issue of Of Counsel.
From the article entitled, Survey of Consultancies Yield Some Helpful, Some Curious Findings:
The firm (Edge International) did have a 56 percent positive perception rating among respondents, 25 percent neutral, 19 percent no perception, and 0, that’s ZERO, percent had a negative perception.
According to Altman Weil’s Ward Bower:
I think one thing that the survey might demonstrate is the difference between a commitment to being the biggest as opposed to being committed to quality. I think Edge has that commitment (to quality).
And this from the author of the Of Counsel article, Steve Taylor:
Given Edge’s willingness to examine its place in the market and make appropriate adjustments, we have no doubt that it will continue to grow.
For my part, I think that this recognition is a delightful way to begin our firm’s 25th year serving the legal profession. A huge thanks to our many gracious clients who have continued to believe that we have something valuable to offer.
Post # 171 - Wednesday, January 17, 2007
First 100 Days Master Class
It may not be fair, but it’s true: Your first few months as Managing Partner—the time when you are just starting to grasp the totality of your new job—may well turn out to be the most crucial in setting the stage for a tenure that hopefully should last for years.
In spite of how well your peers might claim to know you, during those first few months, your formal decisions, informal behavior, and symbolic acts will be closely scrutinized. Everything you do and say will send messages, set tone, establish expectations, and communicate direction about what is of priority to you.
The first seminar for Managing Partners intended to guide them through this initial period of their tenure is scheduled for Tuesday, February 6th at the University of Chicago School of Business. (Click here for a PDF copy of the program).
There are just a few days left to register and just a few seats that remain available.
Post #170 - Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Blue Ocean Strategy
Professors W Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne explain how their 'blue ocean' strategy can help businesses out-perform the competition by exploiting less troubled commercial waters.
 Imagine a market universe composed of two sorts of 'oceans': red oceans and blue oceans. Red oceans represent the industries currently in existence. This is the known market space. Blue oceans are all the industries not in existence today. This is the unknown market space.
In the red oceans, industry boundaries are well defined and generally accepted, and the competitive rules of the game are known. Here, firms endeavor to compete with their rivals to grab a greater share of existing demand. As the market space gets more crowded, prospects for profits and growth are reduced. Products become commodities, and cut-throat competition turns the ocean bloody.
Blue oceans, in contrast, are defined by untapped market space, demand creation and the opportunity for highly profitable growth. Although some blue oceans are created well beyond existing industry boundaries, most are created from within red oceans by expanding existing industry boundaries,. In blue oceans, competition is absent because the rules of the game are not yet set.
It will always be important to swim successfully in the red ocean by out-performing rivals. But with supply exceeding demand in more industries, competing for a share of contracting markets, while necessary, is not sufficient to sustain high performance.Firms need to go beyond competing. To seize new profit and growth opportunities, they also need to create blue oceans.
Unfortunately, blue oceans are largely uncharted. The dominant focus of strategy work over the past 25 years has been on competition-based red ocean strategies. Some discussions of blue oceans exist. But until now there has been little practical guidance on how to create them. That's why in our book, Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant, we provide practical frameworks and analytics for the systematic pursuit and capture of blue oceans.
In blue oceans, competition is absent because the rules are not yet set.
Post #169 - Thursday, January 11, 2007
Does Management Continuity Matter?
I found it interesting to note an article devoted to the legacy of our friends at  in the December issue of American Lawyer.
According to the author, the progress that this particular firm has enjoyed over the past twenty-five years is outstanding, having transitioned from a Los Angeles base with a couple of small outpost in California and Washington DC to become second only to Skadden Arps in gross revenues, with 22 offices around the globe.
What was most revealing, at least to me, was a reference to the long-standing leadership of Robert Dell. In fact, much of the firm’s success is supposedly attributable to “the firm’s management having been stable – it has had only three managing partners in nearly 40 years.”
“It’s little surprise then that when law firm leaders were asked to name the firm (other than their own) that they most admire for its management they named Latham more than three times as often as any other firm.”
Now, if I can just reconcile this with the fact that a significant number of law firms have this brain-dead, half-witted, absurd notion of . . . strict term limits for how long their managing partner may serve in office. One wonders, are these artificial term limits intended to subvert any opportunity to ever have effective management?
Post #168 - Thursday, January 4, 2007
New Year Reflections
The first few days of every new year is a time for reflection. We often reflect upon the year that has just passed and on the year that lies ahead. Here are some questions to help you with your reflections:
• What am I playing too small, at work and in life?
• What would I do if I knew I could not fail?
• What am I resisting?
• What can I be grateful for?
• How would I want to be remembered?
