Sorry that there hasn't been a blog for a couple of days, been rather busy working on a new project.

I was talking to a group of friends the other day explaining my new business to them providing management training to lawyers. One friend commented that it was quite a risky thing for me to do especially as he found lawyers to be very arrogant and thinking that they didn't need management training.

I replied that if we don't venture into new waters and experiment then the whole system of enterprise would falter and companies that changed the world such as Apple(Happy 30th Birthday for the 1st) and Microsoft would never have existed. Ultimately if we all took this approach then the world would not be as open as it is today.

Perhaps the greater risk is to do nothing at all.

Picasso & the admiral

This reminded me of a quote that I read recently from Pablo Picasso - who said "Success is dangerous. one begins to copy oneself. It is more dangerous than to copy others, it leads to sterility.."

Readers of my previous blogs will remember my story of the Chinese admiral.

In the late 15th century, China was probably the worlds foremost maritime power and had explored to the shores of east Africa. The emperor decided that the fleet was not a cost effective idea and forebade future long distance sea trips. From that moment it began the slow but steady decline of nearly 500 years and lost the scientific and cultural superiority it had over the West.

It is the same with Management training for law firms - they rely on the same methods that have served them well and slowly and surely their exposure to new ideas that help them come to terms with change in their industry.

As Lincoln said during the Civil War " The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present."

It is the same with the legal industry here, a number of firms do recognise the need but they are in the minority of bringing in outside help who can bring new ideas to their partners of the future. Following the recent changes in the industry are like to find that stormy present has the same effect on the industry as the General Sherman's march south had on Georgia

I'm sure that the legal industry may also remember the opening line in the movie Gone with the Wind which says:-

Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered. A Civilization gone with the wind...

Organisations are evolutionary beings and if they don't adapt then like the creatures of the Cretaceous era they will disappear and be replaced by new creatures better adapted to their new environment.

Also lawyers need to understand that even if they do send their people on training courses to improve their management skills it is only effective if they are allowed to practice and utilise those skills on their return and that their voices are heard in the managing councils of the firm and help to bring new ideas to those at the top so that everyone's knowledge and skills can be updated and adapt.

Conclusion

Law firms do not have a divine right to survive, they will survive based on being competitive and innovative and by harnessing the full knowledge portfolio that they have at their disposal.

If anyone would like to challenge me on this view point in the article, I'd be pleased to take up the challenge.

I very rarely move out of my field of management, but as Donne said - no man is an island and there are other things to pass on.

I was reading an article by Eamonn Butler on the Adam Smith institute following the passing of the ID Card bill, which I for one are concerned about. I don't buy the argument that if you've done nothing wrong you've got nothing to fear.

Here is the article in full for you to consider

The ID Card bill has passed critical stages in Parliament. We should be worried. Here is why:

The new ID Card will be unlike any other bit of ID you hold. It is the key to a National Identity Register (NIR) that will give you a unique number, and will hold images of your fingerprints, a scan of the back of your eye, and your photograph (you will have to turn up at the authorities' convenience to be fingerprinted, scanned, and photographed).

Your name, address, and date of birth will be stored there, and you will have to inform the authorities if you move. There is plenty of space on the database to capture other information on you too, and ministers will be able to add new details without going back to Parliament.

The government says it will not be compulsory to carry the card, but in fact it will be essential for everyday living. Card readers will be everywhere. They will help stores check ID fraud when people pay by credit card, and banks when people withdraw cash. Pubs, discos, and traders selling alcohol or cigarettes will want to swipe your card to make sure you are not under age, so they do not get fined.

All these swipes could provide a detailed record of where you are at any time. Buy a mobile phone or a London Transport Oyster Card and that will enable the authorities to track who you talk to and where you travel to. Likewise if you set up an internet account or an ordinary phone line. Buy groceries and your data are instantly allied to your Nectar card or credit card, so all of your purchases can be traced as well. Pick up your prescription at the chemist and you will show up again.

There will be no escape. Refuse to be fingerprinted, scanned and photographed, and you will not get a new passport, your pension, or your social benefits. If the Home Secretary decides to revoke your card, you become a non-person, unable to draw money or even buy cigarettes, until your status is restored. Bureaucrats who are in charge of this information will be obvious targets for blackmail or bribery from anyone who wants to dig up dirt on you. All they need is your ID number.

