Victoria Thomson

SA Law's Victoria Thomson prefers to see business in 3D. Like the current trend for re-mastering classic films in 3D, the story of law firm sector specialisation is not new as such, but often comes as part of a firm's evolution. What was particularly interesting to hear from Victoria when she visited us this week was just how much of an impact this shift of perspective has had on the people in the business and the way they think.

We all know the story of the commercial benefits of a sector-led approach - clients responding to teams of lawyers that understand the context of the particular discipline of legal advice they are giving in a more nuanced way. And focussing on sectors is not new at SA Law either, the firm long being known for its specialist expertise advising the SME sector.  But identifying sector heads with strong leadership skills and asking them to report to senior management on how their business is going from this sector perspective, rather than from 'departments' defined by legal discipline, this is a new approach for the firm.

'Sitting in on the sector head reports to Management this month, what was so interesting to see was how much more they reported on their plans and progress like a corporate business, not just in the presentational tools they are now choosing to use - far more PowerPoint, Gant charts, Excel spreadsheets - but more fundamentally in having a far more rounded understanding of how their own particular category of legal advice to a client fits together with advice from other legal disciplines that their colleagues are also giving. It really is like they are seeing their clients' needs much more in 3D. 

It has also galvanised the teams internally and given a boost to everyone's client care and business development efforts. We're lucky we have such strong leaders heading up each of the sector groups (Education, Healthcare, Charity and Social Enterprise, Retail, Sport) as their role is going to be key to the success of this approach. I'm so glad we did this and it's fascinating to see how it has altered the business mindset of all those involved..'

Now any technique that helps legal practitioners make that challenging transition into commercially-minded business people is very good news in my book. Interesting how this shift to a sector-oriented approach has changed mindsets to the extent that it has. 

***

...but sore bums expected at the firm next week as an SA Law team of 13 takes part in the Olympic Gold Challenge to clock up 2,012 sporting kilometres before the Games start this July. The team will be cycling from Land's End back to St Albans, a punishing 75 miles per day for four days, to raise 12,000 pounds for Keech Hospice Care for terminally ill adults and children with life-limiting illnesses. Together with their training miles, covered through rain, ice, wind and shine over the last few months, each team member will have done 1,000 miles, or more than 1,600 km, by the time they cross the finish line. 

If you'd like to make a donation, I'm sure the team would appreciate your support. You can click here to donate.

***  

Good to catch up with fellow 'Twegals' at Lex2012TweetUp this week in Holborn. I could only stay for half an hour as I had another event that night (they don't call me Two Parties Rodway for nothing!) but I managed to catch up briefly with @BrianInkster (always good to see him when he's down south), @LindaCheungUK (self-professed 'Blue-chip escapee' and CEO of CubeSocial which offers software and other techniques for winning business via social media - do check out their website), @HeatherTowns (esteemed FT author on the subject of business networking and my new best friend after she came to my offices that day with a home-made cake), old friend and legal marketing supremo @RedStarKim, @GavWard (a delight to meet him in person for the first time after a year or so of exchanging ideas on Twitter), @legalaware (love his tweets so again great to finally meet him in person) and the inimitable @colmmu.

A couple of people I missed on the night, but who I will be aiming to catch up with over coffee in the next few weeks, include @jezhop (Director of Operations at the new Riverview Law), @AjeetMinhasGTB (co-founder of Minhas & Dixon LLP) and @pupillageblog (author of the very popular tongue-in-cheek guide 'for bewildered would-be barristers') all of whom I have the pleasure of tweeting with regularly but rarely meet. Need to fix that! Just love Twitter for making new friends and keeping in contact with people. 

Contact  @BrianInkster or @LindaCheungUK if you fancy coming along to the next Legal TweetUp, likely to be in the next few months.

Thayne Forbes

Who'd have thought that chocolate would be the next new angle on the story of the deregulation of the legal services market? I'm always interested in new angles on the LSA/ABS story and this week I was in for a delicious treat when Thayne Forbes, co-founder of world-leading brand valuation company Intangible Business paid us a visit. Intangible Business works regularly with law firms typically valuing brands in the context of eg M&A transactions or commercial disputes. But this week Thayne had a lot to say about law firms' own brand valuation issues - and when he made the link with chocolate brands he really got my attention. 

