by Bruce | December 30, 2005 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, M&A, Strategy
At the intersection of strategic decision-making and human shortcoming is behavioral economics, which teaches that a host of biases, such as overoptimism about the likelihood of success, the "principal-agent problem," and undue loss aversion, combine to form...
by Bruce | December 28, 2005 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Strategy, Technology strategy
Forgive me for an extensive quote, but it sets the stage for all that’s to follow here. From the redoubtable McKinsey: "In today’s developed economies, the significant nuances in employment concern interactions: the searching, monitoring, and...
by Bruce | December 23, 2005 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
I have posited before that the traditional one-size-fits-all associate-to-partner model is coming under increasing stress. Evidently Allen & Overy agrees. After suffering 25% attrition in its associate ranks last year, they have announced after a lengthy...
by Bruce | December 20, 2005 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Normally, the issue in succession planning—when a firm even goes through such planning in a sober and serious-minded fashion—is who among the next generation is best prepared and equipped, through both experience and innate constitution, to take over the...
by Bruce | December 16, 2005 | About the Site, Adam Smith Himself, Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Just Plain Interesting
Aside from law firms and the business thereof—my genuine professional passion—I must occasionally share a personal passion, but only if it touches upon economics. One personal passion is the almost unimaginable centrality of the subway system to New...
by Bruce | December 15, 2005 | Articles, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Strategy
A perennial subject for speculation is whether or how the consolidation trend among BigLaw will end. A primary—and by sheer headcount perhaps the prevalent—point of view is that the industrial structure of BigLaw is moving towards a bimodal...
