By Amazing Firms Amazing Practices, Gerry Riskin.
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Your law firm’s success in 2012 may require considerable ingenuity under extreme pressure just as it did from the crew of Apollo 13 for their safe return to Earth.
Apollo 13 was the third mission in the American Apollo space program intended to land on the Moon. The number 2 oxygen tank in the Service Module exploded en route to the Moon, approximately 200,000 miles (320,000 km) from Earth. The developing drama was shown on television and depicted in the Apollo 13 movie based on the mission.
If you saw the movie, you may recall that the head of Mission Control assembled a team in a conference room and requested that the materials available to the astronauts in the Service Module be brought to the room because they had but a few hours to learn how to make oxygen to save the astronauts’ lives.
By contrast, when the senior leadership team in most law firms meets to explore strategy, there is no sense of urgency. Worse, after extraordinarily bright people come up with some amazing plans, in most firms they are doomed to atrophy due to a lack of execution.
As you consider 2012, I recommend that you:
I confess that I have framed this in a slightly melodramatic way in order to be provocative. The serious lesson I ask you to take from this is that your plans need a deadline and they must be executed as if life itself dependent upon them. That is why in Edge, we make no apology for being obsessed with action.
Your comments would be appreciated as usual.
(Thanks to Wikipedia for the image and details)
Originally posted at Amazing Firms Amazing Practices. Please visit http://www.gerryriskin.com/.
By Amazing Firms Amazing Practices, Gerry Riskin.
An article in this month's Corporate Counsel Magazine has the spotlight on Valorem and for good reason.
Author Susan Hansen says:
Valorem… now boasts a list of big, brand-name clients, including funeral industry giant Service Corporation International; national shoe retailer DSW Inc.; Veolia Water, a supplier of water and wastewater management services; and the online travel site kayak.com.
and later in the article reports::
…clients definitely like the fact that Valorem is more than willing to work out fee arrangements that are at least partially tied to the results they produce. Case in point: a major lease dispute that Valorem is currently handling for DSW that is headed for trial in Los Angeles this fall. As part of its agreement, the company has been holding back 20 percent of Valorem’s billings, with the final payout to be determined by how well the firm meets mutually defined success metrics in the case.
Punchline: in a world where firms and clients are talking a lot about alternate fees (AFA), Valorem and its clients are innovating with imaginative fee and billing solutions that truly are win/win, and I say BRAVO ! Managing Partners of all firms intent on surviving would do well to analyze and understand Valorem's approach.
For the full article, click on the image.
Disclosure: I have the honour of serving on Valorem's Advisory Board
Originally posted at Amazing Firms Amazing Practices. Please visit http://www.gerryriskin.com/.
By Amazing Firms Amazing Practices, Gerry Riskin.
Presentation Materials from the Good to Outstanding, it's all about your people" conference in Hong Kong
For the required PASSWORD, kindly email me. (Your email address must match your registration)
To download presentation materials, click on the relevant presentation.
Originally posted at Amazing Firms Amazing Practices. Please visit http://www.gerryriskin.com/.
By Amazing Firms Amazing Practices, Gerry Riskin.
Really ? (No.)
Really ? (Yes.)
How refreshing for Forbes to offer us 26 Lessons from a 26 Year Old CEO, Shama Kabani. Her wisdom is well-suited for consideration by Managing Partners of the most significant law firms. Her ideas are extraordinarily mature for her age which may explain her phenomenal business success. Here are a few examples:
…planning (#1):
…listening (#2):
…and #15 (who would expect a 26 year old to remind us to dress appropriately):
…and #26 (think "Managing Partner" rather than CEO and "firm" rather than company):
My opinion: Except for #18 (decide for yourself), I think every single one of the 26 lessons is worthy of consideration by every law firm leader
Read all 26 lessons at Forbes: 26 Lessons from a 26 Year Old CEO
Shama Kabani is the award winning CEO of The Marketing Zen Group, a full service web marketing firm in Dallas. She is also the author of the best-selling, The Zen of Social Media Marketing; and hosts her own web TV show at Shama.Tv. Her photo is courtesy of the Young Entrepreneurial Council. Thank you to Annie Colbert of Guy Kawasaki’s ALLTOP for bringing this Forbes Blogpost to my attention.
Originally posted at Amazing Firms Amazing Practices. Please visit http://www.gerryriskin.com/.
By Amazing Firms Amazing Practices, Gerry Riskin.
The irony is too delicious to pass up. Mark Zuckerberg has invented one of the most powerful communication tools ever known to mankind. Facebook has literally started revolutions.
Why, then, would the most successful communications entrepreneur in history regress to a pre-internet form of communication? For the same reason Jack Welch did as president of General Electric.
Not only is a handwritten letter more powerful than e-mail, but it’s horsepower is increasing exponentially. Why? Because it is ever rarer.
If you want to increase your influence and the impact of your important communications, get some personal stationery suited for the purpose and use it.
You may not believe this, but in my experience with powerful members of the executive of many top law firms, personal notes they have received from their colleagues or clients are carefully saved for years along with other precious personal possessions.
Image of stationery from THE GRAPHIC WORKS OF BEN BARRY
Originally posted at Amazing Firms Amazing Practices. Please visit http://www.gerryriskin.com/.
By Amazing Firms Amazing Practices, Gerry Riskin.
All of the Managing Partners with whom I work are devoured by their "multitasking work environments". "Recovering from information overload" (McKinsey Quarterly, January 2011) authors Derek Dean and Caroline Webb have succinctly laid out their take on the problems and solutions:
Problems (multitasking):
slows us down,
hampers creativity and
makes us anxious and it’s addictive)
Solutions (Coping with the deluge):
Focus,
Filter and
Forget
Perhaps the most valuable part of the article lies in an exploration of how to hit the "reset button".
If you are the Managing Partner (or have any leadership responsibilities in your firm) I suggest you read this article twice, once to assimilate it and next to make your action plan for the parts or pieces you want to implement. Download the PDF or read online.
Originally posted at Amazing Firms Amazing Practices. Please visit http://www.gerryriskin.com/.
By Amazing Firms Amazing Practices, Gerry Riskin.
I am honoured to be in the esteemed company of the publishers and advisors of Attorney at Work that promises “One Really Good Idea Every Day”
There is no cost to subscribe and the ideas will flow starting in January.
I recommend that you subscribe now
Congratulations in particular to my long time friend, Merrilyn Tarlton who conceived this idea with Joan and Mark Feldman
Originally posted at Amazing Firms Amazing Practices. Please visit http://www.gerryriskin.com/.
By Amazing Firms Amazing Practices, Gerry Riskin.
Download by clicking on image or HERE Registered participants were provided with Password in session.
Originally posted at Amazing Firms Amazing Practices. Please visit http://www.gerryriskin.com/.
By Amazing Firms Amazing Practices, Gerry Riskin.
Download by clicking on image or HERE Registered participants were provided with Password in session.
Originally posted at Amazing Firms Amazing Practices. Please visit http://www.gerryriskin.com/.
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