Thayne is challenging law firms to develop a deeper understanding of what their brand means to their business, as he believe that in a fast deregulating legal marketplace branding is increasing in importance. He describe how a not uncommon lawyer response to the concept of branding is 'Reputation is key to our business of course, but we're a law firm not a chocolate bar, we don't have a brand'.  I have long advised law firms to think of their brand as a 'promise' as to what people can expect from the firm -  and the strength (or otherwise) of a brand relating directly to the extent to which the experience of the firm backs up that promise (or doesn't).  Thayne concurs: in essence, Intangible Business describes a brand as simply 'a promise of what to expect'. And they have now launched a game challenging legal professionals to show their understanding of branding by matching up law firm characteristics to well known chocolate bar brands.  If you're intrigued to learn more, click here to read Thayne's colleague Keith Lucas on the subject of Chocolate Bars and Law Firms. 

Although over the last decade many law firms have developed a highly  sophisticated grasp of what branding is really  about - not just the big City or national firms, but some smaller regional firms too - many are still content to dismiss the concept of brand value as 'far too woolly for a business as serious as law to be concerned with'.  But Thayne talked to me about brands in law firms in a totally new way and gave me real (chocolatey) food for thought. 

'I have seen a number of disputes, particularly where a partner has left a firm, or has been effectively kicked out, and a good part of the argument about compensation has focussed on the value that the individual contributed to the firm's brand or vice versa. The reality is that most partnership deeds normally expressly preclude issues of brand value being disputed in this way so as one partner goes out or one partner comes in to the partnership issues of an individual's contribution to the firm's brand are not debated. I think it is perhaps for this reason that lawyers have got into the habit of thinking that these issues of brand simply don't apply to their type of business. But they do, and the issue inevitably comes up where such partnership deeds don't apply. And the value of a law firm brand can be enormous.'

Deregulation and non-lawyer investment in law businesses will put brand valuation on the table as never before.' Interesting times ahead.

To take part in Intangible Business's Chocolate Bars and Law Firms game, click here to name a law firm and say which chocolate bar it should be and why. The prize for the top suggestion is a Magnum of Champagne. The winner will be announced in May 2012.

Chocolate and Champagne? Now that's my kind of client! 

***

Uncanny timing for the Brighton Conference on the future of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) which kicked off this Wednesday (18-20 April 2012); the UK Government is all set to challenge ECHR powers to interfere with UK affairs and is hoping to sign up to a package of reforms - The Brighton Declaration. The irony was that the conference opened in the midst of the furore over radical cleric Abu Qatada's appeal to the ECHR against his deportation to face terrorism charges in his native Jordan; questions over whether or not his appeal had been lodged within the deadline; and whether the UK Government in fact knew when that deadline actually fell anyway! News reports from the Conference have made fascinating reading. So far I particularly like Lord McNally's analogy when urging that the reforms must put more onus on individual member states to consider human rights issues at the national level, and not leaving the job entirely to the ECHR: 'Responsibility of individual member states for human rights should run through the reforms like the letters through a stick of Brighton Rock' he said. Sweet. 

***

The Pre-Raphaelites are coming to London. Excited to hear the news this week that the Tate Britain is to stage an exhibition this Autumn promoting the Pre-Raphaelites as the rebels - the Damien Hirsts - of their age. Looking at their paintings in the 21st century it's hard to imagine just how much their work shook the art world. Alison Smith, curator of Pre-Raphaelites: the Victorian Avante-Garde, explains how John Millais' casual depiction of Jesus in Christ in the House of his Parents outraged Victorian society inviting criticism even from Charles Dickens.

Rebellion as 'passé' - now that's a theme: could be a good one to take the teenagers to... 

Mary Heaney

The Day of Reckoning for lawyers has come, according to legal publishing entrepreneur Mary Heaney, original founder of Legal Week, takelegaladvice.com, insidedivorce.com, and more recently Global Legal Post (formerly European Lawyer and Global Lawyer). I met her and colleague Maria Sunderland for lunch this week - and we all thoroughly enjoyed looking back down the years: I have known Mary since the days she was a humble news reporter at The Lawyer, even before she became News Editor and then Editor - and years before she left to launch rival Legal Week. 

I asked her to expand on this theme of the legal profession's Day of Reckoning. 'When I look at all these changes coming from deregulation and the advent of ABSs, also the changing buying patters of in-house lawyers [as famously described in Jomati's End of the Golden Era report], I see how easy it has been for years for lawyers to make money and how now they are having to work much harder for it. From the high street client to the big PLC legal team, clients are demanding something different.'

