Without data, you are just another person with an opinion ! (W. Edwards Deming)

“Without data you´re just another person with an opinion”  (W.Edwards Deming*)

This quote is perfectly fitted to the need of a numerical and objective base in decision making (be it strategic or operational) by the companies’ managers and mainly by the partners who perform the role of managers in law firms.

As an engineer, I feel impelled to use the metaphor of a building and its foundations, much used in several areas, including the religious one, where one makes a reference about the stability of a building in relation to the quality of its foundations (a house and a building raised on a fragile support structure are destined to become deformed, cracked or may even collapse).

The decision made by the managers of any company are made up by two very important elements to achieve success: firstly, in objective information contained in all existing material reports and by the knowledge transformed into accumulated experience; secondly, in a given higher or lower dose of the manager’s feeling, which involves an entrepreneurial and market strategy views and in its affinity or dislike to risks (a specific subject that we will not develop in this present discussion).

And now bringing the discussion to the universe of the corporative firms, I can state, with no mistake, (due to almost 30 years of experience I have had) that there are in those offices some factors that traditionally hinder this decision making process and which I will only stick to two of them, which I consider to be the most relevant ones:

The first and most representative one is the concept that almost all partners of offices have in their minds, that is: “a law office is not a company”! If we follow this reasoning and focus on a medium-size corporate office (of about 20 to 30 professionals) and we ask ourselves the following questions: what is, after all, a company that has 50 people working in it (including the staff) that has a client portfolio of around there-digit number and which has revenues of amounts that reach six/seven digits a year? The answer, in my humble opinion, is: Yes, it is a company and it is bigger than the vast majority of the Brazilian small and medium-size companies and also with all the problems and challenge of those!

The second is the intrinsic characteristic related to the attorney’s profession, in which all of them are trained for the “clash”, with strong focus on the skill to argue (verbal and writing) and in the capacity to search and find details on which they can base their arguments or weaken the arguments of their opponents. Again, in my opinion, the company’s decision which are of interest by the institution cannot be addressed this way and shall transcend the personal behaviors and can neither be based on opinions that may be in the deviations that are “out of the statistical curve” of the management data.

And, again, going back to the discussion of the elements of the decision making and concentrating ourselves in the first of them, that is, on the groundings, it is fundamental for the companies (and again the law firms) to have correct, reliable, relevant, information and obtained in a quick manner so that the uncertainty that follows all and any decision is limited only to the “feeling” that was mentioned before and not due to errors in the compiled data and information.

In order to obtain the robust, relevant and reliable management reports, it is necessary that the foundation of this building (the decision) is correctly dimensioned and built and this can be achieved with:

– a client record file with correct and relevant information for the business (not only names, addresses and contact persons).

– a record file of topics (cases, contracts, etc) with the description and characteristics defined in details, the engaged areas and professionals, etc.

– a correct record file of all the professionals, their seniority, their experiences, the charging fees and remuneration (form and amount).

– elaborated detailed budgets and the respective proposals generated (with mode of charging).

– a correct timesheet and timely filled out by all professionals and again with the relevant information of each work.

– a control and identification of all documents elaborated and involved in each work.

–  detailed information contained in the issued invoices (amounts, professionals, hours charged (or not), granted discounts, terms and payments dates, etc.

The analysis and the intelligence matching of those pieces of information may (and should) produce reports that show the scenario of the business, said scenario generated by magnetic resonance (making an analogy to the best quality of this exam in the medical diagnosis and treatment, as compared to a simple X-ray that is much less detailed and precise).

The support by an outsourced consulting firm, that is experienced and exempt from internal interactions and relationships, may really help in the generation of those pieces of information and reports and in a more effective and professional management of the companies (mainly in challenging times like the one we are living.)

José Paulo Graciotti, is consultant and founding Partner of GRACIOTTI ASSESSORIA EMPRESARIAL, engeneer by Escola Politécnica Universidade de São Paulo, with Financial MBA at FGV and specialized in Knowledge Mnagement by FGV.  Member of ILTA since 1998 (International Legal Technology Association) and ALA (Assosiation of Legal Administrators), managing Law Firms for more than 27 years in Brazil – www.graciotti.com.br.

