Lessons from Afar

You are probably as unfamiliar with the UK insurance-defense firm Ricksons as was I before I read this piece, but this case study, written by the Ricksons managing partner, Tony Hughes, is a useful tool to explore lessons in change management. 

And, the beauty of it is that almost none of us can say under our breath things that distract from the general learning.   In other words, no inside-baseball gossip such as "Well, Fried-Frank would never have merged because so-and-so can't stand so-and-so," or "Of course Reed-Smith needs to be in Chicago, so that explains their talking to [X]."  Think of it as an abstraction from what would otherwise claim our attention:  A clean palate, if you will.

As our story opens, Ricksons is a regional UK firm with 90% of its business coming from personal injury insurance-defense work.  The founding/name partner, Peter Rickson, is about to retire and a new managing partner is selected—the youngest partner in the firm.  Recognizing the firm's over-reliance on insurance defense, he did the following:

• Recognized that while the partnership was traditional, it was open to new ideas and acknowledged that the firm had to change to survive.
• Introduced rigorous financial-management controls, combined with "transparency"—monthly results for all departments were published firm-wide, with the goal being "simply to make people feel part of the business."
• Next came something more audacious:  Purposely and publicly announcing the goal of making Ricksons a top-100 UK firm, which would mean increasing their revenue from £5.6M (2001) to £15M.  What did this entail?  For starters, revising the entire structure.  For example, the Birmingham office was profitable but didn't fit within the profile of a firm specializing in insurance litigation.  Bye-Bye!
• Paying attention to the human factor:  From a base when Hughes assumed leadership in May 2001 of 80 staff and 13 partners the firm is now 220 staff and 37 partners, and he says without reservation, "The human element is without doubt the most important aspect ...Withholding information leads to wild speculation and resentment."

"Lawyers do not always make the best managers," he confesses, but at the same time Hughes realizes that "if we, as law firms, are going to compete in the business world," you have to nurture your home-grown talent. 

So how did he bring everyone along?

• Communication
• Transparency
• Presence (for example, try, as did Tony Hughes, spending half a day every day at a merger candidate's offices to inform, inspire, and reassure)
• Consistency

And last, nurture talent for purposes of leading within the firm, not just rainmaking.  You might find yourself surprised how much it can contribute to rainmaking in the long run.  Think any F500 company thought worse of signing a contract with GE because Jack Welch was in charge?