Science Faction...

The Firm Elite dinner on the 19th May was populated by a diverse combination of experts from the Banking, Legal, Design, Publishing and Consultancy sectors.  The amazing guest speaker was Diana Garnham, Chief Executive of the Science Council, War Studies graduate and 80s film set owner .......... 

The future of Science certainly appears to be in safe hands!  

The businesses that are fortunate enough to contain Firm Elite members also appear to have the right key people to create the competitive edge that all companies need to survive tougher economic times............. 

Trying to add value to the unwilling?

'Partners give responsibility with one hand, and then take it away with the other!' So said a strategic IT manager the other day. Not an uncommon complaint by those working within law firms. Why is it that those who own law firms appoint highly qualified and experienced professional managers, with the skills needed to take a firm forward into an exciting future, and then disregard their advice or limit their freedom to implement their plans?

Some would say it is to do with the ownership structure of those firms. Personal liability makes an individual avoid risk where possible. And if a business owner is not in control of a part of that business, how can the risk be avoided? There are many professional managers in LLPs who face political/ownership issues as well, however, where personal liability is less of an issue - so can fear of risk be the real reason?

Others would say that lawyers' lack of business acumen and experience means that they do not recognise the benefits which professional managers can bring. They do not understand, and therefore do not trust them, to manage that risk, rather than avoid it.

Others say that lawyers choose to employ strategic level managers yet expect them to limit their actions to operational level issues - or vice versa.

Our latest newsletter highlights the frustration of some professional managers who work in law firms.

There is another reason for professional managers often feeling unloved and unwanted - and, for once, we cannot blame the lawyers for that! Good managers understand the implications and impact of other management areas on their own field. Yet frequently in practice, Firm Beliefs comes across HR professionals who do not know how to calculate the return on an investment in expenditure on training, finance professionals who do not understand the role that IT can play in providing good management information systems, IT professionals who do not understand how to design a 'what if' scenario for an HR succession planning programme, or marketing professionals who do not understand the value that a performance management programme can have on achieving better cross-selling throughout a firm. So professional managers themselves, by not practising joined-up management, do not perform as well as they might, and this in turn contributes to the partners' lack of confidence in their ability to add value to the organisation.

Both lawyers and professional managers need to understand where their own strengths and weaknesses lie. They then need to work together to achieve closer working relationships which, ultimately, will lead to that relationship adding value to the firm as a whole. The business owners and the professional managers need to understand more about each other's world. A common language is needed.

Firm Beliefs runs a number of skills development programmes which, ultimately, enable both lawyers and professional managers to enhance their management skills. These result in closer, and more effective, working relationships because there is then a shared understanding of business and management, a common language and greater trust between lawyer and manager. Click on our Professional Skills and Firm Elite pages.

No news is good news - for lawyers?

One of my favourite quotes about journalism is by author and illustrator Nicolas Bentley: “No news is good news. No journalists is even better.”

I imagine there are a fair number of senior lawyers out there who secretly sympathise with this sentiment. Like others in all walks of business, they might feel articles and interviews on their activities can only be looking for trouble – unnecessary to invite and potentially perilous. In a worst-case scenario they may be paving the way for PR disasters or negative publicity; if not, they are wary of giving people any undesirable insight into their strategic thinking.

Such an impression would not really be that surprising. The modern media – that “feral beast” with a thirst for blood as Tony Blair described it – has taken quite a bashing of late. Whether or not the hostility is justified is open to debate, but some of the tension is probably inevitable. Politicians, in particular, have engaged journalists in an ongoing war of words in recent years – revenge perhaps for the relentless use of terms such as ‘spin doctor’ in political coverage. Interestingly, online encyclopaedia Wikipedia makes the point that calling a PR professional a spin doctor is, after all, effectively the derogatory equivalent of calling a journalist a ‘hack’.

I have now been editor of Managing Partner for almost a year, and while the law firm/press relationship is hardly as stormy as that between the government and the nationals, many people at least appear apprehensive of talking too much. Not long after I started one very senior figure of a prominent firm I approached specifically told me – albeit somewhat apologetically – that firm always tried to minimise any comment in the press.

Of course, lawyers will always be naturally cautious too – risk-avoidance being a basic part of the job. Sensibly, they like to be ultra-prepared for interviews – almost more as though they were being questioned in a legal scenario than what we like to construct more as a conversation. Putting people at their ease – friendly rather than forceful – encourages them to be more open, but lawyers are perhaps a shrewder group than most.

Again, however, any suspicion is perhaps not surprising given what they do for a living. An awareness of all the possible implications of something said or written is the very essence of the work. Even so, I was a little amused when talking to one managing partner about their firm’s flexible-working policy and preparedness for the age-discrimination legislation now in effect. Impressed with what I was told and given its own employment-law expertise, I suggested the firm felt it had a ‘handle’ on the subject. I was told they would not want to come across as complacent.

Nevertheless, compared to other business areas I have covered as a journalist, lawyers do like to write, and they are also usually quite good at it – even if their prose could do with some pruning at times. A few years ago I spent two years on some magazines in the international oil and gas industry, where persuading people to write was much more difficult. Then, when they did commit, deciphering the engineer-speak – not to mention the finer points of welding and corrosion when English was sometimes not the first language – was an ongoing (and I have to admit, occasionally irritating) challenge. As for Managing Partner, I write myself of course – interviews and subject overviews – and we also have a pool of freelance journalists to draw on. But having many willing contributors is useful when it comes to commissioning case studies and columns, which is the basic format of the magazine.

