InspireME: Stand Tall and Strong Knowing You Are Part of Something Amazing and Special

 "Great companies like FSO make sure that opportunities are available to all levels and not only to a select few. No other outsourcing company does this for their staff and I am a living proof, because I’ve been in the business since the dinosaurs roamed."

Good Morning Folks,

As we approach Memorial weekend and the start of Summer, I cannot help but think about this past week with FSO. 

What a great four days showing the legal community what a powerhouse and how different FSO can be. From the way we represented in the booth, to applying our sticker on the Bingo game, to the receptions and dinner, to interactions in the hotel, EVERYTHING about FSO was awesome.

“Everyone was buzzing about FSO” and how we gave off a “great aura of excitement” that has not been seen in a long time at these events. I really do believe we made more than just a splash... FSO caused a flood and everyone is treading water through our immersion, passion and excitement! 

As you continue to read and hear about all of the amazing activities and national coverage/visibility of FSO, I cannot tell you how many people and prospects we spoke to over the past few days talked about how their current provider just does not take care of their people. 

We are the people company and our job is to make good people great and that what is most valuable to us is our people - that we care and spend all of our time training and developing our people. We're also a happy bunch.

We had the ALAers laughing and smiling in the aisle. We made sure everyone knew that FSO was both the happiest place to work and to put to work for you, and it showed. 

Our CIO Tom Pategas made a splash with his rear projection, frosted glass presentation of the office of the future. Great eye catcher for the booth and very different than everyone else.

Face Time at ALA 2014

During ALA we also launched an exciting new service that evolved from client needs and changing market conditions in a world where threats are the new norm and the unfortunate reality is that companies can't take safety for granted. 

Our newly branded Secured Customer Experience is already making noise in national press. You can read a case study here. 

Secure Customer Experience exemplifies my commitment to never stop innovating, to always be (re)IMAGING new and better ways of serving you.

What did I learn from our employee communications this week back home, and our time together in Toronto?

==> Shawn Curwen: Be A Little Better Today At Something Than You Were Yesterday. "It’s a worthy goal and some days I achieve it. I achieve it on the days when I intentionally go after it. The key to achieving almost any goal, even simple ones, is INTENT. You won’t get better by accident, you get better BY purpose, ON purpose, and FOR a purpose."  

==> Region Director Larry Wallace: It's All About Strategy.
"FSO’s strategy is to provide the best hospitality to all our clients with white glove service and more importantly give each and everyone us the opportunity to achieve our dreams of success. A strategy could be presenting to your client  how we plan to save them costs, provide new services or get them to be the best reference ever."

==> Joseph W. Yap: Every Day Presents A New Opportunity To Be Great Do Something Great For Others.
"How lucky are we to be able be given new chances to improve ourselves, improve the way we serve our clients, improve the way we work with our staff, as well as to improve the way these opportunities are spread among all levels of employment at FSO. This is important. Because great companies make sure that opportunities are available to all levels and not only to a select few. No other outsourcing company does this to their staff and I am a living proof, because I’ve been in the business since the dinosaurs roamed."

==> Northeast Regional Director, Christine Rainey: The Difference Between Quitters And Climbers. 
"A Quitter simply gives up on the climb up the mountain or challenge. Quitters often blame others, become overwhelmed, and allow adversity to stay a lot longer than necessary.

"Campers generally work hard, apply themselves and pay their dues in life to get to the next level. Then they plateau by planting their stakes in the ground, pitch their tent and camp out there for a while. "

"Climbers are a rare breed. They continue to learn, grow, strive and improve until they grow so far they look back and say “I gave it my all”.  

It is truly humbling to reflect on such a fantastic week with so many contributors, and every department should be proud to have their hand in our success. 

We rocked Toronto and left a great impression for FSO. I enjoyed the face time with clients, partners, legal thought leaders and our employees at ALA 2014, and appreciate the tens of thousands of you who have follow our journey albeit virtually, on social media. 

Blogging, tweeting and "linking in" takes a lot of work that our competitors haven't stepped up to invest in. But what makes it all worthwhile for me are your likes, shares, comments and private messages of approval and gratitude for daily doses of inspiration. 

Meanwhile….

Memorial Day gives us a welcome break from work, a chance to spent time with family and friends. Time to enjoy a day at the beach, a backyard barbecue or simply relax and bask in the wonderful weather.

As we enjoy our holiday weekend, let us take a moment to remember those whose service to our country guaranteed our freedom to do so and especially those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

From the Entire FSO Family we wish you and yours a meaningful and safe Memorial Day.