Of course, ID Cards in Spain did not stop the Madrid bombing. But then who ever said this was all about controlling terrorism? Oh yes, the government did. But you did not really believe that, did you? It’s about controlling us.

Do us all a favour. Pass this on to your friends.

You have done well my apprentice

We have all experienced it at one time and another shoddy service in a store and you vow when you go out, never to darken their doors for some period of time or ever and we share that experience with friends and family. And like Anakin Skywalker we seethe and turn into the dark avenger of the enterprise until we feel that we have sated our need for retribution.

I listened to a podcast recently by Stephen Hoch a marketing professor at Wharton, who highlighted that such word-of-mouth communication should be a big cause of concern to retailers.

He and a consulting group in a retail survey highlighted that "only 6% of shoppers who experienced a problem with a retailer contacted the company, but 31% went on to tell friends, family or colleagues what happened. Of those, 8% told one person, another 8% told two people, but 6% told six or more people. "Even though these shoppers don't share their pain with the store, they do share their pain with other people, apparently quite a few other people," says Hoch."

And of course when the story is told to friends, like Chinese whispers it is embellished and nearly half of the people will avoid that outlet based on someone's else dodgy experience. The impact is more on those who hear the story rather than the person who told the story as it becomes more and more embroidered.

Customers and the dance of the 7 veils

We also look at the way that we get service but also don't like it if we feel that we are being ripped off, even if the shop has a policy that says they will refund the difference. i was talking to a colleague over lunch who told me that he was in a shop and rang his wife up to compare a price of a digital camera on Kelkoo and found a saving of £60 on cost. He said why don't retailers realise that we aren't captive clients any more and can check prices more quickly - just be honest and be transparent in their pricing. It will help them more in the long run rather than thinking about the customer as a dummy.

A female friend of mine does a lot of clothes shopping and we were walking together past a shop which does low cost clothing. I noticed a quickening of pace past the shop and I asked her why - assuming that she didn't want to get to Starbucks quicker. She said that she disliked going in to that shop because she had difficulty in finding items there and found shopping a somewhat negative experience in this brand due to overcrowded shelves and a lack of support. She saw shopping as a pleasurable experience to be enjoyed even if it was window shopping whereas she felt that shopping in that store was a bit like her hunting for an elusive prey.


Smack that Virus

The Hoch article highlights that perhaps using a Mintzbergian approach to customer management, look to what are the dissatisfiers in their stores and then work to eradicate them as much as possible. Perhaps when looking at your customer base, you should look to do this to provide you with a competitive edge.

One way would be to have a set of slips on the checkout desk so that if you have a problem, but you are too emotional about it at the time, then leave some details i.e. telephone number or e-mail address and let the company come back to you the following day to see how they can resolve the issue before you have blown off steam to friends and family and lost that store a number of current or potential customers.

Conclusion

One of the contributors to the podcast - Paula Courtney of the Verde Group concludes by saying the following.

"Finally, if a retailer refuses to respond to dissatisfied customers, shoppers should feel free to spread the word. "If all else fails, we do encourage you to tell all your friends and family. Don't tell five people, tell 35 people,". "Retailers need to know that if they don't listen, it will hurt their bottom line."

So this is not an idea virus that any customer facing organisation wants to have out in the wild, so look to reduce those dissatisfiers before they are unleashed and you have a Darth Vader attacking your business.

The final element of my MBA was my thesis on knowledge sharing within professional service firms. I didn't look at the ICT element, but looked and considered why human beings in a law firm shared information.

A number of my colleagues in law firms have asked me to why I haven't yet done a module for law firms as they would find it useful.

Well after a couple of weeks work, I now have prepared a module and this is available now under the training courses section of the web site.

I'd welcome any feedback on the outline that people might have and any areas for improvement that they would like me to cover. This course is probably a 2 dayer in my mind.

However, knowledge management is the key management competency for this century - don't believe me but that was Peter Drucker's observation also.

I've been talking to a couple of friends recently who have asked me why I set up my own business providing management training to lawyers. One friend asked me whether it was to make loads of money and retire off to some sun kissed island.