So do you think lawyers have been complacent all these years? I asked.

'What I'm saying is that now we are seeing a wider gap between the extremely talented and the middle of the road' Well, that's got to be good for consumers of legal services, whenever they are in the marketplace. 

Adapting to change is something that Mary knows a lot about. She's famous for her itchy feet and always wanting to move on to the next big challenge. She did well on the sale of Legal Week to Incisive Media in 2005 but bored quickly of a life of leisure and returned to the legal publishing market in 2006 to launch the groundbreaking takelegaladvice.om. This is Europe's first and only online comparison site for legal services and is dedicated to bringing transparency to the legal market enabling consumers and businesses to make truly informed choices about the lawyers they use. 

Our meeting this week came shortly after the launch of the new-look Global Legal Post, an amalgamation of The European Lawyer, Global Lawyer and LegalDay.com. But the big new idea for the new magazine is to be a digest of legal media and content specifically designed for busy lawyers always on the move.

'Lawyers' appetite for information is more voracious than ever, but they need it in new ways. Whether in-house or in private practice, they are moving faster than ever. We offer news via a number of channels, to suit all needs: the immediacy of the website and e-alerts, as well as a monthly hard copy. Also, we are amalgamating the most important legal news and delivering it in one place for them on the one hand, and providing original insightful content on the other.'

Their international reach is impressive, as you'd expect given their history: almost 90,000 lawyer subscribers reached across the globe, 50% in house and 50% in private practice.

Exciting to sit back and watch Mary Heaney take over the world...

***

Satirists had a field day this week with the news that plans to extradite radical cleric Abu Hamza have been approved by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. For some reason, the story sparked some particularly creative offerings from cartoonists, comedians and other satirists.

Nicknamed Captain Hook by the tabloids because of the hook replacing his right hand and his missing eye, most of the satire focussed on his appearance. 

The Times published an excellent cartoon by David Haldane, depicting the arrival of Abu Hamza's false arm at the US Department of Justice and the caption 'We're receiving him in monthly instalments.' My favourite though, has to be this key rack pictured left. Bad taste I know, but priceless.

***
Only 10 days to go till Sundance London, Robert Redford's film and music festival - in London for only its second year. This will be my first visit and I can't wait. 

Treats in store include an evening with the great man himself and T Bone Burnett, moderated by Nick Hornby, a myriad of features and shorts by up-and-coming filmmakers, plus musical delights such as sessions by Tricky and Rufus and Martha Wainwright.

...but because watching Robert Redford on screen is always time well spent, here's a link to a video snippet of the great man discussing his plans for Sundance London with Sky News. 

Katy Scruton

I've had kind offers of info on places I'm travelling to before (Tony - thanks for the loan of the Klimt books. I'll return them when I get back from Vienna after Easter) but when Amnesty's Katy Scruton offered to send me some info on Russia for a trip to Moscow I'm planning with my son later this year, of course what she meant was reports of human rights abuses there.

Katy is a membership co-ordinator at Amnesty International. She is interested in engaging with lawyers so I try to bring lawyers with me to Amnesty events whenever I can, to introduce them to her. (Lawyers, if you'd like to try an Amnesty event with me, drop me a line in the comment box below.) There is a natural overlap between the work of lawyers and Amnesty, the organisation's mission being to uphold the rule of international law.  For me the arrangement we have with them has opened doors to experiences that have been heart-breaking (meeting Troy Davis' family at the House of Commons), fascinating (Amnesty's Media Awards celebrating the best in Human Rights journalism) and fun (celebrating their 50th birthday at the House of Lords and being quite star-struck meeting Amnesty co-founder and esteemed lawyer and journalist Louis Blom-Cooper QC) in equal measure.

Katy is passionate about her job. 'I do realise I am extremely lucky to be employed by an organisation that I so believe in and to do work that I have a real conviction for.'  Over lunch we discussed the various campaigns Amnesty is focussing on at the moment - supporting people demanding change eg in the Middle East and North Africa; campaigning against the death penalty, eg Japan's recent resumption of executions; women's rights eg in Afghanistan and in the Middle East and North Africa. Also the specialist networks eg on Children's Human Rights; TeachRights for teachers wanting to bring human rights into their classrooms (of which my own children have been beneficiaries).

