Last week (5 November), The Lawyer revealed news of Norton Rose‘s new international strategy to focus on Turkey, Russia, India and China.
They are the TRIC countries, apparently, rather than the BRIC countries, which comprise the same ones, but with Brazil instead of Turkey.
It’s been dubbed ‘New Horizons’, which is unfortunate. It merely adds an ‘s’ to the ‘New Horizon’ strategy that dragged Hammonds to the brink of bankruptcy.
Hammonds former senior partner Richard Burns and then-managing partner Chris Jones published their glossy strategy document New Horizon in January 2000. The strategy failed.
So the pair relaunched the document, but this time it was purple. In June 2002 it was rechristened the ‘New Horizon Implementation Plan’. It promised an average profit per equity partner of £400,000. Again, it failed.
The omens for Norton Rose are not good. But perhaps if it uses its other strategy, ‘Headlights’, in conjunction with the new one it could be okay. All Norton Rose needs to do is shine its Headlights on the New Horizons, avoid the BRICs, turn a few TRICs and any Hammonds-esque failures will be shadows in the rear-view mirror.
