What a cheerless world is portrayed in Maureen Broderick’s article . Are we really just a ‘time and materials’ business?

It is a very long time since there was any debate about the basis of our professional ethics. There are still some of us who worry more about the quality of what we do and why we do it. Some fewer still who enjoy at least some aspects of our work.

Here it is all discipline, articulated financial strategy (which presumably does not include just not spending what you haven’t got), established metrics, proposal pipelines and performance efficiency.

But all for what? Climb the partnership pole, pause to view the horizon, and the next moment you become an under-contributing partner with fatal consequences… termination! Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh balance sheet thy victory!

Christopher Langdon, Young, Coles & Langdon, Hastings