To all of you who took the time away from your families and your selling areas to attend ALA 2014, thank you!

Love Life,

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

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"As challenges arise, I encourage you to look upon them as opportunities."

~~Paula Barnes, 2014-2015 ALA President 

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TED Tuesday: (re) IMAGINING THE FUTURE

Image: TED2014

“I’m so astonished by the last 30 years that it’s hard to imagine what might blow our minds in the next 30. That’s how pervasive technology has become for many of us." ~~Karen Wickre, editorial director, Twitter

Good Morning Folks,

As you know I am in the thick of it at ALA where we are about to make news. So I'll make this brief and ask you to stay tuned to our live Twitter and Linked In updates where I promise to keep you posted. Meanwhile….

In keeping with the ALA theme "An Education & Networking Mosaic" designed to move the business of law forward, and FSO's own mission to (re)IMAGINE  a future that is very different from today— I call your attention to TED2014 theme “The Next Chapter."

TED asked some of the world's leading thinkers to opine on what might radically change society, life, technology and so on in the next 30 years. From funny and wry to deeply insightful, the answers will surprise you.

One idea I hope comes to fruition is from Doreen Lorenzo, president, Quirky. She predicts: “What will blow my mind in the next 30 years is the ability to diagnose a disease before you know that something is wrong with you, treat it with medicines designed specifically for you and eradicate it so it never happens again. The concept of connected health, wearable technology and ingested medicines are all pointing us in that direction. The ability for someone to tie it all together, tailored for the individual is mind-blowing.”

How will our lives be different in the not-so-distant future? See all of the insightful presentations (26 Ideas From The Future) HERE.

If you are at ALA Toronto you can learn more about how FSO (re)IMAGINES the ways Legal Services are run, by visiting booths 631 & 633 on the Expo Floor.

I hope you are feeling great and having a personal, passionate, productive week. I look forward to seeing you soon.

Love Life!

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

Ideas are not set in stone. When exposed to thoughtful people, they morph and adapt into their most potent form.TED Tuesdays on MitchWeiner.com highlights some of today's most intriguing ideas. Look for more talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more— HERE. 

About FSO Onsite Outsourcing
Recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of the nation's fastest growing companies for the second consecutive year, and lead by industry pioneer, Mitch Weiner, FSO's growth and success can be attributed to making a positive and powerful impact on their clients' bottom lines, as well as their employees' careers and lives.

See a brief video portrait of who we are and what can can do for you, HERE

Now Boarding: ALA Toronto and a LinkUP to Your In-Flight Infotainment

"We can't wait for conventioneers to experience firsthand what we've been telling you all along: What makes FSO the industry's fastest growing company and our competitive market advantage is hospitality delivered with a personal, passionate and productive tradition of service extraordinaire that's has never been duplicated."

Good Morning Folks,

As we prepare to pack our bags and board a our flights to Toronto, I wanted to send you my best wishes for an amazing ALA Annual Conference experience. The annual event brings to together leaders in the legal industry to discuss the challenges and opportunities in today’s legal environment.  

Our team has worked with a the ALA and it local organizations for the past few years to better understand the challenges of this unique industry in order to help better tailor our services to their specific needs. We are very proud of our association with the ALA. 

We leave today to embark on a mission. To win the hearts and minds of the legal community. 

Remember we are three and a half years young besides my 20 plus years of experience. And what FSO has accomplished in this short period of time has rocked this industry and me. Lol

We have come out of no where. And while others have been doing year after year for so many years, they have not been able to accomplish what we have REIMAGINED in recent years. 

We wanted to let you know that while you are on-site at the ALA next week, FSO will be making news launching some exciting new services. We will also provide live, ongoing Twitter updates on @FSOOutsourcing, @MWeinerFSO and of course as always on my Linked In page.

We will be using hashtags #ALA2014 and #FSOALA2014, so stay tuned to those.

For your downloading and in-flight reading pleasure, here's a LinkUP to popular legal-related posts that are sure to be hot topics at ALA:

Oh! Ricin and Anthrax and Cyanide and a Hero… oh BOY! (Suspicious Package Security)

Law Firms: What If Gordon Gekko Bought Your Outsourcing Partner?

