LawyersUSA

In March 2005, David Maister was overweight and nearing his fourth decade of smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. After suffering a series of medical problems, he began the arduous process of diet, exercise and going cold turkey.

While this was obviously beneficial from a health standpoint, Maister's turnaround also became the basis for his fifth book on business management, "Strategy and the Fat Smoker."

Maister's book isn't about low-fat foods, but a recipe book aimed at showing managers of professional service firms how they can get company executives and employees to implement – and stick to – changes they already know would be good for them.

"Much of what individuals and firms do in the name of strategic planning is a complete waste of time and about as effective as making New Year's resolutions," says Maister in the opening chapter. "The reasons are the same in both situations. Personally and professionally, we already know what we should do: lose weight, give up smoking, and exercise more. In business, strategic plans are also stuffed with familiar goals: build client relationships, act like team players, and provide fulfilling motivating careers."

This is easier said than done, and the bulk of the book consists of methodologies and anecdotes about how to motivate employees and work effectively with clients.

One of the recurring themes in the book is how to focus a firm's energies on a patient, long-term business strategy.

A short-term strategy is "an oxymoron, if ever there was one," Maister writes. Many of the ideas center around resisting the temptation for quick fixes and keeping your firm's sights set down the road.

A business consultant for more than 25 years and a former teacher at Harvard Business School, Maister's early chapters are insightful in terms of coaxing firms to find and implement a successful business strategy, thought at times the book reads like a generic self-help book. (Chapter 3 is actually entitled "It's Not How Good You Are; It's How Much You Want It.")

Still, Maister gets a lot of mileage out of a variety of anecdotes and the book's deliberately episodic structure; much of the book originated from a series of articles on Maister's website and he notes in his introduction that the reader can jump in at any point.

The trouble with lawyers

For attorneys, the best jumping-in point may be seventeen chapters deep, where Maister breaks down why the nature of a law practice actually runs counter to the template for a successfully-run business.

The chapter can be pretty disheartening. Maister identifies lawyers as having difficulty with inter-office trust, professional detachment, contrasting values and decision making – characteristics that do not benefit the firm as a whole. While firms typically do well financially, Maister contends that these failings actually prevent firms from reaching their full earning potential. Also, because lawyers are financially successful, there is no incentive to change.

"Unless law firms undergo a cultural revolution, not just minor changes, most will not be able to achieve their ambitions. Dysfunctional behavior by partners, currently not only tolerated but vigorously celebrated, will prevent firms from functioning as they desire," he writes.

Maister blames the need for this "dysfunctional behavior" on the fact that firms are primarily comprised of lateral hires and mergers, which decreases trust and continuity. He does not find a clear solution for this dynamic, but uses the rest of his book as more of a template for professional service firms in general, primarily with a focus on a solid relationship with the client.

Avoid 'one-night stand' clients

But how can lawyers cement a solid relationship with a client in a business of billable hours and myriad cases?

Maister suggests weeding out the clients who don't specifically match the services of a firm, likening this flawed practice to McDonald's making a pizza for a customer just because he asked for one.

"As companies keep discovering to their detriment, it is certain business decay if you try to please all possible market segments," he writes. "The broader the group of clients to which you try to appeal, or the wider the range of services you try to provide, the less customized your operation can be to each segment within that group."

But doesn't fewer clients equal less money?

Not so, according to Maister, who breaks down the firms who develop a long-standing advisory role with a client versus the "one-night stand" client, who is viewed as a singular transaction.

In Maister's seminars, typically four-fifths of the audience says they would pay a premium for a firm that promised to focus on their needs for the long term.

Maister also warns against the transaction method of dealing with clients in which lawyers view themselves as working for, rather than with, clients. This encourages lawyers to look at each task as a burden and demonize the client.

"There is a danger that continuing to view clients as them can degenerate into perceiving the client as the enemy … All too often, the client becomes a competitor for things the professional wants (money, challenge, or control), not a partner in obtaining them."

The chapter helpfully points out common behavior when dealing with such an enemy client, including avoiding them altogether or rehearsing a future conversation with clients, thereby diminishing the likelihood of having a real conversation with clients or talking about their needs and desires.

'Informal and unscheduled'

According to Maister, the dedication it takes to connect with a client comes from the top, and roughly one-quarter of the book is devoted to identifying managers who can best implement a sound strategic approach for a firm.

The author opens the section with a story from his days teaching at Harvard Business School, when a senior colleague approached him about his research, which hadn't yet been conducted. Rather than be berated for this, the manager sought his ideas, complimenting him when necessary and helping him to get started. That approach, Maister writes, was key.

"Here's the point as I experienced it: If he had not shown up, I know that it would have taken me a long time to get organized and start investing in my career."

When he tells this story at his seminars, the audience almost universally agrees that the key to the approach was the senior colleague showing up unscheduled and approaching the matter like an informal conversation.

Avoid the merger culture

"Strategy and the Fat Smoker" concludes with an examination of the One-Firm model, a business culture based on the principles of the U.S. Marine Corps and designed to maximize the trust and loyalty of firm members.

Co-written with a former Marine and retired partner at the international firm Latham & Watkins, the One-Firm model eschews lateral hiring and mergers and focuses on developing grow-your-own systems that support a collaborative process to ensure firm growth.

"Marines are noted for acting as a cohesive unit rather than individual members. Each marine honors the corps' traditions: unity pride, respect, loyalty, excellence and integrity. They key relationship is that of the individual member to the organization, in the form of a set of reciprocal, value-based expectations."

The book also covers other firm methodologies including the "Warlord Model" of firm management.

At 275 pages, including an index and "other works" section, "Strategy and the Fat Smoker" is a relatively quick read and a handy reference for all law firm management and partners. If nothing else, it identifies (and hopefully, helps overcome) some of the pitfalls of the law business.

Questions or comments can be directed to the writer at: justin.rebello@lawyersusaonline.com