I actually responded to him that yes money was of interest to me - but that I wanted to earn what is called an elegant sufficiency - enough for me to do some of the things that i like to do, like watching a cricket match when i please or the odd holiday to say France with someone special.

However the major reason why I took this step was to utilise the skills that I was provided with without the hindrance of corporate politics and also look to find like minded people who wanted to fully utilise their gifts in a collective endeavour to bring management training in all areas to people. I think that organisations do have a corporate soul and ethos that pervades everything that they touch.

There is a joy that I get when I am working in this way - yes it is difficult as I struggle to find my feet and initially there is the need to survive, but as the organisation grows there needs to be another underlying purpose that gets us out of bed in the morning.

I believe that it is the desire for some form of independence, to be masters of our own destiny and also the chance to be an instrument of the sublime.

I have believed that corporate life stifles people opportunities to express their inner skills and that organisations that look to control people to the nth degree are left with the equivalent of corporate zombies. These are people who have been so conditioned that they are at a stage where they refuse to take action and rely on other people to take decisions for themselves.

Mazarin will always be an organisation that will encourage people to deliver a superior product and so long as it is of their highest standard and that they take responsibility for success or learn lessons if it has not delivered, isn't a bad corporate epitaph.

I was at my graduation ceremony on Tuesday for my MBA and 30 of us went up and shook hands with the vice chancellor and received a certificate that we were now a Master of Business administration. I was reflecting on this when talking to a potential client a few days later when he asked what I offered. It was if he was looking for a solution that he could quickly implement within his organisation.

To me what I've learnt over the years is that all I can offer with any training that I provide via Mazarin is to give those people a toolbox that they can use and that they have a better insight as to what tool to use when.

It isn't the case that you can use a hammer to butter a slice of bread - it is a case of harnessing the knowledge that you have gained or it has been highlighted to you and recognising when the right tool is required for which job.

So when i come and do the training, that is why I spend a lot of time talking to the firm so that I can tailor the course accordingly and give them the right tools.

All organisations have a life span

I read a statistic that most major European companies have a life span of 13 years - in the US it is 40.

Occasionally if we are successful then we always dream that we are on a long running winning streak and like Icarus we fly to close to the sun the wax melts and we plummet to earth.

All companies start of with a dream of an idea and they do tend to to be cash poor and therefore tend to be highly focused on getting that first client before they run out of cash. If they have got their differentiation right and it can be easily communicated to a market that is interested then they tend to survive. and then grows.

However one of the dangers is that as companies mature and grow into middlesecence they do tend to focus less on innovation and can become separated from their customers . their focus tends to shift to internal management rather than the factors that made them a success in the first place.

In an article I've written for MD magazine today, I also talk about decision making in organisations and how people can fall into the status quo trap where faced with a multitude of decisions then the status quo can look like the best decision. Most organisations as they approach middle age tend to become conservative in their outlook and look to avoid risk. however, organisations tend to forget that the environment that made their enterprise successful in the beginning may not be the same in the future.

Eventually the company can become gripped by an anti innovation immune system or group-think approach where new ideas are frowned upon and outsiders especially are resisted.

Then the organisation then starts to begin in breeding and starts only to recruit from within "as only insiders know our company", this then leads to the top management not getting an input of fresh genetic material to help it to learn to develop to meet the changing challenges as marketplaces evolve that can stop the organisation from collapsing in on itself.

There was once a programme on the problems at M& S under Sir Richard Greenbury towards the end of his management at M&S where the store was massaged and the corporate equivalent of a Potemkin village was constructed to hide problems and not to upset him.
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But as Richard Watson has pointed out

"Perhaps none of this is a bad thing. After all, survival is not compulsory. Perhaps everything (individuals, organisations, markets, countries) need to die -- or at least be threatened with extinction -- so that the cycle of innovation can begin again."

Here are a few tips that he suggests

• Water your roots. Re-discover the entrepreneurial zeal and focus that founded your company in the first place.

• Think about how a start-up would operate in your market. How could you apply this thinking to make your own organisation more resilient?

• Don't just look at what the big guys are doing. Study what the start-ups are doing, especially those on the fringes of your market.

• History repeats itself. Companies and markets tend to operate in cycles, so know where you are and act accordingly.

I won't be writing for a few days as I'm going to my MBA graduation on Tuesday - so normal service will be resumed next
Wednesday.