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May 26, 2012
Remembering: What do you remember about childhood? Does it matter?
I am a first-born who can remember growing up. I can remember lots--or at least lots of versions--of it. Lots of people in different places. Family. Friends. Victories. Defeats. Washington D.C., Chicago, Grand Rapids, Detroit, Chicago again, summer retreats in Michigan. Cincinnati. Durham, North Carolina (after all, most of us are still children when we enter college; at 18, I was an ever-morphing mercurial man-child). Those memories DO matter. They instruct. They even entertain. Done right, they are a source of pleasure. But you need to listen to them. Like homing pigeons, they are, if you think about it. You can let memories dump on you. Or you can let them carry messages.
"French Girl", by Richard Vanek, a Slovakian photographer who lives in the Netherlands.
Posted by JD Hull at 02:03 PM | Comments (0)
May 24, 2012
Clients to Firms: Keep your Myopics and Silos of Expertise. But let there be Quarterbacks and General Managers.
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Clients: "We need Quarterbacks and Project Managers."
Redux and Tribute to the Prescience of Carolyn Elefant and Reese Morrison: The Big Law Firm Curse: "An aggregation of narrow views." We wrote this November 10, 2008:
The Big Law Firm Curse: "An aggregation of narrow views. Boom! Morrison nails it. Elefant names it.
Via Legal Blog Watch, and the alert eye of Ed. of Blawg Review, I read Rees Morrison's comprehensive and perceptive piece in the New York Law Journal about what larger law firms can and cannot do for clients.
My take: As a general rule, if you are that rare GC who doesn't know the terrain yet, and have no idea where else to turn, go to a big firm first. I can name 10 good ones I like between 500 and 3000 lawyers in five key practice areas that my firm and other boutiques conduct as well. Why not? The talent is there. It's still a good bet.
The Hitch: it's there somewhere--not throughout, and not in all areas--and you do have to find it.
On talent, both abroad and in the U.S., large law firms currently are a double-edged sword. They do have, and always will have talent; however, in recent years, they've diluted the gene pool on lateral hires in order to get bigger. So Ferraris, Jaguars, Chevy Aveos, pick-up trucks and rickshaws all run on the same track. And their offices in smaller cities abroad can be spotty, mediocre and even scary. (Do you really want "Borat" as your company's lawyer in, say, Eastern Europe?--because that is what you might get.)
Further, and as Morrison points out, there are in larger firms troublesome inflationary pressures on hours billed. Value questions. Forget about what the markets will bear; on a good day, first and second year associates are worth about -$50.00/hour, once you factor in what it takes to teach, guide and monitor them, and "remediate" their work.
An even bigger problem for WAC?, however, is what Morrison calls "deep specialization, but narrower perspective". Oddly, in the last year I have heard two in-house counsel mention this themselves about mega-firms: the lack of "broad-gauged" lawyers. These are leaders and facilitators who, in addition to a their own specialty, have an expansive frame of reference about the world, business, other practice areas, and how they all fit together. As Ari Gold would say, "Boom!" Morrison has nailed the biggest substantive large law firm problem. In her summary of Morrison article at LBW, Carolyn Elefant describes it the lack of "the ability to offer a broad perspective--only an aggregation of narrow views." Bravo, Morrison, and Elefant.
Posted by JD Hull at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)
May 22, 2012
Tom Doctoroff in WSJ on China now: Increasingly international--but distinctly Chinese.
If you missed it three days ago when it appeared in the weekend edition of The Wall Street Journal, see author-consultant Tom Doctoroff's authoritative, insightful and often surprising snapshot of China in "What the Chinese Want". The article helps roll out the carpet for Doctoroff's new book on China, being released today. Three excerpts from the article:
China is a Confucian society, a quixotic combination of top-down patriarchy and bottom-up social mobility. Citizens are driven by an ever-present conflict between standing out and fitting in, between ambition and regimentation. In Chinese society, individuals have no identity apart from obligations to, and acknowledgment by, others. The clan and nation are the eternal pillars of identity. Western individualism—the idea of defining oneself independent of society—doesn't exist.
The speed with which China's citizens have embraced all things digital is one sign that things are in motion in the country. But e-commerce, which has changed the balance of power between retailers and consumers, didn't take off until the Chinese need for reassurance was satisfied. Even when transactions are arranged online, most purchases are completed in person, with shoppers examining the product and handing over their cash offline.
Chinese at all socioeconomic levels try to "win"—that is, climb the ladder of success—while working within the system, not against it. In Chinese consumer culture, there is a constant tension between self-protection and displaying status. This struggle explains the existence of two seemingly conflicting lines of development. On the one hand, we see stratospheric savings rates, extreme price sensitivity and aversion to credit-card interest payments. On the other, there is the Chinese fixation with luxury goods and a willingness to pay as much as 120% of one's yearly income for a car.
Posted by JD Hull at 02:20 AM | Comments (0)
May 20, 2012
Born in Chicago.
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
Bareheaded,
Shoveling,
Wrecking,
Planning,
Building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth.
--from Carl Sandburg's "Chicago"
NATO Summit: Saturday night live on Michigan Avenue (AFP photo).
Posted by JD Hull at 06:50 PM | Comments (0)