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Sustainability is about figuring out how to be in business forever

November 21, 2011

This line from Fred Wilson, a New York City based based venture capitalist, in his blog post this morning entitled ‘Sustainability.’

…sustainability is all about figuring out how to be in business forever. It is about business models that are win/win and lead to happy long term customer and supplier relationships. It is about avoiding the temptation to overeach. It is about avoiding the temptation to maximize near term profits at the expense of long term health. It is about adapting the business to changing market dynamics. It is about building a team and a culture that can survive the loss of the leader and keep going. And it is about many more things like this.

Wilson cited a talk on Reinventing IT by Clay Christensen, a professor at Harvard Business School, to drive home the point that focusing on financial performance and efficiency often comes at the cost of sustainability. Christensen explained how the steel industry’s historic focus there led to bankruptcy and how the steel industry has adapted to a sustainable business model.

Wilson’s message is applicable to companies like LexBlog as well as law firms. We need to adapt, innovate, and focus on long term client relationships. We cannot ignore the change in the way business is now done. We need to create business models that are a win/win for our clients and us for the long haul.

I sat in roundtable discussions with law firm leaders from around the country in Dallas this weekend. They struggled with the law firm and corporate client economics of today versus the business models that grew large law firms over the past few decades.

Some leaders were strong believers that law firms needed to change now. Others clung more to the belief that law firms were different than other businesses and that innovative approaches may not apply to them.

Now going into our eighth year, LexBlog is in internal discussions as to how maximize short term profits and efficiencies while at the same time having a strategy that focuses on adding greater value to our clients, both now and over the long haul.

Making history by focusing on blogs, social media solutions, and our LexBlog Network in innovative ways may better serve law firms’ business development needs and develop the relationships LexBlog needs for sustainability.

After all, it’s as Wilson says, “If the company is likely to stay in business forever, then the value is most likely way higher than a business that is going to be out of business in a decade.”