More on my London journey:
The raison d’être of the trip, as mentioned, was to meet the
other partners of Edge International: That
meeting was this past Saturday and Sunday at the Naval
& Military Club hard on St. James’ Square in London. Virtually
everyone made a presentation, including
me, and at least insofar
as the others go, I can say at an unsurpassed level of intellectual
and professional stimulation.
The scope and depth of the presentations was far too varied to summarize,
so let me tantalize. One presentation focused on the cross-cultural
differences among countries, always something germane for global
law firms, and awareness of which is too often honored in the breach. Here’s
a hypothetical question:
"Which way of perceiving a company would you regard as the most “normal”:
"A. A company is a system designed to perform functions
and tasks in an efficient way. People are hired to perform these functions,
sometimes with the use of machinery or other equipment. They are paid
for the tasks that they perform.
"B. A firm is a group of people working together. They have
social relations with other people in the organization. The functioning
of the organization is dependent on these relations."
Consider your answer. Ready?
I have the advantage of having seen the chart first-hand, so here’s
how to decode it: In the US and UK (the two bottom bars), 90%
of people think the "normal" view of a company (note the question
is "normal" not "desirable" or "ideal") is as a system to perform
functions. But in China, Japan, and India (bars 2 through 4),
roughly 80% think the normal view is as people dependent upon
social relations working together. Next time you’re tempted to
ignore cultural differences and barge ahead assuming they’ll all
come out in the wash, think again.
Sincere
and public thanks to all the Edge-ites who were so welcoming.
Friday morning, thanks to an introduction from Bruce
Marcus, I met
Nadia Cristina, managing editor of professional
marketing, "the worldwide journal for marketing professional
services." We talked largely about blogs in the context of
professional service firm marketing, and I learned that blog adoption
in the UK is like text-messaging adoption here: Almost nowhere. Americans
blog; Brits text-SMS—but not the reverse. The venue was
near the Bank tube stop in The City, near the "gherkin" (a/k/a the
Swiss Re headquarters, designed by Sir Norman Foster).
Finally, Monday afternoon into early evening I spent nearly two of
the most professionally luxurious hours I’ve enjoyed recently with
Tony Williams,
founder of the Jomati consultancy in London, and former global managing
partner of Clifford Chance and, subsequently, the late Andersen Legal,
where he earned the UK’s Partner of the Year award in 2001 for personally
seeing to it that virtually 100% of the lawyers and staff were successfully
relocated to new positions elsewhere in The City after the Enron
implosion brought this early experiment in MultiDisciplinary Practices
to a screeching halt through no fault of its own.
Does Tony share the view that running a law firm like a business is
an unprofessional approach? "Arrant Nonsense! Arrant
Nonsense!" Glad I asked.