Revolutionizing Records Management In the Digital Practice of Law

Before You Engage Or Renew Another Onsite Outsourcing Provider, These Are The Differences That You Need To Consider

Throw Back Thursday: Remember A Function Called "The Law Library"? (The ongoing debate about the value of law-firm librarians in an age when much information is available online)

FSO Onsite Outsourcing Legal Services To Present at ALA Toronto, May 19th - 22nd

Ted Tuesday: ALA Keynoters— Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly: Be Passionate. Be Courageous. Be Your Best. (A sneak preview of what you can expect from the keynote)

We can't wait for conventioneers to experience firsthand what they've been hearing in the marketplace: What makes FSO the industry's fastest growing company and our competitive market advantage is hospitality delivered with a personal, passionate and productive tradition of service extraordinaire that has never been duplicated. 

The passion we have for our business, the drive for excellence we instill in our employees and the involvement of myself in every opportunity and client interaction will never change no matter how much we grow. Our entire company will be the HAPPIEST PLACE TO WORK. This is not a marketing buzz word. This is the fabric, culture and commitment of our company to its employees and our clients. 

Our culture at FSO is one that can never be rattled. And it will take us too new heights. 

For those traveling to Toronto, have a safe sand productive conference.

Lets keep the torch lit and go forward with that passion instilled in all of us, enjoy life!

Have a GREAT day,

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

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“Each of us has been put on this earth to do something well. 

We cheat ourselves and the world if we don’t use that ability as best we can”

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Recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of the nation’s fastest growing companies for the second consecutive year, FSO’s growth and success can be attributed to making a positive and powerful impact on their clients’ bottom lines, as well as their employees’ careers and lives. See us in action HERE

Throw Back Thursday: Remember A Function Called "The Law Library"?

Photo: OfficeMuseum.com

"A spirited debate about the value of law-firm librarians in an age when much information is available online. "I'd hire a law librarian … if I could afford one," said one commenter. "My sixteen-year-old daughter maintains my library," wrote another."

Good Morning Folks,

Of course you remember the law library because you still have one (at least for now). 

Legal business is on a journey to being much more information-led than it has ever been. But the libraries of most law firms aren't much different than the one in the above photo that was snapped in 1898 at Buchanan & Lawyer, Albany, NY, a law firm formed in 1897 by  Charles Jay Buchanan and George Lawyer (a lawyer whose last name is lawyer, yes you read that right).

Now more than a century later law firm libraries are just beginning to change face. Perhaps driven by a century's worth of increase in the cost of AAA prime downtown space firms are leasing to house floors of printed archives that are now retrievable online.

As a result, law firms have (re)imagined changes that truly have transformed the way they operate.

There was an interesting question asked on Twitter recently by Patrick DiDomenico (apparently preparing for an ITLA presentation on the topic.) At first blush, it seemed to be phrased a bit on the negative side, but it really is something that those of us in law firm libraries do need to ask from time to time. "Tell me what's wrong with law firm libraries today." 

Greg Lambert at 3 Geeks and a Law blog addressed the question: "This is more about addressing what is wrong, while also addressing what is right in law firm libraries today. After batting the question around with some of my law library and law firm administrative colleagues, we thought that this question could be asked of any of the law firm administrative departments. The Library and the Knowledge Management (KM) groups are probably the most venerable to this issue, but all departments, including IT, Marketing, Accounting, Human Resources, Records, and others are under constant scrutiny from law firm leadership to prove our worth to the firm. If we aren't challenged, we become complacent. If we come complacent, we fail to see those changes we need to make until it is too late." Lambert continues:

We are still debating formats within the library and keeping outdated formats in support of a minority of attorneys (example: formats now include print, e-books, online, databases, and on-demand… each with its own individual cost and demands from individuals within the firm.)

• Law Firms have not decided how to bring the law library into the modern day structure of a 21st Century firm
• The primary demands on librarians are to keep costs low, client costs low, and to watch out for the firm’s best interest
• Librarians are not given the final word on what to buy and what to keep (that causes problems with the previous point)
• Librarians tend to be the first to feel the cuts when times are bad, and last to feel the benefits when times are good

Lambert opines on the bright side of the law library:

• Librarians are constantly looking out for the best interest of the firm
• Librarians have kept very good control on overall costs (most libraries are less than 2% of revenue, some are less than 1%)
• Librarians keep costs down to the client (usually by assisting attorneys that forget about those costs until they see it on the bill and have to write it off.)
• Librarians are constantly looking for less expensive, or better resources that fit the needs of the firm’s practices.
• Librarians are extremely good at risk analysis for the firm and help save the firm from itself (costs, copyright, access, correct resources, etc.)
• Librarians share their experiences with each other. Most librarians do not have to trail blaze into a new product or mission or strategy, as we can stand on the shoulders of others that have tested the waters before and are willing to share those experiences (without exposing anything confidential, of course.)

