johnstibal

[johnstibal]

Models-as-a-Service (MaaS) for artificial intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (”AI”) when delivered as “models-as-a-service” (MaaS) is set to transform the way businesses operate and drive value. By leveraging the power of advanced machine learning algorithms specifically tuned to address precise problems and cloud computing, organizations can now access highly accurate and sophisticated predictive models without the need for extensive data science expertise or infrastructure.

AI MaaS refers to the provision of pre-trained machine learning models that can be easily accessed and incorporated into an organization's operations and processes. This approach allows businesses to focus on their core competencies, while outsourcing the development and maintenance of predictive models to specialized providers.

One key benefit of MaaS is the ability to quickly and easily access a wide range of pre-trained models, including those for natural language processing, computer vision, and forecasting. This means that organizations can quickly deploy AI-powered solutions without the need to train and tune their own models from scratch.

In the advanced manufacturing industry, AI and models-as-a-service can be used to improve a wide range of processes and operations. For example, predictive maintenance models can be used to identify potential equipment failures before they occur, allowing companies to perform preventative maintenance and avoid costly downtime.

Additionally, AI-powered supply chain optimization models can be used to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of manufacturing operations. By analyzing data from various sources, such as production schedules, inventory levels, and demand forecasts, these models can help companies identify bottlenecks and optimize their supply chain to reduce waste and improve profitability.

Another advantage of MaaS is the ability to easily scale and update predictive models as needed. As data and business requirements change, organizations can simply retrain or replace their models without incurring the time and cost associated with building and maintaining in-house models.

Overall, AI and MaaS are revolutionizing the way businesses operate, enabling them to access powerful predictive capabilities and drive value in new and exciting ways. As the technology continues to evolve, we can expect to see even more innovative and transformative applications of AI in the future.

Exciting times ahead. 

[johnstibal]

Managing your attorneys:  getting more for less

This is my check list for helping you manage your lawyers in the most effective way.  Don’t be intimidated by your lawyers, they work for you. The right lawyer delivers far more value than their cost, if managed correctly.   Here are my tips for doing this, and accompanies our discussion today.

Find the right lawyer for your work

Ask for referrals from colleagues

Ask about similar clients and projects

Ask how many clients they have doing what you do

     Remember, there are many flavors of lawyers, not all are the same:

M&A legal work is a specialty -

Commercial litigation work is a specialty -

Employment law is a specialty, differing by state -

Patent work is a super specialty - patent lawyers are good for patents and trademarks, etc, but in general are less good for other work

"General Commercial Lawyer"  if regularly doing IT and Software work - probably fairly good for our purposes

“Startup lawyer” if regularly doing tech deals and share offerings - probably fairly good for our purposes

Keep in mind, M&A is not rocket science, but it is not within the daily activity of the vast majority of lawyers either.  Never use a lawyer or law firm which hasn't done what you do on a weekly basis!

Understand the role of lawyers

Lawyers cannot take risks on your behalf, so often confusion arises between a lawyer trying to explain risks and you trying to assess how likely a risk is to occur.  My work around is to ask questions generically to them, not specially addressing your situation:

In the last 10 similar transactions you did which were similar, what portion of them did it this way vs not. What is typical of companies in my similar industry when facing this issue? What is the worst case scenario of this going wrong?

The vast majority of the value a lawyer provides in M&A legal work is understanding and anticipating how all of the pieces fit together, what are the tax implications, planning a negotiation strategy, IP and IT strategies, seeing around corners, etc.

The right lawyer is 10x more valuable than one having the lowest hourly rate.  The best lawyer can make high level introductions, set strategies, develop play books, know your industry, etc. 

Decide if you need a Law Firm or individual(s):   This often depends on volume, speciality, expertise, geography

There are two important types of lawyers in the world:

Fancy - big name firms

Traffic ticket lawyer(s)

(and obviously, a few other types too)

Each serves important roles.  But, not in every context.  Keep in mind the following:

Understand most lawyers sell on "Fear" (i.e. the sky is going to fall without the very best lawyer) - - not surprisingly, this is often not fully true.  Yet, this works fantastically well to sell legal services

Individual lawyers matter far more compared to the firm - look for people formerly at big firms, and now at smaller or own firm.  Look for individuals, particular “Senior Associates” practicing 5 to 7 years, not partners, in a specific firms.

