Episode 26 – Rob reflects on the failed merger

Rob's staring out of the window of his office

 “Where did it all go wrong?”  Rob had said it out loud to Natasha and many times silently to himself.  The proposed merger of FFS and LB Law had seemed such a good idea.  It felt right and it made good business sense.  He still wasn’t quite sure what had derailed it.

But now what?  Rob was convinced that just carrying on at FFS as if nothing had happened would not work.  It would be a wasted opportunity.  As managing partner he had to do something to move the firm onwards and upwards.

What would he suggest to his fellow partners?  How would he get them engaged and interested?

The options seemed to be

1.       Find another merger partner – Ev would probably object.

2.       Expand by bringing in lateral hires – Trudie would probably object.

3.       Invest in business development to broaden (or narrow?) the firm’s services – Mark would probably object.

4.       Change the culture of the firm – they would all probably be baffled … and object.

Of all those “change the culture” felt right to Rob.  Although, to be honest, he didn’t quite know what he meant by that.  What he could remember were the comments (some throwaway and some thought through) from Natasha and others at LB Law.  “Complacent”, “a bit up themselves”, “hopelessly 20^th century”, “don’t get client service and no idea about developing talent”.

But he knew that the firm was well regarded and did really great work for clients.  Maybe it would be worth checking if those gut feels were really accurate.  Talking to clients.  Talking to people in the firm – not just partners.  That’s where he would start.  Probably.

Have your say

Rob should

Have you been in a firm that has had to stop and think about “what next?”  How did they go about it?  Did you get involved?  Do you think you could have contributed to the discussion?

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