array(6) { [0]=> object(WP_Post)#2758 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(848) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "2" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2014-05-10 00:00:00" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2014-05-10 06:00:00" ["post_content"]=> string(7993) "By Jennifer Kelly, Canopy Advisor You may share an idea at the coffee shop, where less than a dozen people will hear your expertise, and where only one or two understand or care. Social media magnifies the number of people who hear you but focuses the conversation on a mutual interest, increasing the impact of any intelligent statement you make. Isn’t that the conversation you should be joining? In business, however, conversations are time-consuming and thus expensive, especially when they have no tangible benefit… and serious people never open Facebook, right? Busy, important people do not add comments at the end of online articles. We certainly do not respond to the hacks that disagree with us. And we have more important things to do for our organization than post a blog or a quick message about best practices on LinkedIn. Right? Well…. wrong, especially for small companies and non-profits that do not have a well-known brand or a wealth of high-level, experienced executives whose exchange of ideas and experience will take you further as an organization. We cannot all be members of the exclusive Young Presidents Organization, where chief executives hob-nob confidentially with other global business leaders and learn from the likes of Sir Richard Branson and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. So we need to find other ways to join in the conversation, not only to learn from other like-minded people through the sharing of best practices, but also to create brand awareness by demonstrating our expertise as thought leaders and innovators in our field – whether it be advocating for others, advancing technology for use in healthcare, or promoting a new snowboarding product. For example, an education-focused non-profit recently wanted to broaden its reach by engaging other educators in some of the innovative approaches they were finding to be successful in raising student achievement in public schools. They have a strong leadership team, a robust website, and a slate of directors who are building relationships around the region as they simultaneously create tools, resources and financial support to drive improvement. This foundation is also committed to leveraging the power of collaboration, and its leadership recognized that a generation of young teachers and principals, who are using technology in their classrooms, must already be participating on social media in a larger learning-conversation about how to improve what they are doing for their students. So the foundation decided to join the conversation to encourage these young teachers and principals to embrace the foundation as a thought leader with a strategy for positive, sustainable and scalable change.
Even those of us unprepared to buy-in to social media as an effective means of getting the word out have to admit that the best-designed traditional brochures cost more to create and do not travel quite so far. Joining the conversation is mission critical for almost any organization – and with a directed social media campaign, you don’t have to be a big name to get a seat at the table.
" ["post_title"]=> string(54) "Joining the Conversation: A Case Study in Social Media" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(60) "2014510joining-the-conversation-a-case-study-in-social-media" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2023-12-19 19:44:35" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2023-12-20 02:44:35" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(88) "https://canopyadvisory.com/2014510joining-the-conversation-a-case-study-in-social-media/" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [1]=> object(WP_Post)#2761 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(805) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "2" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2014-05-04 00:00:00" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2014-05-04 06:00:00" ["post_content"]=> string(7466) "Despite Advances, Women Still Lag Behind Men in Billing Rate, Management Roles Despite notching significant gains in the legal world, female law-firm partners continue to lag behind their male counterparts when it comes to billing rates, commanding on average 10% less for their services, according to a new analysis of $3.4 billion in legal work. Lawyer Patricia K. Gillette said some female rainmakers 'are not getting the credit for what they do.' Ramin Rahimian for The Wall Street Journal The gap begins at the junior lawyer level, and is more pronounced among seasoned attorneys at major firms, persisting even when partners possess similar levels of experience and work in the same market, according to the review by Sky Analytics Inc., a provider of software to help companies track legal spending and invoices. For example, senior male litigators at regional firms in Los Angeles with more than 25 years of experience charged on average 8.3% more than their female equivalents—$487 an hour versus $450. In New York, the average male partner at a 1,000-plus lawyer firm with 13 to 24 years of experience representing investment banks was billed out at about $679 an hour, nearly 25% more than the average female partner, whose rate was $544. "It was very significant, across all categories," said Silvia Hodges Silverstein, vice president of strategic market development at Sky Analytics. Ms. Silverstein, who teaches law-firm management at Fordham and Columbia law schools, looked at three years of billing data from more than 3,000 law firms. The findings highlight a persistent gender gap in the legal profession despite inroads made by women over the past four decades. The statistics echo results from earlier surveys that found similar discrepancies in the compensation realm. One-third of U.S. lawyers and judges are now women—compared to roughly 4.8% in 1970, according to U.S. census data—but they remain relatively rare among the top ranks of the profession. Women make up only 17% of so-called equity partners with ownership stakes at the 200 top-grossing U.S. law firms, according to the National Association of Women Lawyers, and they are similarly underrepresented in management roles and on powerful governing committees. By contrast, an overwhelming majority of so-called "rainmaker" lawyers credited with bringing in substantial business are men, the association's most recent survey found. "Women are less likely than men to reach the highest levels…and when they do they are still paid somewhat less than their male peers," said Stephanie Scharf, a senior partner with Scharf Banks Marmor LLC in Chicago, and a past president of the association. Ms. Scharf said hourly rates are often tied to a lawyer's status in the firm—whether an attorney is a department head of a particular practice, for