Litigators rarely make good transactional lawyers, and transactional lawyers rarely make good litigators

When you get sued, aggression almost always does better - a scorched earth response by you usually works better than being the "Nice Guy".

Alternative fee arrangements - find a firm which offers these

Understand the fundamental challenge of alternative free arrangements:  Lawyers do not know what they do not know.  “How long is a piece of string?”   Until the facts  and play book is known, hard to price.  Yet, there are techniques available, particularly where you are a repeat user.

Examples of how lawyer share risk or not:

Hourly billing (usually the only option for poor defined projects)

Fee caps: Hourly billings are capped at an agreed upon maximum for a given case, project or service.   Or, heavily discounted hours above cap.

Fixed fee menus: This option provides set pricing on a variety of services provided by the firm.

Fixed fees for single engagements means firms set a hard price on a several well-defined services.

Full contingencies: With these no fee unless we win arrangements, survival depends entirely on success.

Holdbacks: A contingency arrangement where a predetermined amount is guaranteed as payment to the firm (say 20 percent).

Partial contingencies/Success fees: Similar to a holdback, the firm receives a portion of their fees during the engagement.

Portfolio fixed fees provide clients with a single, fixed price for a large number of services. 

Retainers: The legal industry’s old faithful.

Risk collars: An hourly billing arrangement that rewards efficiency.

Subscriptions:  Especially well suited for patent filings

Dead Deal Discount

Volume discounts

Lawyer Secondment, employ in-house lawyer (generally not until around $100 - $200 M in revenue, or dozens unique  transactions per year)

Free hours monthly, First XX minutes is free

Set expectations upfront with outside lawyers - don't be afraid to discuss this, lawyers don't like surprises either

Avoid last minute everything

Don't be the client who calls on 4 pm on Friday afternoon wanting something by Monday

Don't be a "fee in-sensitive client", read your bills and ask questions (so they know you read the bills!)

Demand line item details in invoices, don't accept Block Billing

Watch for the minimum call increment

During transactions, batch discussion with regular calls

Send agendas and questions in advance, say they can answer on a call

Prepare one page briefing notes about the transactions in advance

Verbal is always lower cost cost than written

Watch for the # of lawyers turning up on calls, each one is billing you.  One is almost always enough.

Junior lawyers (1st and 2nd year lawyers) never add value in meetings

Use Engagement Letters or Outside counsel guidelines - either yours (preferably) or theirs

Month billing, hard limit on back billing

Don't pay for stupid, like copies, online research services, lunch & dinner, first class airline travel

All expenses need prior approval

Check out my firm:

staticlabs.co

Are you looking to build the perfect acquisition pipeline?   

breithorn.staticlabs.co

leapmanufacturing.com

[johnstibal]

Career advice for law students wanting to practice in international law

Hello,

I was recently asked by a law student for some career advice on how to get a job internationally, and particularly how they could get engaged in international (public and private) legal work.

While my legal background stems largely from doing multinational corporate work, particularly in the IT sector, here are my basic ideas outlining a few generic things to think about in terms of your career planning and some key approaches to pursuing these types of careers.

My background.  For the past several years, I have worked primarily in London, and secondarily in Paris, for a very large telecommunications company.  I was originally working for another one of this companies' affiliates in USA, and this enabled me to move internally to another one of their companies in the UK.  Making this move internally within a large company allowed me to move abroad far easier, especially in terms of sorting out work visas and professional qualifications, etc.

Three Career Principles to Never Forget.  In terms of general career advice, there are three principles which you must keep in mind to work in international law related field.  While I recognize the risk of sharing a 'firm grasp of the obvious' (and I can almost hear some cringing already) most law students do not receive this message framed in this sort of a utilitarian light.  So, here it goes:

The sole purpose of your first legal job is to enable you to get a better second legal job.

It is all about Brand.  Your CV / Resume is a personal marketing tool.  It is your personal ‘brand’.  The choice of your first job should strongly take into account the value which the ‘brand’ of your new employer will add to your CV, and your future ambitions.  This lasts for decades.

