University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
The Future of Professional Firms Post-Pandemic
Article

The Future of Professional Firms Post-Pandemic

Karl Moore
Forbes, 2021
Read the article

Read or listen offline

Amazon Kindle
  • 0.5×
  • 0.75×
  • 1×
  • 1.25×
  • 1.5×
  • 1.75×
1×

Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Overview
  • Eloquent
  • Hot Topic

Recommendation

As co-host of the podcast Empson & Morley: Leading Professional People, Laura Empson does a lot of thinking about work culture. Her roles as senior research fellow at Harvard Law School and professor at the Bayes Business School at University of London only multiply her insights. Still, when asked about how COVID-19 will influence work culture in the long term, she says, “No one knows yet.” In this article, Empson goes on to describe some of the benefits and possible pitfalls of the remote work revolution.

Summary

The switch to remote work has two main motivations: greater flexibility for employees, and cost-saving for employers.

Remote work has always been part of professional firms; you might pull out meeting notes on a flight, take a work-related call somewhere other than the office, or visit clients off-site. The post-COVID-19 era is different in that some firms are playing with the idea of no longer providing an office space. This is driven in part by employee demand, but employers have a reason of their own: lowering overheads.

The motivation behind the move to remote work will have strong implications for the way remote work is implemented...

About the Author

Karl Moore is a professor in the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University. He’s taught executive education and MBA programs at Oxford, McGill, USC, Stanford, Harvard Business School, INSEAD, IMD, LBS, Duke, Cambridge and Darden.

Comment on this summary