We also talked about Amnesty's wonderfully creative use of social and other new media platforms: their range of videos and mini-films to put across the essence of a campaign in an attention-grabbing way, then pushed out via Facebook and Twitter for that viral effect. Check out the selection at Amnesty TV. A personal favourite of mine is the satirical (and sartorial) cartoon created for Fashion Week this February that I came across on Facebook (and of course passed on): two fashionistas discussing the new 'Child Labour Range', challenging people to question whether they know who makes their clothes. You can watch the video here.

A smart piece of communication from a very smart organisation.

***

Loved the way the pasty tax story got so out of control this week. It started badly, the surprise Budget announcement that VAT will be charged on hot takeaway food suggesting a Treasury out of touch with the pressures of people on low incomes struggling to feed families. Then it got worse: when quizzed in the House by John Mann MP, son of a baronet George Osborne was unable to recall the last time he'd eaten a Greggs pasty. And after - oh dear - David Cameron stepped in to fill the breach and reminisced about a delicious pasty he'd eaten at Leeds station, it turned out the outlet he though he'd bought it from closed down five years ago.

Well, that was it! The press then had a field day: Osborne was described by The Sun as the 'Marie Antoinette of the 21st Century' and on Twitter it was suggested he had probably had to be 'briefed' after his faux pas that pasties were 'similar to mini boeufs en croute'. Painful for the PRs having to handle this I'm sure, but highly entertaining for the rest of us.

I have a fascination with the relationship between 'food' and 'class', so particularly loved this piece by The Economist's Bagehot: 'Pasty-gate as proxy for Tory angst about class.' Enjoy the article here.

***

This blogpost would be incomplete without some oohing and aahing about the weather. Hasn't it been wonderful! We finished a really good week at Kysen - particularly fascinating work, some great "hits" and a number of very enjoyable meetings with clients - not to mention trips for some to Birmingham and Milan - with drinks on our roof terrace. Did I mention we have a roof terrace? [Yes Clare, all the time, in conversation and on Twitter...  Honey ;-)]

Let's hope there's lots more sunshine to come this Spring! Have a great Easter break...

Please note I'm away next week so my next blogpost won't be until 15th April.

Mike Fieldhouse

A clear sign that firms are waking up to social media is the fact that Mike Fieldhouse is getting busier and busier. I met him for tea this week and he told me he had just signed up a Top Ten firm he'll be advising on social media usage and policy. A former lawyer, Mike works closely with the very wonderful Heather Townsend, author of the FT's 'Guide to Business Networking' (both online and offline) whom I've interviewed for this blog before.

Mike and I were discussing how law firm attitudes to social media have changed in just a very short space of time. Not much more than a year ago the typical response from a major firm was 'social media may be great for some businesses, but it's never going to be relevant in the legal/accounting sector because our work is so discreet/confidential/and things our employees say could be held against us'. Today the conversation is different. 'Social media is clearly important, so how do we manage these issues... that our work is so discreet/confidential/and things our employees say could be held against us?'

"Firms are now doing it and they are starting to think more and more about how to formalise and professionalise their approach", says Mike, "which is where Heather and I come in. Our role is to help set the parameters for social media usage, devise policies that work with the culture of the firm, recommend baseline programmes of social media activity for people and train them in how to do it.

"The next challenge though, is how to perfect who is doing which part of the firm's social media activity: what should the partners and fee-earners be doing? What should the marketing/PR team be doing? Does it work having a junior marketing exec tweeting on behalf of a busy department head, or should the partner be doing it himself? And how does it link with PR? What sort of opportunities are there to work with the established media on social media platforms?" 

This is a subject close to my heart of course. We talked about the MIPIM blogging and tweeting for Estates Gazette and The Lawyer we organised for one client this Spring; the various opportunities for guest blogging on the websites of established media titles, nice nationals such as The Times and the FT and the fun opportunities eg inviting employment law clients to tweet from their sofas watching The Apprentice on TV using a special hashtag for The Lawyer magazine.

And yes, I did take that opportunity to step on to the soap box and sound off on one of my favourite themes: the opportunities for firms' senior partners on social media platforms. So many times the senior partners will opt to 'leave the likes of twitter to the younger generation'. But they only need to reconnect with someone they've done business with before but have lost touch with over the years, and with no track record to prove in the way that 'the youngsters' have to, their reputation already soundly established, work can follow far more immediately.