You cannot save the world if you cannot pay the bills.  Public international law has some of the most interesting legal work around.  Unfortunately, or fortunately, it also has a tendency to attract incredibly brilliant people who will work for a minimum salary.  If you are independently wealthy, then great, no problem.  If you have large education debts, please do not neglect the fact this will undoubtedly impact your choice of jobs in the short term, even if not necessarily in the longer term.

Your first Legal job.  Getting your first Legal job is always a nerve wracking experience at best, and especially if you want to take a track other than going directly into a large law firm.  Unfortunately, nearly all major law schools are set up to build a funnel for large firms.  For your interests, even if you do not wish to 'end up' in a law firm or major global corporation, it usually makes considerable sense for you to go out to find the best ‘brand’ firm which you can, either in the US, UK or elsewhere.  You will be able to extract the majority of the benefits during this time by working at a firm for exactly two years (or three years, if in New York City) doing whatever type of legal work - - of course, its even better if your firm or company has a public international law practice, but this is not required.  By the end of this time, you will have ‘checked the box’ on your CV, and you can happily move on to what you really want to do.  This is by far is the safest option for most, and also incidentally, completes one of the requirements enabling you to be admitted to practice in other common law countries (e.g. the UK).  I’m not certain whether this is as helpful in other civil law countries, but I suspect it would be.

There is no question that working at a law firm, and potentially billing in ‘6 minute’ increments gets very tiring.  Reviewing e.g. commercial leases is even less fun than watching paint dry.  But this said, you will probably be practicing law for a very long time off and on anyway.  Having a good initial first employer on your CV, who has ‘trained’ you is always a good investment for your CV even if not necessarily beneficial to you over the long term.

As a lawyer who has graduated from a US law school, you are able to come to Europe with a well respected professional background (speaking generally).  In terms of global perceptions, US lawyers are highly respected, maybe in a similar form of the admiration to being world-class in other professions e.g. French engineers, British accountants, or Indian mathematicians - - not to foster bad stereotypes…  But, needless to say, the USA legal professional qualification travels well around the world, particularly among global employers.

This being said, there is a particular area of confusion when you first come out of law school.  Legal training is not the same around the world, meaning in France, a jurist has may have only attended the equivalent of undergrad and not graduate school (in terms of USA style nomenclature, depending on their qualifications).  In the UK, while there are some permutations, most young associates at large law firms will attend around a year and a half or so of graduate school, followed by two years of a training contract to learn how to practice law.  In Germany, many associates hold an LLM, or a PHD, at minimum, staying in school much longer.  While you probably can research the differences in the number of years of schooling better than me, you should be particularly aware of this issue when you turn up to speak with a new potential employer in Europe.  There is a risk of being perceived as wanting to find only a training contract, which is not needed as a USA law school graduate.  After your first job, the timing issue goes away as you accumulate more PQE (Post Qualification Experience).  The same is true in France, as I understand it.

An alternative path in human rights / non-profit sector for law students.  This is an area where my knowledge is limited.  But, if I wanted to pursue a career in this field, I would adopt some of the following key approaches.

First, figure out who are the heavyweights thought leaders in your particular field of interest, either individuals or organizations - - and, do your best to somehow associate yourself with their organization or sphere of colleagues.  You want to try to figure out who these organizations interact with, and by extension, which of these organizations might hire you.  Linkedin is an extraordinarily powerful resource for this research.  To test your hypotheses, try calling up or meeting up with the General Counsel of any public interest foundation (if not possible to meet in person, then email / Skype also works  but is far less effective than in person).  Introduce yourself, and ask him or her for some general advice, in particular what ‘outside counsel’ their foundation typically uses - - make clear that you admire the work of their foundation, and look to gain relevant experience by doing similar work in the future.  Ask about their Legal department organizational structure (General Counsels - GCs) love talking about this stuff), and what skills they look for over the long term, but even if not necessarily immediately.  If it goes well, you might get some really good information, and maybe even a referral to a firm or sister organization.  Senior Executives are very used to people asking them for jobs on a daily basis.  But, they get asked for their advice far less often.  Use this to your advantage... but do not be a pest.

