
Joe Reevy provides ten tips for long-term survival
One of the great things about business is that sometimes you get “all your ducks in a row” and something comes along which makes you change everything more or less on the fly.
Tip number one has to be to make your decision-making process fast, so you can be light on your feet—one of the key skills firms will need to survive and prosper.
Anticipation
Recently I got an e-mail from a partner in a substantial firm, in which he was justifying not outsourcing a function on the basis that it was currently carried out by fee-earners, who have—according to him—“no cost”. I requested that some of these cost-free lawyers be despatched to our premises to sort out various legal issues.
(Make tip number two to anticipate client needs rather than reacting to them—there’s a huge market for your services if you only ask…). Partners, and others, who don’t understand basic cost accounting are not qualified to be involved in the making