Law librarians are "information and research professionals in an era when finding essential information is more important than ever," according to a recent ABAJournal.com article written by Patrick Lamb, '82, founder of the Valorem Law Group in Chicago. "Associates, who do most of the research in law firms, are not research or information professionals. … When you live in a value-fee world, someone who finds the right information efficiently is really valuable."

The article prompted a spirited debate about the value of law-firm librarians in an age when much information is available online. "I'd hire a law librarian … if I could afford one," said one commenter. "My sixteen-year-old daughter maintains my library," wrote another.

Joyce Manna Janto, president of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) and deputy director of the University of Richmond School of Law Library, points out that the value of lawfirm librarians shouldn't be in doubt.

As a young associate at Harness, Dickey & Pierce, Jennifer Selby leveraged her understanding of the value of the firm's librarian to get ahead in her job.

"At HDP, which was a medium-sized patent firm then, there was one librarian and no support staff," recalls Selby, now a senior associate librarian at Michigan Law. "What some of the summer associates quickly learned (and I also took advantage of as a young associate) was that the librarian was a treasure trove of helpful information. Many times, she helped me craft effective searches for expensive online databases—like Lexis or Westlaw—saving me from looking bad by racking up too much in online searching costs."

The firm's librarian also helped Selby navigate the paper collection and "pointed me in the direction of a more obscure treatise, journal series, or looseleaf service that helped me find the answer to an obscure legal question."

Selby knows, though, that not all associates, or even partners, at firms are willing to go to the firm librarian for assistance. "I knew that others in my same position were not availing themselves of her expertise, either out of ignorance or really arrogance."

The new norm in law is creating new conditions and trends in law libraries. One is the importance of people – or more specifically, people with the right skills and attitude to add value to the firm. For those employees, law firms are giving new importance to their talent acquisition and retention strategies.

New conditions and trends in library services:

• Reduced budgets and lower cost recovery.
• Significant increase in resources expense.
• Subscription cancellations that once seemed implausible.
• Rebalancing of collection with greater focus on reducing content duplication.
• More centralization of services.
• Continued movement toward virtual libraries.
• Increase in outsourcing.
• New conditions and trends for law librarians—more than legal research:
• Knowledge Management (KM) is becoming increasingly important as firms look to leverage skills and capture learnings that can be applied to other situations.
• Competitive Intelligence (CI) is a hot area as demand for legal services remains relatively flat, increasing competitive pressure on law firms.
• Along with CI, librarians are being asked to conduct market research and provide other support to the firm’s marketing and business development staff.

The trends and traits mentioned above align with the priorities of most law firms today:

• Greater emphasis on marketing, with more effective use of data and insights gleaned from market research and Competitive Intelligence research and analysis.
• Research training and coaching for lawyers to enable them to do their own research as needed, when needed.
• Eliminating more print and moving more information online, in the cloud, to enable virtual access and availability.
• Expanding Knowledge Management throughout the firm, rather than isolated within offices or practice areas.

So, what's wrong with today's law firm libraries? It's a question you have to answer and supplement with what's right. If you don't, someone else will come in and answer it for you, and they will not be nearly as aggressive on defending what the law firm libraries are doing well.

Thanks to Patrick for asking the question; to Greg Lambert for answering it, as well as to Lac-Group, Patrick Lamb (ABA Journal), and to the University of Michigan Law School for their help in preparing this post— and most importantly to you, for listening.

These are sure to be a hot topics next week at the Association of Legal Administrator's (ALA) annual Conference and Expo, (May 19th - 22nd Toronto). To learn more about how FSO (re)imagines the ways Legal Services are delivered, visit booths 631 & 633 on the ALA Expo Floor.

Have a GREAT Day and Love Life!

 

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

ABOUT FSO:

• The fastest growing and most successful national onsite outsourcing in the U.S. focused on 1) improving services, 2) reducing costs, and 3) giving employees  an opportunity to grow.
• We outsource functions like: Mail, Copy, Reception, Switchboard, Office Services, Records, Messenger, IT, Concierge, Front & Back Office and much more.
• 1600+ employees, operating in 60+ cities, 225+ operational sites, 98% employee retention & 100% client retention.
• Ranked #24 in Crain’s magazine’s fast 50 and listed to the Inc 5000 list two years in a row.
• We (re)imagine the ways businesses are run.

VIDEO:

Brief "corporate portrait" video shows who we are and what we can do for you HERE