Profitability RULES: Update on their Origin

Last month's sidebar article on “profitability levers” invited ' well, predicted ' corrections to my hearsay report on the origin of the RULES acronym for profitability factors: realization, utilization, leverage, expense control, and speed of billing and collection.

Joseph A. Bailey of PwC, a textbook coauthor cited in that sidebar and also the coauthor of this month's feature article on globalizing law firm operations, concurs with my source's belief that Bob Arndt was one of the RULES originators.

Hearsay evidence is questionable for good reason, however. I reported my original source's suggestion for Arndt's acronymizing accomplice as “Raven Horst.” Raven is an unusual enough first name that I would ordinarily have challenged it; but, as luck would have it, my kid had just recently introduced me to a school friend with that name. In any case, Bailey kindly informs me that the individual in question is Jim Rabenhorst.

That said, Bailey thinks Arndt's actual partner was Corky Hoffman! But who knows, perhaps both of them joined Arndt for that legendary lunch.

Bailey also indicates that Bob Arndt was talking up the RULES factors and their interdependence way back in the early 1980s, a full decade earlier than my original source suggested. Few lunchtime jottings withstand the test of time so well.

' Joe Danowsky

Last month's sidebar article on “profitability levers” invited ' well, predicted ' corrections to my hearsay report on the origin of the RULES acronym for profitability factors: realization, utilization, leverage, expense control, and speed of billing and collection.

Joseph A. Bailey of PwC, a textbook coauthor cited in that sidebar and also the coauthor of this month's feature article on globalizing law firm operations, concurs with my source's belief that Bob Arndt was one of the RULES originators.

Hearsay evidence is questionable for good reason, however. I reported my original source's suggestion for Arndt's acronymizing accomplice as “Raven Horst.” Raven is an unusual enough first name that I would ordinarily have challenged it; but, as luck would have it, my kid had just recently introduced me to a school friend with that name. In any case, Bailey kindly informs me that the individual in question is Jim Rabenhorst.

That said, Bailey thinks Arndt's actual partner was Corky Hoffman! But who knows, perhaps both of them joined Arndt for that legendary lunch.

Bailey also indicates that Bob Arndt was talking up the RULES factors and their interdependence way back in the early 1980s, a full decade earlier than my original source suggested. Few lunchtime jottings withstand the test of time so well.

' Joe Danowsky