by Bruce | January 21, 2008 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Strategy
On the wonderful landscape of economics, several highly visible landmarks are in the form of "laws:" The law of supply and demand, of economies of scale, of diminishing marginal utility, of the downward stickiness of wages, of decreasing returns to factors...
by Bruce | January 16, 2008 | Articles, Finance, Leadership, M&A, Practice Group Management, Strategy
I previously asserted that corporate America teaches that firms that treat recessions as opportunities rather than threats could steal a march on their more conservative brethren and emerge into the post-recession recovery as more powerful competitors. Today I’d...
by Bruce | January 13, 2008 | Articles, Finance, Leadership, M&A, Strategy
Regular readers, or simply those with good memories for the jovial Cornell University economist Alfred Kahn, who briefly served as Jimmy Carter’s czar over wage-price controls, as well as the last head of the unlamented Civil Aeronautics Board (where he...
by Bruce | January 9, 2008 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Strategy
Text #1: "He was recruited as a very senior director in a very large City law firm. His work went well but the thing that really bugged him was the pass he had to show every time he went into the staff restaurant. The words ‘non-lawyer’ were printed...
by Bruce | December 31, 2007 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Innovative Managing Partners, Leadership, Strategy
"You’re too smart for your own good." How quickly we dismiss that snide accusation as revealing the ignorance and probably the intransigent know-nothingness of the accuser. But could there be a grain of truth in there? If you believe in the...
by Bruce | December 27, 2007 | Articles, Compensation, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
As many of you know, back in November I was in London for a week. Among other activities—many other activities—I was pleased to be invited to participate in a panel discussion hosted by Guy Beringer of Allen & Overy, who was on the panel,...