There's lots more here to talk about between me, Mike and Heather as firms get really serious with social media. The idea of some joint talks and webinars was mooted, linking social media policy, training, tactics and PR. 

Watch this space....

***

The most arresting story of the week has to be the one about the defendant in a murder trial who was brought to court in his hospital bed to give evidence at the Old Bailey. He made legal history no less.

A suicide attempt while in custody left the defendant extensively paralysed. News reports describe him in the well of the court lying down in his hospital bed propped up by pillows and surrounded by nurses. 

But it was court artist Julia Quenzler's classic pastel and charcoal depiction of the scene that caught my attention. Immediately recognisable in the papers as an official courtroom sketch, but so incongruous with the hospital bed at the centre.

***

There must be a God up there... Those of you who know my passion for film will understand my excitement this week reading in The Evening Standard that a second branch of the London Film Museum will be opening this April. The article featured this wonderful image of Marilyn Monroe going over her lines between takes for The Misfits; also a wonderful snap of Charlton Heston on the set of Planet of The Apes, taking a break with a colleague in full ape costume. Just two of the delights on display at the new museum. Halfway through the article I started to obsess - where is the new site? I must go to the opening.... before reading the Museum opens in Covent Garden, less than five minutes from our office! 

Someone up there is definitely smiling down on me!

Gary Morton

Riverview Chambers represents a sea change in the way legal services can be delivered, there is no doubt.  This is the first of DLA Piper-backed LawVest's mould-breaking 'alternative legal business structures', one of a handful of exciting business innovations in the sector currently in the queue for an ABS licence. We've all read the legal news stories: two firms under one brand Riverview Law - Riverview Solicitors and Riverview Chambers - will offer businesses a 'different experience of law' by offering fixed pricing on legal jobs. But I was interested to learn from to Gary Morton this week, one of the barristers who led 3 Pump Court's charge into the new Riverview venture, about how this ground-breaking development benefits his own chambers.


'So far we've signed up to supply employment services for Riverview. And in this part of the legal world, peaks and troughs can be difficult to manage. You may spend weeks at a time in Tribunal. At other times you prepare for a three-week hearing, then the case settles the day before court leaving a gaping hole in the diary that can't be filled at short notice. Our dual membership at Pump Court and Riverview means we can fill the gaps with work that is more piecemeal in nature coming from a different part of the market, eg one or two day cases. I also think there's an intellectual benefit in having a steadier flow of work and a more diverse range. It enables you to exercise your skills more constantly, rather than having to switch it on and switch it off. I believe strongly it creates better barristers.'

But doesn't Riverview Chambers conflict with 3 Pump Court?

'Not at all. It's complementary. That's the point. In a sense we are just using the Riverview Chambers umbrella to service one particular client that is Riverview Solicitors - in the same way we service other big law firm clients at 3 Pump Court.'


3 Pump Court is famous for its collaborative culture: these guys are the antithesis of the classic image of the remote, standoffish barristers that sit in their ivory towers, quite removed from their clients and the rest of the legal team. And Gary in particular will tell you that he thinks more naturally 'as part of a collective' than as an individual - his background as a Trade Union organiser becoming apparent here. So it was no surprise to hear him enthuse:  'What really excites me about this new venture is the opportunity to take team-working between solicitors and barristers to a whole new level. Barristers do like to work with solicitors they know well, will often choose to work on a succession of cases together. But in this new structure we can take this so much further, fine-tuning how we work together, becoming slicker, more efficient - which of course from the client's point of view means more economical. '

If this is a sign of things to come in the brave new world of legal services, the future does indeed look bright.

***

Sometimes a story is best told in a single image.  Now we all know the Duchess of Cambridge is a very photogenic young woman and we are certainly used to seeing pictures of her gracing our newspapers, magazines and screens daily. Yet one photo of her this week stopped me in my tracks - despite my republican leanings.  This arresting image (left) was reproduced everywhere.
You can count the story lines just looking at this picture of her  impromptu hockey display on her visit to Team GB this week. 
- The unfusty royal - prepared to pull on a sweatshirt and trainers, give it a go and be a good sport
- A woman with skills - once captain of the school hockey team, at Team GB her technique 'wowed crowds and impressed officials' according to the Telegraph.  