example, or sits on the firm's executive committee—and don't necessarily reflect a person's marketability or skill level. "To the extent women partners are not advancing into the highest levels of firms," she said, "then their billing rates will reflect that situation." Some women attribute the broader achievement gap to the often subjective ways that law firms evaluate, reward and promote partners. "It's all a series of backroom assessments and backroom deals," said Joan C. Williams, a professor at the University of California's Hastings College of the Law. "It's just like a petri dish for gender bias." Firms that responded to the National Association of Women Lawyers survey said key obstacles to women's advancement include lack of business development opportunities, work-life balance issues and attrition, as women lawyers leave firms for better job opportunities elsewhere. Some prominent women lawyers say they charge as much—and are as well compensated—as their male colleagues, but note that is not always the case for women with less power. "If you are a woman and you control a lot of business, the firm is going to want to keep you happy," said Patricia K. Gillette, an employment lawyer at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP in San Francisco who is involved in a number of initiatives aimed at increasing retention of female lawyers. “It’s all a series of backroom assessments and backroom deals. It’s just like a petri dish for gender bias.” — Joan C. Williams, a professor at the University of California's Hastings College of the Law She said the problem often occurs one rung below, among female partners who may bill thousands of hours a year but aren't regarded as rainmakers—even if their skill, time and energy has helped land a client or significantly expanded that relationship. "They are not getting the credit for what they do," she said, or opportunities to inherit big clients, which at some firms she said "tend to get handed down to men." One of the more surprising findings in the Sky Analytics billing analysis: female associates were also billed out at lower rates, even though junior lawyers are often paid on a so-called lock-step basis according to the number of years they have been in practice. The average hourly billed rate of a female associate at a 1,000-plus lawyer firm was $27 less than that of her average male colleague—$377 compared with $404. Several factors could affect the averages when it comes to billing. Different practices command varying rates, and legal services typically cost more in top-tier markets. Women may also make up a higher proportion of some practices, such as family law, that charge less, or be underrepresented in the priciest realms of legal practice, such as mergers and acquisitions. One potential sticking point: so-called origination credit given to partners who are considered responsible for landing a piece of work. Firms vary widely in how they award those credits, but origination has traditionally played a significant role in determining how much partners earn, and therefore how much firms charge for their services. According to a 2012 survey by legal recruiting firm Major, Lindsey & Africa, the average male equity partner reported getting origination credit for $2.7 million in billings, while the average female equity partner reported $2.3 million, or about 15% less. Many women feel shortchanged by the process, said Ms. Williams, who surveyed about 700 mostly female partners on law firm compensation in 2009. Among respondents whose firms awarded origination credit, four out of five said they had been denied their fair share in past years. Many also felt that when they got new clients, they were expected to share origination credits with others, while men weren't, she said. Andrea Kramer, a partner at McDermott Will & Emery LLP who has served on the firm's compensation and management committees, said women lawyers also tend to be asked to take on administrative and nonbillable "housekeeping" tasks that help law firms run smoothly but do little to boost individual pay or internal prestige. Ms. Kramer, who often writes on gender and professional advancement, said conditions have improved somewhat since the 1990s, when men might not invite female partners out for drinks or to work-related dinners that provide internal networking opportunities. To help even the playing field, she advises women to refer business to other women, and to tout their accomplishments during pay negotiations." ["post_title"]=> string(39) "Female Lawyers Still Battle Gender Bias" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(39) "female-lawyers-still-battle-gender-bias" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2023-12-19 18:55:45" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2023-12-20 01:55:45" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(67) "https://canopyadvisory.com/female-lawyers-still-battle-gender-bias/" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [2]=> object(WP_Post)#2762 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(804) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "2" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2014-04-14 00:00:00" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2014-04-14 06:00:00" ["post_content"]=> string(955) "Q&A: Brad Feld talks how tech and social go hand-in-hand With a Klout score of 79 and over 220,000 cumulative followers on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, it's safe to say that when Feld talks, people listen. How do you leverage social media for your business? I just write and tweet what I feel like. There’s a huge amount of interaction. I've been blogging since 2004, so I generate a huge amount of content about what we do and venture capital and what I do as a human. I tweet out my thoughts, things I find interesting. ... I have a lot of interaction with people on Twitter and on my blog feed. ... I directly respond to email and tweets. ... And anything that you see that has my name, I have written...Read more" ["post_title"]=> string(35) "How Tech and Social Go Hand-in-Hand" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(35) "how-tech-and-social-go-hand-in-hand" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2023-12-19 19:46:06" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2023-12-20 02:46:06" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(63) "https://canopyadvisory.com/how-tech-and-social-go-hand-in-hand/" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [3]=> object(WP_Post)#2755 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(806) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "2" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2014-02-05 00:00:00" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2014-02-05 07:00:00" ["post_content"]=> string(328) "Got a small project and a small budget? For some companies nowadays, the solution is simple: Rent an M.B.A. to do the work. Companies get trained talent to help with marketing, financial modeling and investor pitches for a fraction of what they would have to pay