Managing Partner is certainly the strongest title I have been involved in to date in my career. It is also an exciting time to be leading it. Its success is thanks to the strength of the editorial board (all drawn from the profession) and the growing number of practitioners who are not afraid to share their thoughts with peers and engage in sensible, non-sensational debate about where the profession is headed and the challenges in store.

To end with another quote, award-winning US playwright, the late great Arthur Miller, said: “A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.” Replace ‘nation’ with ‘profession’, and I think you have a good sound byte for what Managing Partner is trying to do as a magazine.

Richard Brent

http://www.mpmagazine.com/

The third sector challenge

I spent many years working for an agency delivering corporate marketing and communications services to a variety of different organisations (generally with very healthy marketing budgets), including profit making and membership associations.

Just over a year ago, I decided it was time for a change in direction and was offered the position of marketing and communications manager for national charity Toc H. Not only was this my first encounter with the Third Sector – but incredibly it was also Toc H’s first real encounter with an in-house marketing professional.

The charity, which was established in the First World War, had a Christian ethos: To Love Widely, To Build Bravely, To Think Fairly and To Witness Humbly. Unfortunately, the reality of this was to do lots of great work in communities, but not tell anyone about it. While biblically this is the correct way to deliver Christian values, in this day and age with numerous charities all vying for the same pot of money, it certainly doesn’t help with fundraising!

To be honest, my very first obstacle was trying to understand what Toc H was all about and identify what its main aims and objectives were. The charity seems to have its fingers in so many pots – working in communities delivering training, social activities to the isolated and elderly, language classes to ethnic minority groups, family support, youth training and mentoring, community cohesion campaigns. It operates several nurseries, is actively supporting three new academies and even owns several residential properties which are used by groups for holidays and activity breaks. I’m sure there are even more projects that I’ve forgotten to mention – so you can see why identifying our mission was such a challenge.

Also, the overall objective of Toc H’s marketing strategy, other than raising profile and awareness, is primarily fundraising, something that until now I had very little experience of. Yes I have sales experience, but the products I had previously promoted were tangible – my customer could see what they were getting for their money. With Toc H, I am trying to sell a concept and my customer doesn’t even get anything in return for his money, apart of course from an inner glow from having helped someone less fortunate than himself.

To sum up Toc H’s objective, I finally identified its all-round aim to eliminate social exclusion whether that is young people, the elderly, because of culture, religion or race. Toc H promotes friendship and equality and works to bring community cohesion. Actually talking to the people who benefit from Toc H’s work was the biggest eye opener of all. We really are making a huge difference to people’s lives and giving them fresh hope for a better future. Young people who have spent their lives in local authority care and have never had the loving guidance of a mother or a father. Many expelled from school, no education or training, drinking alcohol, taking drugs and generally living life on a downward spiral. Toc H has given numerous young people like this, who society looks upon as a lost cause, a second chance. Offering one-to-one mentoring and alternative education programmes. Visit: http://www.tochparticipation.co.uk/youth-initiatives/case-study-1---horizons-youth-mentoring.htm to read Jonathan’s story.

I listened to a mother whose son has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Her family were isolated and couldn’t socialise or go out and enjoy normal family activities because of her child’s anti-social behaviour. She explained how Toc H has made life bearable by offering support and a social network for her family. Visit: http://www.tochparticipation.co.uk/adhd-support/what-is-adhd.htm

A simple Tea and Cake campaign saw communities which were segregated by religious and cultural differences and lack of understanding of each other brought together and offering friendship to each other. Visit http://www.tochparticipation.co.uk/be-inspired/tea-and-cake-campaign.htm

In actual fact, the work that Toc H does simply markets itself. You couldn’t read some of the stories on our website, without being moved.

So my job is really all about communication – telling the World about this wonderful organisation and how it has touched so many lives.

Do visit Toc H’s website at www.toch.org.uk and dig deep into its content to read stories and case studies. There are also volunteering opportunities and news about work all over the UK. Feel free to leave your feedback on our forum – and of course all donations, however small are always greatly appreciated.

Christine Scippo
Marketing Manager TocH

ROMI & The fisherman

In a pub, on the shores of a remote northern coast, fishermen used to gather, share their stories and exaggerate about the size of their catch. One fisherman always had it his way: he used his long arms to show that the fish he caught were the biggest. One night sceptical fellow fishermen decided to sit him in the corner so he could not open his arms wide open. He still tried to win the argument: he formed a large circle with his arms and added, 'that was the size of its eye'. Their scepticism was confirmed.

Referring to trust, Guy R. Powell argues in his book Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI), that 'There's no better way to ..... get more money than using a language that the money people can understand.'

I tend to share Powell´s concern about the lack of clear, direct, unequivocal communication between 'marketing people' and other departments. But does the introduction of yet more jargon really help? Investment and marketing used in the same sentence are still received with cynicism and distrust. And who's to blame? Obviously, the 'money people' who don't understand marketing!

Ok. What if the opposite is true? What if some marketing professionals are not earning trust and confidence through their day-to-day commitment and professionalism? Marketing success stories of IBM, NSPCC, World Rally Championship, etc. prove that when they do, they get recognition, more responsibility and...money to invest in marketing.

People from different departments should work together, in synchrony, mutual trust and without barriers. The alternative is being alienated, without ability to influence the business, and a perpetual battle to avoid being seated in the corner.