by Bruce | December 8, 2016 | Articles, Leadership
Having been born in Manhattan, raised in a very close-in suburb which orbited in the firm grasp of The City and existed to serve it (it was the era when parents did that), and having lived and worked on this Island ever since college and law school, I plead guilty to...
by Bruce | November 30, 2016 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Leadership, Strategy
You deem the following quote: Surprising, because your partners are totally game for whatever changes the rapidly evolving world is throwing at your firm; Utterly familiar—depressingly so; The ace you have up your sleeve as Managing Partner when it’s simpler to...
by Bruce | November 24, 2016 | About the Site, Articles
A Macy’s Parade balloon gets ready for its big annual moment–this all happens about a mile from the offices of Adam Smith, Esq.: Courtesy The New York Times.
by Bruce | November 19, 2016 | Articles, Leadership
The longer I’m a student of our industry, the more firms we observe outperforming and underperforming, and the more clients we engage with (several recently) on the issue of leadership succession planning, the more firmly I believe that leadership matters....
by Bruce | November 9, 2016 | Adam Smith Himself, Articles
Adam Smith was living in Edinburgh in October 1777 when a distraught friend brought news of the surrender of British General Burgoyne at Saratoga, exclaiming in the deepest distress that the British Empire was ruined. “There is much ruin in a nation,”...
by Bruce | November 3, 2016 | Articles, Globalization, Leadership, M&A, Strategy
Nearly 20 years ago Robert Hughes published The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia’s Founding, still perhaps the definitive historical treatise on Australia’s founding from the continent’s discovery by the West to Britain’s decision to...
by Bruce | October 28, 2016 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership
As regular readers know is my custom, when I return from a trip to London I typically endeavo(u)r to distill my reactions in a brief report. As my trip this week was especially brief (shy of 72 hours), this report will be too. By way of background, I had 10 meetings...
by Bruce | October 17, 2016 | Articles, Business Models, Finance, Just Plain Interesting, Strategy
In connection with an ongoing research/whitepaper project, further about which affiant sayeth not, I had occasion to look at the Original AmLaw 50 from 1985. Here are the first three columns: Rank, firm, and gross revenue: Aside from the historic time warp we...
by Bruce | October 12, 2016 | Articles, Just Plain Interesting
From the redoubtable David Warsh of Economic Principals: When the Nobel Prizes were established, in 1901, the Nobel Foundation for perhaps a decade sought to spirit laureates into Stockholm in order that they should be available when their recognition was announced....
by Bruce | October 3, 2016 | About the Site, Articles
Word came this weekend that my friend and one of Adam Smith, Esq.’s closest long-time partners in the surprisingly small world we inhabit had died a few days ago of a sudden heart attack; Ward was 69. I can’t even remember the first time I met Ward, as it...
