I just love Craigslist. I am convinced that one can find almost anything for sale. Today (thanks to the ABA Journal {see free iPhone App even if you aren’t an attorney, it is frequently excellent reading}) I learned of a relatively young (well when you are my age, anything south of 40 is considered young) lawyer that has decided the FMV of his (assuming it is a he, based upon the Craigslist posting choice of language) is equal to the current value of his outstanding student loans. Quite the discount. If I had the nearly $60,000 (I would of course request a cash discount) to spare, I might actually consider it, although my terms and conditions would be stringent (e.g. I would require vast amounts of tutoring to help him transfer the knowledge and social capital to me) - but still this is quite the steal.
The telling spot about the advertisement Craigslist Lawyers Sells Degree is his description of why he wants out. If you are at all curious as to why brilliant minds opt out of a distinguished profession, read the full post. What is it about the law that has so tainted this young person to leave after spending in excess of $100,000 at a top tier law school to leave his chosen profession?
And this creative lawyer is merely a representative of those that are annually leaving the profession. At least the lawyers are asking some of the questions as to why? Legal leaders know that young people have no desire to be slaves to the almighty hourly bill. Additionally, the exchange for unnecessary legal work for merely a paycheck isn’t a standard of an honorable profession. Finally, law firm leaders frequently lack leadership (meaning they aren’t nice people to work for).
From my perspective, it is simply another wooden stake into the Vampire’s Heart (that being the hourly bill and its timesheet). I will offer some silver bullets as well and have already invited him to read this blog.
Whoever he is, I want to thank him for cheering up my evening.
On Friday, February 12, I conducted an 8-hour CPE course for the California CPA Education Foundation: Measure What Matters to Customers: Using Key Predictive Indicators.
There were approximately 25 people in the live audience, and for the first time (for me), it was Webcast to approximately 65 people.
This course explains:
The essential and critical difference between efficiency and effectiveness.
The Business of the Past versus The Business of the Future—a new business model.
The difference between a performance and predictive indicator.
How to establish KPIs for your business.
KPIs for knowledge workers.
Other interesting issues raised by the audience.
The Foundation Team did a wonderful job handling the technology, and moderating the questions from the Webcast audience. Since we show video clips, it has always been a challenge to pull off a Webcast, but this went smoothly.
You can view the entire program here. (Be sure to fast forward through the lunch hour, as they keep the camera rolling).
I hope you find it valuable and thought provoking.
And as always, any and all feedback is more than welcome.
Yesterday, I received a solicitation regarding a “solution for transferring knowledge!” It included a link to the following video.
Problems with this:
Bad name - Knowledge Harvest. It sounds like you are using a sickle or combine and lopping peoples heads off.
Defeatist attitude. - It implies that there is no way to keep this people around, so you should just exploit them while you can.
Victim mentality. - “It is not your fault we are leaving, it is just the way we are.” Again, there is nothing you can do.
Now, I did view their product page and the system itself seems like it would be helpful to collect and disseminate tactic knowledge throughout an organization. This is, in fact, something sorely needed in professional knowledge firms. However, I would suggest to them:
That they change the name.
That they emphasize the value of disseminating the knowledge throughout the organization. It will increase the overall value of the firm by increase the knowledge of the individuals because the knowledge will be shared rather than hoarded.
That having this solution might even make the firm a better place to work because you can gain knowledge far more quickly than at other companies.
If any of you pursue looking at this further, please let us know what you think about it.
Regular readers might remember a post I did a few weeks ago entitled Instead, I’ll Let You Be the Judge, in which I published my deleted comments from a bog post by a FileMaker programmer.
This morning, I was thrilled to receive a mention in post entitled Passing the Torch of Value Pricing by a consultant in the FileMaker community named Jonathan Stark. To Jonathan, I wish to express my thanks for the mention. I had trouble posting a comment, so I thought I would just mention it here.
In addition, a shout out to Kirk Bowman, another FileMaker consultant who I met for lunch shortly before his presentation at a FileMaker un-conference. I hope to post his slides and the audio from his session in a future post.
Jonathan and Kirk, thanks for advancing the cause!
Being forced to read this would be the intellectual equivalent of water boarding.
The copy reads:
TIME IS a lawyer’s commodity - or rather - it is how most lawyers quantify their expertise. How successful you are as a lawyer depends fundamentally on how you use your time. There is direct correlation between how much value you can extract from your time and your profitability. Most lawyers must record how they spend their time on a daily basis and regularly justify their use of time to clients, the court or their employers.
My wife, Christine, and I have recently become devotees of the AMC Original Series, Mad Men. For those of you not familiar the shows follows the personal and business life of a Madison Avenue creative who goes by the name of Don Draper in the early 1960s.
Small spoiler alert if you are planning to watch the show!
In Season 3, Don happens upon an elderly gentleman in the back unused bar of a country club named Connie. It turns out, he is Conrad Hilton. In this later scene, Hilton asks Don for his opinion on a new ad campaign. What follows is a terrific lesson on providing a free sample without giving away too much.
I haven’t been blogging very much lately, so big thanks to Ed for keeping up!
I’ve been working on my new book since December.
My publisher (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.) and I are struggling with the title of the book, so I thought I’d solicit the “wisdom of the crowds,” because there is so much of it in this community.
Structure of the Book
The book deals with much more than just implementing Value Pricing. When professional firms eliminate billable hours and timesheets, it changes the DNA of the firm, not just its pricing, but everything: its marketing, it value proposition, how it communicates with clients and manages their expectations, what it measures for customers and team members, and so forth.
The book is actually proposing a new Business Model, from “We sell time” to “We sell intellectual capital.”
It will have a toolkit, along with a 7 step process for pricing an engagement. Moreover, an Appendix for each professional sector—advertising agencies, CPA, Law and IT firms— and will include customized checklists, sample forms, examples, issues, etc., from that particular profession.
So, it’s a Toolkit + Reference Book + an explanation of a revolutionary business model. It’s a one-stop read that is not dependent on reading any of my other books.
Some Titles So Far
The Timeless Practice: VeraSage Institute’s Revolutionary Business Model for Professional Firms
Transitioning to Timeless: VeraSage Institute’s Guide to Selling Intellectual Capital, Not Time
From Time to Timeless: VeraSage Institute’s Guide to Selling Intellectual Capital, Not Time
The Timeless Firm: VeraSage Institute’s Revolutionary Business Model for Professional Firms
Professional Firm 3.0: VeraSage Institute’s Revolutionary Business Model for Professional Firms
Timeless: The Professional’s Guide to Profitability, Effectiveness, Intellectual Capital, and Value Pricing. Thanks to Ed for the subtitle on this one!
Any suggestions folks? There’s a bottle of Dan Morris’ finest wine in it for the best suggestion.
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