Sunday, September 24, 2006 3:59 PM
One of my favorite resources on the web is
Knowledge @ Wharton. Covering myriad topics including Law and Public Policy, Finance and Investment, Business Ethics and Marketing, the University of Pennsylvania"s resource gives the public free access to the thoughts and ideas of business leaders, futurists, scholars and subject matter experts.
A recent article, Vigilant vs. Operational Leaders: Changes at Ford, the Coke-Pepsi Fiasco, and Other Management Moments, included a review of Wharton marketing professors George Day and Paul Schoemaker"s new book Peripheral Vision: Detecting the Weak Signals That Will Make or Break Your Company. The book itself discusses how visionary leadership (or lack thereof) has impacted great American companies and brands.
In reading the article, I was particularly struck by this passage:
"...when Bill Gates was looking at Google"s web site several years ago, he noticed the company was posting job descriptions for software engineers that didn"t fit Google"s business model, says Schoemaker. Gates, says Schoemaker, recognized this as an early warning sign that Google was moving into a new area and alerted others at Microsoft to this development. (As it turned out, no one followed up and Google became the dominant player in desktop search.)"
My particular interest in this passage reflects a trend I believe is occurring in mid-size to very large law firms. Hiring for a future, changing business process. Take a look at the job descriptions listed at one of the main legal technology peer group"s (ILTA) website. Among the usual fare of litigation support specialists and applications managers, you will see job titles like Business Analyst, Practice Support Analyst, Project Manager, Multimedia Specialist, and Knowledge Management Specialist.
How many law firms do you think were hiring people into these types of job descriptions in 1996? I would argue that the answer was very, very few (if any). Especially, for positions like Business Analyst and Project Manager. Indeed, some of these job descriptions were not even being considered as recently as a couple of years ago. And, yet, today, it seems law firms are particularly interested in adding these new positions to their enterprise.
Perhaps the whys and hows behind this movement are part of law firm leadership visioning the future. Will tomorrow"s leading law firms be working from the same organizational chart and infrastructure as in 1996? 2000? 2006? These new job descriptions suggest firm leadership thinks not.
Much as Google was hiring talent with skill sets outside its existing business model in anticipation of what lie ahead, it appears that some law firm leaders are beginning to shape their organizations for the future. Perhaps, as the Vigilant versus Operational Leaders book suggests, they are doing so with a belief that actions taken today will ultimately determine tomorrow"s leaders and followers.