Want to Take a Business to the Next Level? Follow These Leaders
You've built your own firm and want to see it grow even further. Or perhaps you've found your grove, but need to advise business clients as they expand. You can try to figure things out on your own, or you can turn to the experts, thought leaders from some of today's most forward-looking businesses.
Luckily, much of that leadership can be found in one place: "What's Next: How to Take Your Business to the Next Level." This guide, published by Thomson Reuters' Aspatore, provides insider perspectives on how to advance a business, from leaders in their field. (Disclosure: Aspatore is one of FindLaw's sister companies.)
When to Offshore, When to Onshore
Take offshoring, for example. Everyone is familiar with offshoring, or relocating part of a business from a domestic site to one abroad, often as a cost saving measure. Your tech support might be offshored to Bangalore, for example, or your accounting handled by a numbers guy in Canada. You can even offshore paralegal work, if you want to.
But what about onshoring? As Robert Lincoln, senior VP of human resources at Manpower notes, there are plenty of reasons to keep jobs domestic. Onshore operations can allow companies to maintain more control and oversight over their operations, or recruit workers with greater expertise. Determining what the keep domestic requires a complex calculus, balancing the potential savings of offshoring against potentially significant (and sometimes hidden) costs.
Spending on Leadership
A business is only as good as its leaders, whether they are law partners or middle managers. And for a business to improve, so must those leaders. But, there are limited sources to dedicate to developing leaders.
So, as Vic Salerno, CEO of O'Connell Electric writes, "when assessing leadership development resources, we must remember our goals: we are trying to build people skills along with interpersonal skills working with their coworkers, customers, and potential customers." Salerno's strategy: have your successor picked out and mentor them. They may not replace you, but if they could you've done a good job.
Find Out What's Next
Covering everything from locating a business, to empowering employees, to managing HR minefields, "What's Next" brings together a wealth of resources for of lawyers, whether they're looking to improve their business or just advising business owners.
Related Resources:
- Best Practices for Bringing on Associate Counsel (FindLaw's Strategist)
- Improve Your Law Library With These 7 Practice Guides (FindLaw's Strategist)
- Succession Planning: How to Get Clients Over Their Inertia (FindLaw's Strategist)