RubinBrown: One Firm, A Tradition of Trust

Introduction

What is a One-Firm Firm?

“A one-firm firm strives to achieve the highest levels of internal collaboration and mutual commitment in pursuing ambitious goals.” According to David Maister, noted author and former professor at Harvard Business School, the one-firm firm, as defined above, establishes “a set of concrete management practices consciously chosen to maximize the trust and loyalty that members of the firm feel both to the (organization) and to each other.”

To understand how a one-firm firm is unique, Maister compares it to a “warlord” or “silo” environment, interchangeable terms for a culture that emphasizes “internal competition, individual entrepreneurism, distinct profit centers, decentralized decision-making, and the

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