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.

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