- Effortlessly glamorous - being Kate Middleton, even in trousers worn for a public occasion and incongruous grey sweat top and trainers, she still managed to look fabulous.
- And look at that smile and that wonderful body language. This young woman may be living life in a goldfish bowl, but she's cool and relaxed - and knows how to have fun. #



***

A very welcome Tonic came mid-week in the form of our 'Spruce Up for Spring' session in Covent Garden. Clients and friends who are members of our Tonic Club volunteered for free makeovers (at Bare Escentuals) or traditional wet shaves (at über trendy barbershop Murdock), followed by drinks all together at nearby Hospital Club. 

Tonic is designed exclusively for people working in-house in professional firms in PR, marketing or management roles.  As its name suggests, the idea is to offer a 'tonic' - these roles may be joyous and rewarding but we all know there are frustrations too!

Thanks Nicola, Victoria, Jacky, Sarah, Sam, Andy, Chris, Lauren and all my fine colleagues at Kysen for making it such a fun evening. Looking forward to Part Two on 12 April.. 

Adrian Wooldridge

Spent a fascinating afternoon with The Economist's Schumpeter, one of my favourite weekly columnists. What a treat! Essentially a business and management column, Schumpeter was launched by The Economist three years ago, designed to offer insights to "help people see business straight". It is named after the famous economist, intellectual and political scientist Joseph Schumpeter, who knew the power of a sound bite: in the first half of last century he coined the term 'creative destruction' - the idea that companies rising and falling would unleash innovation and in the end make economies stronger. He believed vehemently that innovation was at the heart of economic progress and he promoted the idea that business, and capitalism, could be a force for good - at a time when the prevailing sentiment was anti-business.  

"Queen Elizabeth owned silk stockings. The capitalist achievement does not typically consist in providing more silk stockings for queens, but in bringing them within the reach of factory girls, in return for steadily decreasing amounts of effort" was one of his most famous observations.

The man behind Shumpeter is impressive in his own right.  Management Editor Adrian Wooldridge is one of the most thoughtful and though-provoking journalists I know.  Take a look at this week's article "Slaves to the smartphone" on the "evils of constant connectivity" and how we should all get a life.  And this one from earlier in the year on "The dangers of demonology", which argues that hatred of bankers is in fact one of the world's oldest and most dangerous forms of prejudice.  Now that's a challenging idea.  

Adrian is also the author of several intriguingly titled business books: "The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea", "A Future Perfect: The Challenge and Hidden Promise of Globalisation", "The Right Nation - a study of conservatism in America", and "Masters of Management: How the Business Gurus and their Ideas have Changed the World - for Better and for Worse".  This man is alive with interesting, original, often counter-intuitive ideas. If ever you have an opportunity to engage him in conversation, grab it! Lucky me: I got to spend a lunchtime and a whole afternoon with him as he talked to a number of clients for a piece he's researching on the changing fashions for organisational structures. It was utterly fascinating.  Will reveal more soon...

***

"Austerity MIPIM" are two words I never thought I'd see side by side.  But Brecher managing partner Nicky Richmond has been busily blogging from MIPIM this week for both The Lawyer and Estates Gazette and has been talking about just this.  Gone are the days of the property department jolly. This year if you're there, you're definitely there to work. Nicky more than most: on top of a gruelling diary of hardcore business meetings, from dawn to dusk, across breakfast, lunch and dinner, she has been sending me two draft blogs before 9am each morning.  Star client!  You can read her Estates Gazette blog here and The Lawyer one here - although this one comes with a health warning.  She took a particularly dim view as some of the proceedings towards the end of the week seemed to slide back into the lairy excesses of the early noughties, and being Nicky she told it just how it was. And it wasn't pretty.

As I post this, Nicky is on her way back to London - returning with a suitcase full of new clients and deals.  Now that's how it's done!

***

Didn't we all miss Steve Jobs this week, with the damp squib that was the launch of iPad 3. The market was seriously underwhelmed.  Now Mr Jobs was a man who might have got on well with our Joseph Schumpeter, had their times on this mortal coil coincided. Jobs' magic gift was his ability to take potentially elite, complex technology and translate it into a mass consumer product, because of his intuitive understanding of the consumer mind, habit and heart. The latest iteration of our beloved iPad seems no more than a bit of tinkering around the edges. A new high definition screen? Faster microchip? Hardly revolutionary.  Let's hope Apple finds new inspiration soon.