Moving with pace: building a culture of innovation and speed as general counsel

Vicki Bradin, General Counsel at Sage, caught up with Emma Carroll, Head of Content at Source, on the latest episode of our Business Leader's Voice podcast.    Vicki shared her insights on the following matters and more:   ·        General counsels could be seen as a person that slows things down and says no—but this isn't how today's best GCs work. Instead, they need to think about the areas where the business needs to take more risk and lean into this.   ·         With the fast-paced nature of the technology industry, tech businesses need to move rapidly. Missing a transformative industry trend could lead to years of playing catch up.   ·         When deciding whether a new trend is a fad or a real value-adding solution, businesses should consider the practical applications. Does it have a real benefit to the customer, help them with a problem that needs solving, or improve their own productivity and pace?   ·         Communication is central to collaboration. Teams should come together regularly and sit down in a disciplined way to talk about shared challenges, differences of opinions, and how to avoid duplication.   ·         It's easy to think that more people in your workforce would lead to a boost in productivity—but this isn't always the case. You have to think about the layers of your team and put in frameworks to make sure that decision making and communication isn't getting slow.   ·         Lawyers have a unique skillset that can add value beyond just being the lawyer in the team. For instance, they ask great questions, can assimilate vast amounts of data, and can be the unbiased person in the room.   If you enjoyed this conversation, don't miss our sister podcast, Future of the Firm. In a recent episode, we talked to Michael McMahon, Professor of Economics at University of Oxford, about the impact of Trump's policies on the professional services industry.