Stephen Mabey
Stephen Mabey, CA is managing director of Applied Strategies Inc., which has a long-term contract to provide the chief operating officer function to Atlantic Canada law firm Stewart McKelvey. As well, Applied Strategies works with small to mid-sized law firms outside of Atlantic Canada providing strategic tactics planning, crisis management, organizational development, financial analysis, and private coaching to lawyers involved in law-firm management. He has written articles on leadership, marketing, key performance indicators, practice transitioning, business intelligence, emotional quotient, and downsizing, which have been published in various legal industry periodicals.
Column: Definitely Mabey
Getting the work done right
Posted Date: May 21, 2012
“If you’re making the customer do any extra amount of work, no matter what industry you call home, you’re now a target for disruption. It’s all about reducing choices and unnecessary steps, narrowing clutter, and adding a touch of class to boot.” — Aaron Levie, CEO and co-founder of Box, Fast Company, May 2012, Expert Blog section
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Time for a new approach to decision-making
Posted Date: April 16, 2012
The words of John Rollwagen, the former CEO of Cray Research Inc., ring even truer today for the legal industry: “I believe very strongly that many times there is no right decision but to get on with it. I don’t care what you do. The important thing is to move ahead. Let’s just do it, because you’re not going to be right or wrong. It’s just one route and you can fix it after you start. But if you never start, you can never get there. That’s for damn sure.”
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A fresh look at the strategy process
Posted Date: March 19, 2012
It is with no intended humour that I speculate that there are law firms claiming success in achieving their strategic targets having done so by shooting first and calling whatever they hit their target.
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Five steps to client development success for lawyers
Posted Date: February 20, 2012
In keeping with this column’s intent of delivering practical sensible commentary/solutions to issues currently facing law firm management, I shared last month that I had invited a few folks to write on topics they were both passionate and knowledgeable about and this month’s column is the first one.
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2012: A year that could be
Posted Date: January 16, 2012
Among my holiday readings I came across a concept long forgotten from James P. Carse’s book Finite and Infinite Games, which has some real relevance to law firms in 2012. To paraphrase it, law firms will gravitate towards two types of firms:
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The change train is picking up speed
Posted Date: December 19, 2011
First I would be remiss if I didn’t thank each of you who, for whatever reasons, have taken the time to read my ramblings again this past year. I know you have choices and that you make this column one of them is very gratifying.
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Business-like tools
Posted Date: November 21, 2011
Businesses seem to have a never-ending supply of “management tools” with which they manage their affairs. Many, if not most, are adaptable to the legal profession, however rarely do you hear of law firms using them to manage their businesses. So I thought I would identify five such tools that have application to the management of your firms and shed some light on their relevancy.
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It is not always about the money!
Posted Date: October 17, 2011
Aon Hewitt conducts an annual best employer survey that measures engagement as the determinant of whether a participating firm qualifies as a “best employer.” How, might you ask, is this different from many of the other surveys used to confer best employer status? For the most part, the other surveys measure satisfaction and not engagement.
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Innovate or abdicate
Posted Date: September 19, 2011
In my August 2010 column I included a brief section on innovation. Right up front let me disclose that like a blind pig finds an acorn occasionally, little did I know how important innovation was going to be to law firms in 2011.
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Measuring key performance indicators
Posted Date: August 15, 2011
This column will deal with some of the key results of the 2011 Canadian KPI Survey conducted by Law Firm KPI, a for-profit company (our intent anyways) co-founded by Karen MacKay of Phoenix Legal Inc., and me in 2010 to specifically undertake surveys of key performance indicators for law firms with up to 100 lawyers. The purpose of the survey is to provide Canadian law firms with industry information in order to benchmark their own performance against the performance of other firms of reasonable comparative size. More information on the annual survey can be found at LawFirmKPI.com.
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