Source: Robin Sharma, author of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari (rumored to be Jon Bon Jovi’s favorite book)
Post #167 - Friday, December 22, 2006
Christmas Greeting
 Setting aside important religious implications, the visions of decorated trees, gift giving and tasty treats . . . Christmas is all about family and being together with them. Our memories go back to our parents, our brothers and sisters and our grandparents – some of whom are with us and some who are not. It is those memories of things past and now lost, that helps us appreciate the joy of the present.
Please take the time to share joy with whomever you care about. Have a fabulous Holiday Season with a safe, joyous New Year’s Celebration.
Post #166 - Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Update On First 100 Days
 First 100 Days is an e-Book that provides prescriptive counsel to new firm leaders on what actions they might consider as they begin undertaking their initial responsibilities. Included is the experienced wisdom and real-world commentary of some twenty law firm leaders.
This e-book was electronically published for me by the kind folks at NXTBook. What is so fascinating about NXTBook's technology is that you are able to track precisely how many copies have been downloaded (over 2500 since August), where they have been downloaded to (firm leaders in some 61 different countries - including among the top ten: New Zealand, Germany, Belgium and India), what particular web sites and blogs they have been referred from, and so forth.
Following from this e-Book will be a one-day Seminar for new managing partners, entitled . . . you guessed it: First 100 Days. The first seminar is scheduled for Tuesday, February 6th at the University of Chicago School of Business. (Click here for a PDF copy of the edgenda).
Please give me a call (800) 921-3343 for more details.
Post #165 - Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Zag
 Here’s an interesting, 170-page easy read for your next airplane flight. It’s entitled Zag: The #1 Strategy of High-Performing Brands and the product of Marty Neumeier, who runs a San Francisco-based branding firm.The following are but a few good one-liners:
• There are two strategy choices: Do what everyone else is doing, only better, cheaper, or faster. Or do something different and truly distinctive.
• Today’s real competition – competition that’s so pervasive we can’t even see it – doesn’t come from direct or even indirect competitors. It comes from the extreme clutter of the marketplace.
• In today’s cluttered marketplace, a full 80% of customers are vulnerable to competitive offers, and fewer than 20% are willing to recommend you to others.
• Success is determined by two factors: the birth order of competitors, which includes the much-touted ‘first-mover advantage’ and ‘preferential attachment’ the network theorists term for popularity. The biggest winner is not the brand that’s first into the market, but the one that is first into people’s minds.
• The best rule to follow when mapping your value proposition is to forget about so-called best practices. Best practices are usually common practices. And common practices will never add up to a zag, no matter how many of them you apply.
Hold on a minute . . . aren’t these the very same things we’ve been advising our clients to do for the past decade? Ahhhh, yes, but silly us, we didn’t think to call it ZAG!
Post #164 - Tuesday, November 28, 2006
 SoundBites
Fighting words: The five most dangerous words in business, according to famed investor Warren Buffett, may be: "Everybody else is doing it."
Source: Wall Street Journal
Tip that sticks: To get the accumulation of hair, crumbs and other debris off your keyboard, take a Post-it note and run the adhesive edge through the cracks of the keyboard.
Source: Tricks of The Trade blog
Free advice: To keep your partners on the job this flu season, consider immunizing their children to prevent the virus from entering the home.
Source: The Kiplinger Letter
Getting a clue: Pick one thing you want to learn over the next six months, tell 10 people, and ask them for their ideas.
Source: Management Craft blog
New Book Release I’m Waiting For: The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't. Robert I. Sutton, a Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University, builds on the ideas he first set forth in his landmark Harvard Business Review essay of the same name to show managers how hiring mean-spirited people - - no matter how talented or qualified--can be a costly mistake. Enlightening case studies include the Seattle law firm of Perkins Coie, whose morale-boosting "No Jerks Allowed" policy helped earn them a spot on Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For list.
Source: BarnesandNoble.com
Post #163 - Wednesday, November 22, 2006
New Market Opportunity
Here's a timely tip for any international law firm having ambitions in Asia: South Korea is about to open up its legal services market.
According to reports out today from The Lawyer (UK), the South Korean Ministry of Justice is about to publish a draft bill that singles out their legal market for liberalization. If the bill is passed, it will allow foreign law firms to open in the country for the first time.
A handful of major U.S. based practices should view this as a growth opportunity. Simpson Thacher Cleary Gottlieb, White & Case, and Paul Hastings are among the firms likely to have a sharp eye focused on South Korea.
The Korean Ministry of Justice will publish the draft Bill this week and a public hearing will follow next week. The Bill will then be sent to the National Assembly before the year-end. The National Assembly estimates that it will take six months to approve the bill and would come into force by mid-2008.
Page << Prev 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 Next >> of 95
|
|
Ashridge House 
