Yesterday Gerry
Riskin, of Edge International,
invited me to lunch at The
Cornell Club while he was passing through
town. Suffice
to say that if you have a chance to meet Gerry (I had not, previously),
and if you’ve ever given a lick of thought to law firm management,
you’re in for an intellectual feast. Just a small sampling
from our conversation:
- How to persuade uptight, analytically over-endowed law firm partners
to let it all hang out in a brainstorming session (and it’s not
free beer). - What having a background as a lawyer will get you in the role of
consultant (try: not being thrown out in the first 30 seconds). - The attitude of altogether too many marketing directors at law
firms (it could be better, shall we say). - What "killer apps" on the Internet have in common (they do not
mimic what previous media can do). - Why, in the Caribbean, you better be prepared to order as soon
as you sit down in a restaurant (the waiter won’t be back for an
hour). - Mandatory rotation of associates through different practice areas
(just do it). - Denying unhappy associates the chance to transfer to a different
practice area, even if it would entail a demotion (you are out of
your mind). - Whether lawyers can articulate what makes their firm distinctive
in the marketplace (no). - Whether marketing directors can articulate what makes their firm distinctive (three guesses).
- The percentage of typical executive committee members who know
what "blog" means (you get to guess on this one, sorry—and
same exercise for "RSS" and "wiki"). - His idols David Maister and Tom Peters.
- The percentage of typical executive committee members who recognize
those two names (both: 5% one or the other [probably
Maister]: 10%).
Then he was off to the Apple
Store in Soho with his under-the-weather
Macintosh—there are no Apple stores in the British West Indies,
where he lives.
