In today’s rapidly evolving litigation support services and technology business environment, staying ahead requires more than just keeping pace with your own company’s plans for growth. To reach your full potential, you must become a dedicated “student of the game” and a well-versed expert on your industry, including learning about its history, current state, and forward-looking trends. This focus not only sharpens your strategic edge, but also equips you with the insights and information you require to anticipate future developments, identify new sales or services opportunities, and reduce financial risk.

Michael Porter’s Five Forces Model

I commence each day with hot oatmeal, fresh berries, and coffee while I spend an hour catching up on activities and announcements across the legal industry and the business world more broadly. I typically read Legal Tech News, Law 360, JD Supra, eDiscovery Today, Complex Discovery, and several other outstanding publications. I also review blogs and white papers from leading business consulting firms like McKinsey & Company. Of course, LinkedIn provides an abundance of announcements, blogs, and by-lined articles from thought leaders and industry influencers.

While I’m reading and researching information, I keep Michael Porter’s Five Forces model top-of-mind. Porter, the renowned professor at Harvard Business School who is known for his theories on strategy and competitiveness, identified five competitive forces that shape the direction of any industry or market segment:

1. Competition in the industry
2. Threat of new entrants into the industry
3. Power of suppliers
4. Power of customers/buyers
5. Threat of substitute products

Understanding the impact these five forces can have on the legal industry helps me identify the direction my business needs to take. Taking this information into consideration, our management team can develop business strategies for our company to generate and sustain long-term, profitable growth.

Be a Student of the Legal Services and Technology Industry

Being a student of your business is one of the best investments you can make in it. I have been affiliated with the eDiscovery industry since 2004 (and the broader legal services and tech industry since 1988). I have learned from the past and can attest to you that history does many times repeat itself. At the same time, ours is clearly an industry in which technology will continue to change the way we operate at an ever-faster pace. Technology has allowed companies in our industry do more and better work faster with fewer people. This had to happen given the continued proliferation of data, onset of new data types, high level of litigation and investigation activity, and materially lower unit prices we are able to charge.

Here are some suggestions of a few areas on which you should focus and how to make learning an important part of each workday.

• Understand the history of the industry

Research the history of our business sector by speaking with industry pioneers and mentors and using the Internet to capture viewpoints from multiple sources. Again, reach out to professionals who have been in the eDiscovery industry from its early beginnings. Gain insights from multiple sources about the past leaders in the eDiscovery industry (NOTE: It’s not a very old industry). For example, did you know that the Top 3 companies in eDiscovery in 2006 are no longer in business? Can you name them? Do you know why they stumbled and decided to sell? Before the dominance of Relativity, what two software products were most widely used by attorneys and law firms to organize and review documents? Understand why and how industry competitors have achieved prominence or extinction. It helps us to know where our industry has been (and why) before we can visualize where it is going.

• Understand the current changes in the industry

Be on top of changes in technology (including the application of generative AI) that could improve efficiency in your operations, sales/marketing, and administrative functions. Attend industry trade shows and speak with existing technology suppliers and emerging companies about new products. Conduct Internet research and read industry publications. Join and attend industry association meetings to stay in touch with new regulations. Stay up to date on potential new entrants (competitors) in the industry and the market.

Use your suppliers, strategic partners and customers to keep informed about what your competitors are doing. You will be enlightened by what you can learn when you ask them, and then really listen to their responses. Speak with your suppliers regularly to stay on top of what they know about changes coming to the industry, and ask them about what other companies are doing (that they are at liberty to share).

• Understand your competition and where the industry is headed

As the saying goes, “Keep your friends close; keep your enemies closer.” Recognize that all five of Professor Porter’s forces can impact your company and in positive or horrific ways. Understand your risks, but stay focused on your short-term strategies as well as your long-term goals. Develop and implement new strategies using the data you gather. Opting to simply “stay the course” can be a waste of good business intelligence.

In summary, be a student of the industry and your company’s place within it by reading, researching, listening, and then acting on the information you have collected. Make it your daily goal to become wiser about the industry and your competitors.

According to prolific author and organizational psychologist Adam Grant, a professor at The Wharton School, “If knowledge is power, knowing what we don’t know is wisdom.”