big firms like McKinsey & Co. or Boston Consulting Group Inc." ["post_title"]=> string(42) "For Smaller Projects, Try Renting an M.B.A" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(41) "for-smaller-projects-try-renting-an-m-b-a" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2023-12-19 14:47:07" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2023-12-19 21:47:07" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(69) "https://canopyadvisory.com/for-smaller-projects-try-renting-an-m-b-a/" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [4]=> object(WP_Post)#2763 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(802) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "2" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2013-10-01 00:00:00" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2013-10-01 06:00:00" ["post_content"]=> string(2507) "After years of debate and study, in 2007 McKinsey & Company initiated a series of business model innovations that could reshape the way the global consulting firm engages with clients. One of the most intriguing of these is McKinsey Solutions, software and technology-based analytics and tools that can be embedded at a client, providing ongoing engagement outside the traditional project-based model. McKinsey Solutions marked the first time the consultancy unbundled its offerings and focused so heavily on hard knowledge assets. Indeed, although McKinsey and other consulting firms have gone through many waves of change—from generalist to functional focus, from local to global structures, from tightly structured teams to spiderwebs of remote experts—the launch of McKinsey Solutions is dramatically different because it is not grounded in deploying human capital. Why would a firm whose primary value proposition is judgment-based and bespoke diagnoses invest in such a departure when its core business was thriving? For starters, McKinsey Solutions might enable shorter projects that provide clearer ROI and protect revenue and market share during economic downturns. And embedding proprietary analytics at a client can help the firm stay “top of mind” between projects and generate leads for future engagements. While these commercial benefits were most likely factors in McKinsey’s decision, we believe that the driving force is almost certainly larger: McKinsey Solutions is intended to provide a strong hedge against potential disruption. In our research and teaching at Harvard Business School, we emphasize the importance of looking at the world through the lens of theory—that is, of understanding the forces that bring about change and the circumstances in which those forces are operative: what causes what to happen, when and why. Disruption is one such theory, but we teach several others, encompassing such areas as customer behavior, industry development, and human motivation. Over the past year we have been studying the professional services, especially consulting and law, through the lens of these theories to understand how they are changing and why. We’ve spoken extensively with more than 50 leaders of incumbent and emerging firms, their clients, and academics and researchers who study them. In May 2013 we held a roundtable at HBS on the disruption of the professional services to encourage greater dialogue and debate on this subject." ["post_title"]=> string(36) "Consulting on the Cusp of Disruption" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(36) "consulting-on-the-cusp-of-disruption" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2023-12-19 18:50:25" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2023-12-20 01:50:25" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(64) "https://canopyadvisory.com/consulting-on-the-cusp-of-disruption/" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [5]=> object(WP_Post)#2840 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(800) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "2" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2012-06-05 00:00:00" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2012-06-05 06:00:00" ["post_content"]=> string(2961) "Some 58 percent of companies plan to use temporary employees -- at all levels -- over the next few years, the Harvard Business Review reports. Authors Jody Greenstone Miller and Matt Miller say that temporary employment is no longer limited to administrative assistants, warehouse workers, or other low-level work. High-level people are choosing to work as temporary employees and earning money comparable to what they would have earned as an employee, or even as a partner, in a traditional company. When you have specialized skills that are in demand, it can be to your advantage to work solo. That allows you to take on the projects you like, rather than dealing with the typical administrative and political headaches in a traditional corporate job... Working on your own is not traditional, but the people who do it find it to their liking. A 2011 survey of independent professionals (in other words, high-end temporary workers) found that close to 80 percent of these workers were satisfied with their current situation. That figure is especially notable given that 45 percent of the respondents had been "forced" into that role. Among those who aren't forced into these less permanent positions are the highly educated and experienced women who are building their own mommy track. Instead of settling for a less fulfilling career in favor of a family, these women get both. Brooke Borgen writes: I am absolutely seeing this "Supertemp" trend among many 30-something moms (like my business partner and me) who have incredible resumes and have attended some of the country's best educational institutions. As driven and motivated people, most of our career paths end up with a binary all-or-nothing proposition once we have kids whereby even scaling back to a "part-time" schedule can be a 40 hour work week instead of the 60-80 hours we were used to. In order to spend quality time with my kids after getting my MBA at [Harvard Business School] and then working at Bain & Co, I opted out of the traditional corporate track in order to do freelance projects. My business partner, a mergers and acquisitions attorney at a major law firm, was in the same boat and Canopy Advisory Group was born: now a portfolio of ~25 professional services consultants across consulting, law, finance, and marketing in Denver, Colo. Will such "supertemps" become more common? Health insurance can be difficult, if not impossible, for an independent person to obtain. People who would like to work solo but have health concerns cannot give up their traditional jobs without losing health coverage. This is a nationwide problem, with health care tied to employment for most people. But companies do see value in an experienced, capable temp. There's less risk in hiring a temp then there is in hiring a "permanent" employee. And filling a role with an interim person can allow a company the time to determine which path they would like to take." 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