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 13, 2006 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Technology strategy
It’s a truism that one often learns by teaching, and I’ve experienced this very phenomenon in leading the MBA course, "Strategic Technology & Innovation," which I’m teaching this semester at SUNY/Stony Brook’s Manhattan campus....
by Bruce | September 29, 2006 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Globalization, Knowledge Management, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy, Technology strategy
I’ve written before about "social networks," and how they can be far more important than any relationships specified on your firm’s organizational charts, but "social network analysis" (SNA) is still an emerging field, with its...
by Bruce | September 20, 2006 | Articles, Finance, Leadership, Strategy, Technology strategy
Is IT capable of providing a sustainable competitive advantage, as it has for American Airlines, Dell Computer, FedEx, and Wal-Mart, or is it a necessary—but not distinguishing—function that should be managed to operate smoothly at minimal cost (like...
by Bruce | September 11, 2006 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Practice Group Management, Strategy, Technology strategy
In kicking off the core/required course "Strategic Technology & Innovation" that I’m teaching as an adjunct professor at SUNY/Stony Brook’s Graduate College of Business—a two-year program leading to an MBA for senior law firm managers...
by Bruce | September 9, 2006 | Articles, Finance, Leadership, Strategy, Technology strategy
Does this sound like your firm? IT is managed as one massive homogeneous lump, where the executive committee’s key concern seems to be managing (read: reducing) costs. Now, reducing costs (or increasing productivity, or mitigating risk) may be fine...