Communication’s Holy Grail
When I was six years old I was told that if I played with my tummy button my bottom would fall off?That message was delivered to me some forty years ago and yet I remember it very well even today. For the last twenty years or so I have been bombarded with any number of… More
Let them eat chocolates!
Cue the Ambassador?s residence, a dinner party for glamorous and sophisticated people, soft lights, romantic music, and a beautiful young woman approaches her impossibly handsome host ?Ahh Mr Ambassador you spoil us with your chocolates?. This fondly remembered line from a rather silly television advert about luxury chocolates is also relevant to legal services. I… More
Thought Leader
In business we are constantly told that change is inevitable, ?adapt or die? slogans are bandied around and there is a whole industry of publishers, presenters and consultants with clever words to make those who have proper jobs feel inadequate. There are sticks to beat us with everywhere: Clementi, Performance Management, Commoditisation, Procurement Departments?and every… More
Simple and Focussed.
There is an old line about the inexact science of marketing? The apocryphal Marketing Director declares that at least half of the money spent on marketing is fantastically successful ? the trouble is the Marketing Director does not know which half? There is also an element of the emperor?s new clothes about marketing ? not… More
Change on the way for law firms
In the olden days it was all so straightforward. The young tyro worked hard at law school, secured a good training contract, worked like a pit pony for a few years, made partner and then worked at making rain. Then as the rather fatter and more arrogant version of the man he used to be,… More
Brave New World
?We live in such a fast paced competitive world. We have to earn every pound we invoice – sometimes more than every pound – and client loyalty is barely a recognisable characteristic in anything we do these days?? So said one senior law firm partner to me recently in the sort of resigned tone usually… More
Won’t you stay just a little bit longer?
Law firms lose people too easily. Trainees come and go like fallible components in a greedy machine and qualified lawyers move on so readily that they seem not so much to have career paths as crazy paving. What a ridiculous cost, what a waste of time and energy. I think this is a huge issue… More
Being a Great Communicator
There is an old joke about consultants – they know at least one hundred ways to make love to a beautiful woman? the problem is that they do not know any women! When I was General Counsel in two UK plcs I suspect that I’might not have been very receptive to the idea that a… More
The Terror Threat
The inconvenience caused to our daily lives is managed ? it would be churlish to grumble after all, but the sense of fear is palpable and I resent that very much. The tragedy of lives lost, of people damaged forever and hurt so raw it may never heal, is one predictable and desired outcome of… More
The Loneliness of the Long Distance General Counsel
Speak to any General Counsel today and ask them what keeps them awake at night and two things are typically mentioned: ? The company?s businesses decisions are made today on the sophisticated analysis of financial, risk, market and trends metrics ? very little of which exists to justify the value of legal services. There is… More