by Bruce | November 16, 2012 | Articles, Business Models, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
As we come to the final installment of the Growth is Dead series, I hope the challenge I’ve laid out for us is clear. Excess capacity Stagnant demand Cut-throat or “suicidal” discounting Unprecedented pressure on prices, from all directions,...
by Bruce | November 8, 2012 | Articles, Business Models, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
We’ll have one more installment in our “Growth is Dead” series but let’s focus today on trying to synthesize a few themes that have been pervasive topics here on Adam Smith, Esq., since at least September 15, 2008, and even before, and look at...
by Bruce | October 21, 2012 | Articles, Business Models, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Innovative Managing Partners, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Practice Group Management, Strategy
At the end of our last piece, I asked aloud whether we as lawyers are intellectually and emotionally capable of adapting to the new market landscape, suggested that adapting would require experimentation and—yes—failure, and noted that countries and industries that...
by Bruce | September 16, 2012 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures, Strategy
Our third installment in this series addresses partner expectations. Here’s the problem: There’s about to be a collision with reality. Let’s start with some data. In the quarter century since the The American Lawyer first published the AmLaw 100,...
by Bruce | July 31, 2012 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Leadership, Partnership Structures
Last week we published a column noting that today “discussion of incentives often begins from the false belief that only cash can influence behavior.” This remark—the heart of the piece in as few words as possible—prompted a regular reader to offer a...
by Bruce | July 25, 2012 | Articles, Compensation, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Leadership, Partnership Structures
ITN (a British-based independent news service) recently published a poll finding trust in the financial sector is at an all-time low, with just 10% of respondents believing bankers tell the truth. This puts bankers even lower than journalists and politicians. Yet if...
