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To broaden your appeal, narrow your position.
Lesser Logic
Around the time that SAS began its dramatic revival, a New York City law firm
was plotting a similar success. While somewhat inadvertent—as the firm’s
partners now admit—the dramatic ascent of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher &
Flom is yet another example of the power of focus.
First, some background. The best-regarded New York City law firms have
long been dominated by WASP gentlemen from Harvard and Yale and the

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“right” clubs. A gentleman lawyer truly is a gentle man. Except to defend his
country from naked aggression or his wife from naked slander, a gentleman does
not fight.
That ethic meant that gentlemen lawyers did not engage in the bloodiest
fights in business: takeovers. So when mergers and acquisitions came into
prominence in the 1970s, New York’s gentlemanly law firms regarded M&A the
way other natives of India regard the Untouchables. This aversion in turn created
an opportunity in the New York legal market into which Joe Flom happily
jumped.
The driving force and chief rainmaker for Skadden Arps, Flom had few
choices. Flom, like most of his partners, went to the wrong school (City College
of New York) and belonged to none of the right clubs. For Flom to position
Skadden Arps as an M&A specialist did not require courage; it required only an
appetite and a mortgage, two things that Flom and each of his partners had.
But Skadden’s specialization—its narrow focus on M&A—soon had its
dramatic effect. From dominating the M&A work of the seventies and eighties,
Skadden Arps soon spread into every area of old-line work. By 1989, the firm
had gross revenues of $517.5 million—enough to qualify for the Fortune 500
and by far the world’s richest law firm.
That greatest success all started with Flom’s narrow focus. Focusing on
M&A made Skadden very appealing to clients for a simple reason. However
ugly takeovers may be, a lawyer’s ability to handle them clearly demonstrates
the skill to handle complex cases and people, and to stay graceful under
pressure. In short, if you can do M&As, you can do almost anything.
Skadden’s success illustrates the lesser logic power of some positions.
Skadden’s position in a narrow but complex area appealed to clients with less
complex problems. “If they can do something that hard, then by lesser logic they
can do this.”
Ask yourself: What special skill could your business develop and
communicate that would, by lesser logic, position you strongly in other areas?
What is the big skill you could develop and market that clearly implies other
valuable skills?