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February 14, 2014

Light a Candle for Cairo: The Church of St. George.

We at WAC/P rarely attend religious services in any nation or jurisdiction. However, we have marveled for years at both the quality of artistry (in architecture, sculpture and painting) and depth of resources historically devoted to church interiors. In fact, exploring the alcoves and niches of the world's older Catholic churches is--at least in our fogged-up Cosmos--one of the most sensual things you can do with your clothes on after leaving U.S. soil. But go once alone. It's amazing who's in there. Most sanctuaries are open to the public during the business day and a good while into the evening. At Ms. Maryam's My Marrakesh, see her July 2010 post featuring photos she took off this church's interior in Cairo.

(Photo by Maryam)

Posted by JD Hull at 11:16 PM | Comments (0)

The Samaritans: Kenyan television rolls out its NGO-bashing version of The Office.

I watch very little television of any kind. Even worse, I have a problem with people who do. On a normal day, I just think you don't need to have the thing on any longer than 30 minutes for the news. Exceptions are some sports events, some movies, much of HBO, and anything having to do with Parker Posey or Lee Remick. Generally, however, I think television is Bad.

I do like to check out TV in other countries; it can tell you some things. And so a few years ago in a Manchester hotel room I watched part of an episode of The Office, the original BBC mockumentary comedy series created by Brits Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant in 2001. I thought it was brilliant. I had no idea, of course, that an American version had started airing in the states a few years before.

Since the original BBC show aired, there have been seven (7) versions of The Office: U.S., Germany, France, French-Canadian, Chile, Israel and Sweden. So you can see one version or another in about 85 countries.

And now it seems there is an eighth--out of Kenya. Called The Samaritans, the Kenyan version is about a dysfunctional NGO bent on saving Africa. The show, a satire of the world's international development community, is produced by Xeinium Productions and funded so far by Kickstarter and via its own website. The first African takeoff on The Office, the series is about the Kenya field office of an NGO called Aid for Aid which "does nothing". See yesterday's article and video in the Global Post.

Photo: Xeinium Productions

Posted by JD Hull at 12:22 AM | Comments (0)

February 13, 2014

Happy Birthday, EJB.

Image: Alex Waterhouse-Hayward

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

February 12, 2014

Redux: Will we ever apply Ease-of-Use product concepts to Services?

And with thanks to New York City's Scott Greenfield for revisiting Ease-of-Use this week in his inventive "A Plea Agreement With An Easy To Use Handle".

About a decade ago, slowly and almost imperceptibly, industrialized economies like the United States and the United Kingdom became services-based, rather than products-based. In fact, in the last few years, both developing (interestingly, most countries in sub-Sahara Africa) and middle-income countries started to make the same transition.

Importantly, apart from the steady rise in services like financial services, health care, human services, tourism, education and information technology, the growing movement toward services was fueled by a new development: a revolutionary increase in sales of products with a "service component".

Manufacturers and sellers like IBM, now seeing themselves chiefly as solution providers, began to mix products with services, often through contracts to maintain, replace and/or modify complex equipment and hardware. Currently, if a product is involved, a product-services mix is almost always present. Sure, the seller's product is still in the picture. But the sale of services--generally, consulting services--is now the main event. Products, goods and equipment? They are now secondary, and part of the services solution. Things have changed.

Moreover, as newer and product-related services expanded, traditional and professional services--e.g., law, accounting, medicine, advertising--also continued to grow and hold their own.

Ease-of-Use for Products. In the past, and now (consider Apple's revolutionary if playful obsession with building products that are functional, attractive and highly intuitive for the user) a product, good or item of hardware you can see, feel and touch could be judged by its "friendliness" or ease-of-use.

So now we all live and work in a rapidly growing services economy. My question: In the future, can we compete for customers and clients on the basis of ease-of-use? Can we develop and apply ease-of-use product concepts to pure services? Will our own clients apply these notions to their own products and services for solving customer problems? Why not apply a user-friendliness ethos to our services for those clients? Law. Accounting. Consulting. In other words, we would apply ease-of-use to any commercial activity where a service or product-service mix is part of what people pay for.