Legal Marketing: Law Firms Need UPDATING

I have already written (https://br.linkedin.com/in/josepaulograciotti) about the resistance that some Law Firm leaders have in order to recognize the true economical identity of their business and that the formerly called “Law Offices” are, in fact, companies that provide legal services.

In my humble opinion, it is also outdated the traditional account that law is not a trading activity and now I run a great risk to be criticized by the legal experts, but anyway, under a totally pragmatic point of view, I ask:

How do we classify the activity of an entity(taking as an example a small/medium-size corporate office) that has about 50 people working in it (including the staff), that has a client portfolio of around two or three digit number and which has revenues of amounts that reach six/seven digits annually?

The answer (repeating, in my humble opinion) is: Yes, it is a company, and bigger than the great majority of the small and medium- size companies in Brazil!

In addition to what was mentioned above, I dare to write about this matter because these reflections are being elaborated by four hands, with the participation of Priscilla Adaime, a professional specialized in communication and legal marketing.

All right. Now, having presented the first considerations, let us go to the matter itself!

Due to my more intense participation in the social networks, I saw in practice what I already felt due to my experience in those institutions, that is, most of the “posts”in the networks (small number of participants in the digital world) still follow the traditional modelof showing up in the media, presenting a certain pattern and with one or several of the characteristics listed below:

– Introduction to the market, with a “standard” photo, of the newly hired partner.

– Characteristic institutional photo with the main partners posted in an imposing manner and sometimes with the deans sitting in the center and the newer ones around them.

– Articles with deep legal discussions about the amendments to the laws, decrees, etc., published in newspapers and in legal portals.

– Newsletters sent to clients/mailing list about legal news.

– Photos of internal events about, again, legal discussions of a given subject.

– Notices relative to commemoratives dates (the Lawyers’ Day, the Secretary’s Day, etc.).

– Participation as speakers or sponsors of external events to clients and perspectives.

– Logos of received awards and acknowledgments.

– Production of “folders” printed with photos of their facilities spending fortunes with printing that often goes to the garbage.

This digital content, in addition to being difficult to be digested, due to the hermetic language  is randomly replicated on the Internet (website and social networks) ignoring the characteristics and peculiarities presented by the online tools available for disclosure of the  activitiesof the offices. Only a few worry about creating strategies for action for each of the networks and about measuring the achieved results.

In the real world where efficacy, pragmatism, fastness and spherical communication prevail (where everyone is connected), this type of exposure is practically innocuous without reaching the target public, which is the business community!

The offices need updating and need to come closer to their target public, they should use direct and objectivecommunication and use the new tools that are coherent with the real situation of the company that renders legal services:

– Adopt a posture of valuing the institution, its characteristic and its accomplishments.

– Always remember that the target is the client and not the competition!

– Abandon the worship to personality and individuality.

– use current tools, that is, all the social networks and all possible digital means. Whilst in Brazil the offices are ‘crawling’to produce content, in the USA most offices have blogs where the lawyers publish,on a weekly basis, articles about the novelties in the areas of performance. They invest time to create relevant content, as they know that this is fundamental to gain new clients.

The local offices are now beginningto perform the production of epodcasts videos for their target public while, out there, the lawyers use other means, such as : the Periscope (theapp used to make live broadcast via Wi-Fi and 3G and share experiences with their followers); Livestream (to disclose participations in live events). These are only some examples to illustrate the gap experienced by the Brazilian offices, which are little innovative and which are unaware of the new possibilities that should help them in the broadcast of their activities.

The support by an outsourced and experienced consultancy firm which is also exempt from any internal political interactions may help a lot in the image management, in the valuing policy of its accomplishments and in the exposure in the specialized and entrepreneurial  media (mainly in challenging times as the current one).

José Paulo Graciotti, is consultant and founding Partner of GRACIOTTI ASSESSORIA EMPRESARIAL, engeneer by Escola Politécnica Universidade de São Paulo, with Financial MBA at FGV and specialized in Knowledge Mnagement by FGV. ILTA Member since 1998 (International Legal Technology Association) and ALA (Association of Legal Administrators), with more than 27 years managing Law Firms in Brazil – www.graciotti.com.br