by Bruce | November 28, 2006 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Strategy
We know from life in general that people excel differently depending on the circumstances. Some are natural schmoozers, some highly analytic, some of us lone wolves and some of us can’t work without a crowd. Does the ghastly cliche...
by Bruce | November 22, 2006 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, M&A, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy, Technology strategy
Mergers, globalization, consolidation: I’ve heard all about it. Time to tell me something new. Is that your feeling? Then let’s talk about post-merger leadership, and what you could actually do to make a difference if the seemingly-inevitable comes to...
by Bruce | November 19, 2006 | Articles, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Strategy, Technology strategy
Today we visit the prosaic topic of conflicts-checking. I’ve come to believe it’s not so prosaic after all. Consider: The highly-publicized referral to the UK’s Law Society Regulation Board of two senior Freshfields partners, announced last...
by Bruce | November 9, 2006 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Strategy, Technology strategy
Within 24 hours of each other, both The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times wrote pieces on "then and now" re the dot-com bubble. Surely unintentional as it was, I think they provide nice counterpoints to each other, and also give us a small...
by Bruce | November 6, 2006 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy, Technology strategy
Every once in awhile, you see an individual at a firm make a tremendous difference, and I’ve tried to make it a custom to celebrate the situations when I think I’ve identified such exemplars. Today I offer John Alber of Bryan Cave’s St. Louis office,...
by Bruce | October 30, 2006 | About the Site, Adam Smith Himself, Articles, Finance
Courtesy of a UK reader comes word that Adam Smith will adorn the new £20 banknote to be issued by the Bank of England next spring. In The Guardian’s coverage, the headline is "Adam Smith becomes first Scot to adorn an English banknote."...