As an example coming from NGOs, from time to time, I have occasionally dealt with some of the affiliates of the United Nations as a supplier. There are probably 20 of these, e.g. World Bank, IMF, UNHCR, IATA, WIPO, Red Cross, Red Crescent, and Red Crystal.  Some of these organizations you are probably more familiar to you than others.  There are two consistent traits that I see when dealing with their personnel.  First, many of the staff are about to retire, and second, their staff have all consistently bounced around the world working in many different UN affiliates and national governments doing all sort of different roles, both legal and non-legal.  The first of these is a well known problem for the UN and its agencies, at least, at a macro level, which might be helpfully to you. While I’m not certain what formal hiring programs may exist in these orgs, you should check with them around world, and particularly in Geneva, Switzerland and New York.  Also, in terms of firms which advise this types of groups, you should also talk with McKinsey & Company.  They do some very impressive pro bono work consulting for non-profits, and like to hire people with diverse backgrounds often having law degrees.

To get the attention of any large organization, and not just the UN agencies, you will always want to first find a way to get through the door, even if you need to do the unsexy type of legal work.  Once you are inside, it is usually far easier to move internally.  For example, if you work for a big organization like the UN, they have a vast array of legal needs, ranging from the basic to the exotic.  It is undoubtedly the case that a large portion of the UN’s legal budget goes to HR and Procurement legal advice (e.g. doing commercial leases, procuring pencils and IT projects) (whether done in-house or by external firms.)  When a UN agency needs to lease a building in sub-Saharan Africa, some lawyer somewhere in the world needs to review and advise on the tender process (often in combination with other local lawyers).  Therefore, this is an opportunity to target.   Yes, this is not sexy work, but it gets you a pass into the ‘club’ to work on other more interesting projects in the future.

As a final thought.  Having outlined all of above, if you truly want to work in the non-profit / human rights space, it might be the case that being a ‘junior file clerk’ for Google.org or the Gates Foundation is equally beneficial (from a brand perspective to get your next job) as being a senior associate at Skadden Arps.

On the one hand, being at a big firm allows you to potentially develop a deep legal specialty, which might be later retooled for a good purpose.  For example, undoubtedly, at some point, a brilliant lawyer in some large law firm will figure out how to package up millions of ‘microfinance’ loans using mezzanine financing techniques (i.e. allowing Wall Street money to start funding billions of very small loans around the world) - - in so doing, they could indirectly create prosperity in Africa for a life time.

At the same time, NGOs have a potential to do great things too.  These are the people who are likely to generate the next generation of new legal concepts / quasi-regulatory regimes.  For example, a newer area which I am following lately relates to 'conservation services' and 'natural capital' (see Conservation International) (www.conservation.org).  These structures are, essentially, quasi-voluntary regulatory schemes to allow companies to share and manage ecological externalities (see Jennifer Morris's speech at Stanford).  For me, CI's approach is just a start of a major trend in this area: soon there will be ISO certificate schemes covering externality pricing, as well as voluntary business case weighting methodologies which hopefully over time will become a standard approach in global commercial activity - - yet, this said, few individuals in the world understand how these types of governance tools work in practice.  It simply cross too many intellectual domains, which so far has stymied adoption on a global level.  'Deep Greens' are not well suited to create these types of applied 'corporate' innovations around externalities, but maybe you are the one given your legal background.

Highly innovative organizations, such as the Gates Foundation, look great to onlookers because, in large part, by comparison, the other large global NGOs have tired ‘business’ models.  Often major NGOs have been doing the same exact thing for decades.  For me, I could see this as creating an opportunity.  It might be great fun to join one of these NGOs for the express purpose to reshape it, remake it, and help them to reinvent their bag of tricks as an NGO.  As a lawyer, you can have this level of influence within these types of organizations - - but, remember, always ask for forgiveness, never for permission when trying to affect major change within large organizations.

Keep in touch.  If you like this or have other items to add, please drop me a note.  I always enjoy hearing from people and what they think.  These are changing times!

Best of luck,

John

[johnstibal]

Software + Hardware, a Good Strategy for Software Firms?