Ease-of-Use for Services. Why not? Consider for a moment a familiar household product. In 2006, The Folgers Coffee Company was awarded an Ease-of-Use Commendation by the Arthritis Foundation for its AromaSeal Canister. If you're a Folgers drinker (arthritic or not), you notice that Folgers added an "easy-to-peel tin freshness seal" (no need for a can-opener), a new "snap-tight lid that helps seal air out and seals aroma in" and of course "convenient handle that’s easy to hold". (I love the way these ad guys-word revelers describe and sell you on the improvement. It's not corporate trained seal-speak.)

Think of other product lines in everyday life. The great companies many of us represent do spend money and expertise on making their goods, equipment and products, well, more usable. Think about your car, your luggage, your TV remote, your watch and even grips on household tools. Think again about Apple--and Dell and Microsoft. Each year these companies think through your experience with their products and try to make it even better. Continuous improvement exercises for goods and things.

Folgers is innovative but not unique. For examples, IBM and CISCO have their own ease-of-use programs for the products they sell.

Developing and applying ease-of-use concepts to services is coming anyway--even while it will be infinitely harder to do for services than for products. Law firms, of course, have always sold services. And we are a small but powerful engine in the growth of the services sector. We strategize with, guide and craft solutions for clients every day. While that's all going on--day in and day out--what is it like for the client to work with you and yours? Are clients experiencing a team--or hearing and seeing isolated acts by talented but soul-less techies?

Do you make reports and communications short, easy and to the point? Who gets copied openly so clients don't have to guess about who knows what? Is it fun (yeah, we just said fun) to work with your firm? How are your logistics for client meetings, travel and lodging? Do you make life easier? Or harder? Are you and yours accessible? In short, aside from the technical aspects of your service, does your client feel safe?

So what if law firms--or any other service provider for that matter--thought through, applied and constantly improved the delivery of our services and how clients really experience them?

And then competed on it...?

Posted by JD Hull at 11:57 PM | Comments (0)

February 11, 2014

To Woody Allen: "Never write a letter, never throw one away."

On Sunday, in response to his adoptive daughter Dylan Farrow's allegations of sexual abuse by him when she was seven years old, Woody Allen published in the New York Times an open letter that certainly no publicist, lawyer or sane human being would have advised him to send. See, e.g., in yesterday's Vanity Fair "Prosecutor from Dylan Farrow’s Sexual-Assault-Claim Case “Outraged” by Woody Allen’s Open Letter, Considering Legal Action" and the article's accompanying links. Next time, Woodman, bite your tongue.

Allan Stewart Konigsberg in 2006

Posted by JD Hull at 02:48 PM | Comments (0)

February 10, 2014

You need a "New Mind" for Reinvention--Part 2.

Last week, Reinvent Law came to the Great Hall at Cooper Union in New York City. Scott Greenfield, trial lawyer, writer and my second favorite New Yorker (after Parker Posey), was there. Over at Simple Justice, his daily Speakers' Corner, he has these two posts: #ReinventLaw NYC: A Survivor’s Tale and A Plea Agreement With An Easy To Use Handle.

SHG

Posted by JD Hull at 11:03 PM | Comments (0)

February 09, 2014

Over the Weekend: This is the Way to Change the Law of Equal Protection?

Regardless of how you weigh in on the substantive issue, is this the right way to change equal protection law? See, e.g., the Washington Post's report on Eric Holder's announcement on Saturday: "U.S. Justice Department To Give Married Same-Sex Couples Equal Protection". Excerpt:

The Justice Department on Monday will instruct all of its employees across the country, for the first time, to give lawful same-sex marriages sweeping equal protection under the law in every program it administers, from courthouse proceedings to prison visits to the compensation of surviving spouses of public safety officers.

In a new policy memo, the department will spell out the rights of same-sex couples, including the right to decline to give testimony that might incriminate their spouses, even if their marriages are not recognized in the state where the couple lives.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:04 AM | Comments (0)