Advice for CEOs

In an earlier blog, I presented a general approach for manufacturing companies to reduce costs. I would like now to apply this approach to specific areas of corporate expenditure, starting with legal costs. This is a good place to start because making changes to save money on legal costs tend to be less disruptive than other kinds of cost reduction. Most middle market companies use a national law firm or at the very least one of some size. This usually makes sense. If the company gets involved in litigation, patent work, IPO or corporate organization it is helpful to be represented by a firm that has specialists who can address a wide range of issues. Big firms have high overhead and their billing tends to look as follows: