ID-696-John Berry

Q: My concern and the reason why I’m here is we’ve got a lot of talent and we’ve got a lot of great leadership. My concern is the systems. As things grow my fear is that the systems won’t be able to keep up. Number two; I don’t want my employees coming here. I don’t want to lose them and have them come to a program like this and learn how to do it. So those are my fears.
A: Fear number one. Will you systems be able to keep with your growth? No, they will not. At the rate that you’re growing your firm you’re going to be tearing up your systems regularly. You’re going to be engaged in a continual process of creative destruction. It’s going to drive some people on your team crazy and some people are not going to be with you a year from now. They’re not going to be comfortable with the idea of creative destruction. Now the second part about your employees coming here you’re concerned about what if one of your associates come here and says, _Screw you John Berry. I’m going to start my own law firm!_ Make it so great to work for your firm that they wouldn’t want to. Give them a career path so great that they don’t want to. Give them coaching. Give them mentoring. Give them guidance. Give them opportunity. You see, what happens when you start to recruit a great team, a great team demands opportunity and that forces the growth of the firm.