I recently published an interview with Paul Mankoo, CEO of Inventus, in which he talked about the race to the top for talent – how a company’s people are a differentiator between it and its rivals, and specifically in the context of discovery and related services.

In this interview, Paul Mankoo expands on this subject, in response to my question “What is the first thing you want people to know about Inventus?”

Paul Mankoo’s answer was about the “Why?” of a business. When Inventus recruits people, or when it discusses its business internally, the discussion is about the essence of Inventus’s business – what are they in business to do? The answer is to deliver legal services more efficiently.

Much of this is provided by technology, but Inventus also wants its staff to be nice people to do business with. Inventus is generally involved in stressful situations which are generally not good ones for the clients. Expertise is necessarily fundamental, but employees need also to understand the nuances of how to get on with clients – they need to be personable.

As I observe during the interview, this is one of the reasons why we do these videos – so that prospective clients can see the people they will be working with. You can easily describe what people do and list their accomplishments, but a video helps clients conclude if they want to work with those being interviewed.

Paul Mankoo observed that you cannot “allocate 10% to being nice” or have that show up in a balance sheet, but it matters nonetheless.

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