Software firms often reach a point where maintaining early growth becomes a challenge. Reaching a point where their applications have been lost in the IOS / Google Play store among 'me too' competitors, struggling to reach profitability given the 30% transaction cost of the app stores, many firms are increasingly looking at alternative routes to market.

B2B?   B2B2C?   Hardware?   Strategic partners?   Wearables?   Software-defined objects?   In other words, atoms + bits + cloud?

Yes, all of these can be very good options to explore when searching for an alternative go to market strategy, provided a few potential traps and misconceptions should be avoided before launching down each route.

Myth #1:    Hardware is hard... Yes, correct, hardware can be hard, if your team lacks the right expertise and strategic partners to help you achieve your vision. This is solvable.

Myth #2:    Spending $ millions to create hardware design molding, and endless testing and certifications could never be a good choice for your small startup company... No. A typical hardware project does not need to spend millions or even hundreds of thousands in most cases, even if high quality product development work is not free. By adopting the right development approach from the start, usually development cost, for other than highly miniaturized wearables, are typically well below $100 K. This amount includes all of the nonrecurring engineering and project development costs. As you will find, development costs tend not to be more than the comparable efforts and costs to create great software.

Bear in mind these key principles from the start.

Build upon and customize existing hardware and boards, if at all possible

Any aspiring 'Steve Jobs' protégé (and we love them all) always wants to build everything new from scratch. Sexy new technology is brilliant, no doubt, and we understand the temptation. This is great - - but, if at all possible, try to be pragmatic and focused at the start of developing your first generation product. Save your best groundbreaking approaches for your second generation product. Invariably, there will be massive learning, relationships, and investor confidence built by shipping a good first gen. product on time. This will lead to far stronger and more robust products in the future.

Nearly any electronic device imaginable exists is various forms. You just need to find it!

Perhaps your dream product was already developed for a different industry, or another part of the world? Maybe it exists as two separate devices, just needing to be combined? Possibly, a near perfect device is already sitting on the R&D shelf of a major manufacturer in China having 80% of your target functionality. You simply would need to upgrade the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) and Processor, add a few new sensors, with some nano-tech waterproofing, and combine it with your great software. As is the example in this case, finding a close 'baseline' device which meets most of your device requirements will save hundreds of thousands of dollars, and cut development / product times down to literally three to six months.

Incorporate components using a building blocks approach which are already produced in mass quantities (before your competitors does).

Billions and billions of mobile phones and tablets devices have been built over time. Year on year the raw CPU power withinthese devices gets cheaper and more powerful (and will continue for the foreseeable future).  Android and Ubuntu Linux O/S running on mobile devices are solid and stable, and free to use. GPS and sensors give context, making other data vastly more valuable. Wifi / 3G / 4G unlocks unlimited cloud-based storage and processing power. Using the availability of these components to your advantage.

Myth #3:    Electronic devices, such as highly customized phones, tablets, and state-of-the-art specialized sensors, require in initial minimum order of > 100,000 or more units...  No, not true. This was true in the past, but its no longer required now. The manufacturing world has evolved to be far more flexible and competitive. Price competitive devices can be created with a unit volume of as low as a few thousand devices, and sometimes less depending what modifications are required.

As with any challenging project worth doing, nothing is free. This is not like ordering from Amazon either. However, if you have a budget of about $ 80 K and up devoted towards development of your dream product (i.e. going from slideware concept, user testing (FCC & CE, Google certifications - GTT, GMS, for mobile devices) to a golden pre-production sample), you can very realistically achieve your vision in most circumstances.

Myth #4:    Its impossible to decommoditize a commodity... Wrong, this is a big myth, top companies do it all the time. Not only is it possible, doing so unlocks substantial hidden value for those who do it well in an authentic transformative way. But, always keep in mind the power of your overall solution, not just the hardware itself. Products and bundles of functionality matter. Take Amazon's Kindle e-reader device as an example. This is a very nice product. Yet in nearly all of world, e-readers are viewed as a low cost commodity item - - except for Amazon. The Kindle product line serves as an important leg of its business. Why? For Amazon, the Kindle is one of its major store fronts, acting as a digital goods delivery vehicle for its most loyal customers. Its rumored Amazon sells the Kindle line of products at a 5% gross margin. This is far below typical margin levels seen for hardware at retail. Yet, this 'lost' margin is recovered, via the sale of everything else on top of the device unique to Amazon, demonstrating the power which the solution brings.

Another good example comes from those companies who build their product package around customized 7” to 15” inch Android or Ubuntu powered tablets. By combining great software, with a credit card swiper, wireless handheld bar code scanner, printer, and a durable stand, this off-the-shelf bundle makes an excellent Point of Sale (POS) terminal (at a fraction of the cost of older POSs and particularly those now relying on Apple's iPads). This same approach can easily evolve to be an excellent advertising kiosk, with a few minor changes. Moreover, add some specialized high-end audio headphones or wireless speakers, with a few large television screens, and now this bundle is suitable for many other uses. The combinations are endless.

Having worked closely with some of the leading factories and ODM's (an Original Design Manufacturer is a company which designs and manufactures a product which is specified and eventually branded by another company for sale) in China, they clearly are the workshop to the world. I am continually surprised by the types and breadth of baseline products just 'sitting on the shelf' available for quick use. This said, do not be fooled by this untapped and unfocused capability. Just because you can create a product quickly, this does not mean you should. Before launching a hardware project, always ensure whatever you do is authentic for your business. Does combining atoms + bits + cloud create a new pillar of your business? If you are a software firm, does your dream hardware product unleash 3x or more functionality from your software? Does it massively delight the user?

My most important guidance: be authentic with your software and your company. Only launch a hardware project if it unlocks true value add, creating a multiple of what an off-the-shelf consumer device can do running your software.

Myth #5:    My product does not need to be 'smart'... Maybe, maybe not. Always ask yourself what is your dream product and does its technology push the bounds of what is possible for the cost?Instead of being just 5% better than a competing product and costing a bit less, is it possible to be 10x better for half the cost? Could your product double its speed of use allowing the users to be twice as efficient? If yes, this becomings a transformative product, not just incremental, leveling up its potential.

Suppose you lead a product development team for a startup medical device maker. Instead of following traditional approaches to develop you next generation of lab test equipment, what if you design a new product which combines new many features and adopts new approaches. For example, new software (with learning algorithms), cloud-based processing, a printed circuit board and touch screen (repurposed from a phone or tablet device), added an array of newest silicon-based chemical sensors and a super high resolution camera to photograph each of the test samples. All of this would be designed to fit within an upgradable modular case allowing for easy adaptation to many different uses within a customer's lab. As described, all of this 'dream' hardware is very feasible to develop. Yet, by adopting this new approach, instead of it costing $25 K per unit (as under the old approach), your new medial testing device might now only cost$300. Moreover, it now comes with the added advantage of being able to track and connect wirelessly to everything else, fundamentally changing the workflow of a medical testing lab saving substantial personnel costs.

Check out brainstem.co.

[johnstibal]

Manufacturing Hardware!

[johnstibal]

Cloud Computing laws - less opaque than you might think

Much has been written about the laws and regulations which apply to Cloud computing.   This little diagram is my contribution to describe, in a straight forward way, how the pieces of the puzzle fit together (in respect of service providers / users) under European law.

This is still a work in progress; however, I wanted to share a draft with my readers for their comments and feedback.   Please let me know what you think.

All the best,

John

[johnstibal]

Inventing new ways for Law firms to create new value for clients

I recently drew this chart at a meeting with a major global law firm.  I wanted to share this with my readers.  This chart shows some potential areas in which law firms and their lawyers can innovate to deliver new value to corporate clients.

My key messages for this law firm were:

Lawyers must better understand how to create new value for their corporate clients, particularly when working with the client's commercial and legal functions.

By offering value solely from 'Expertise' management (as is true for most major law firms today), the firm misses out on capturing a large portion of value of their overall offering (using my rough anlaysis).

Major law firms must transition their business models now or they will perish.  In an era when a law firm's primary competition will increasingly come from 'two guys and their laptops' (both of whom are probably alumni of this same firm), they should act quickly.