Leading One Arendt Programme

We co-created a leadership programme with Arendt to elevate their organisational strategy even higher.

Arendt & Medernach is Luxembourg’s leading independent legal, tax and business services firm. The organisation’s innovative way of combining all services under the ‘One Arendt’ umbrella and its market leadership earned Arendt the 2020 European Law Firm of the Year award. The firm partnered with us to co-create a leadership programme to enhance their strategy throughout the organisation.

Known for high-level expertise on the Luxembourg market, Arendt partners continuously develop their competencies and skills. Wanting to build on previous leadership and personal development work, the firm sought out Oxford Saïd to challenge them even further on an organisational strategy level.

Arendt has a strategy to become an integrated legal services firm offering a wide range of advice and consulting beyond the traditional scope of a law firm. However, it became clear that to enact this strategy, the firm must build a One Arendt culture and mindset amongst the entrepreneurial partners who operated mostly within their own practice silos.

The programme was designed to encourage space for strategic conversations that would translate into practical applications. This created a team-facilitation approach and design that delivered planned world-class faculty content and emergent learning in a highly experiential way. 

Programme Director and Associate Fellow Simon Lau led the Oxford Saïd team, which taught and facilitated a programme that organised conversations with leading experts from Oxford University’s wide-ranging faculty on topics of strategic significance as part of an innovation carousel. This grounded the programme in strategy and enabled innovative and collective thinking.

Fifty partners gathered across two cohorts to develop their individual and combined leadership skills within the context of strategic aspirations. Simon comments: ‘Whatever the participants learnt as a cohort, they had a responsibility as partners to then cascade that down into their teams.’

Designed as a learning journey, the programme included pre-course investigation and exercises, including ‘pair and share’ conversations between partners of different cohorts to learn about each other’s leadership journey and build connection.

Each cohort then attended the three-day in-person module in Oxford in October and November 2021, which challenged them to examine themselves and the organisation and make commitments to applying their discoveries and insights. The programme structure helped expose the organisation to the outside community so participants could bring the value from that experience back inside the organisation.

Pair and share conversations across cohorts and virtual learning groups followed module one to reflect on the experience and continue to build connection and collaboration within the overall partner community. In February and March 2022, partners met again in-person in Luxembourg for the three-day module two to build on what they learnt and explore personal and organisational topics. This time, the structure focused on taking value from inside the organisation and bringing it out to the wider Luxembourg community.

Following module two, partners paired up again across cohorts to share content and compare experiences, learning from each other in the process. This emphasis on support and follow-up throughout the programme was important to Arendt. Simon observes: ‘The partners like intellectual stimulation and the process of “knowing,” but they also wanted follow-through moments to integrate and apply what they learnt through “doing and being.”’

A pre-course survey allowed classroom discussions to be informed by evidence. It also provided a picture of how partners act collectively, which opened eyes and energised conversations.

Partners could instantly see opportunities and risks on the horizon based on the data they shared. Analysing data to differentiate segments in the partnership clarified how partners change (or do not change) the longer they are in their roles.

Oxford Saïd Professor of Management Michael Smets explains: ‘We brought research to the programme that included evidence-based insights and interventions. We also brought research skills that allowed us to draw out deeper insights from diagnostic interviews.’

The overall architecture of the programme was supported by a framework developed by Michael Smets and Emeritus Professor Tim Morris known as the Strategy Swirl. It is based on the idea that most professional service firms need more than expert knowledge to build competitive advantage. Rather, they need four interrelated resources: expertise, service, reputation and relationships. By combining and reinforcing these resources, the partners can ‘orchestrate’ ways to drive and sustain competitive advantage.

The concept of moving from expert to orchestrator is something Arendt wanted to explore.

Facilitators redesigned sessions to adapt to the needs of the room. Simon explains: ‘We had an agenda, but we created space to have important conversations. It was essential that participant-led conversations had time for thinking together rather than follow a faculty-delivered schedule.’

Module one brought the best of Oxford Saïd to the partners, with leading researchers applying their insights to Arendt’s business challenges during conversational carousels. These strategy conversations led the client to reflect that they wanted to adjust module two to include targeted personal leadership work, which resulted in the application of the hero’s journey of Henry V as a leadership metaphor.

Carole observes: ‘They discussed how to adapt and be flexible in your strategy and your position to succeed in your goals. It was extremely powerful; they still talk about it. Someone will say, “Remember Henry V would do this,” and it unlocks the situation.’

Key conversations emerged throughout the programme. The first centred around defining and aligning strategic priorities, including communication, succession, diversity and inclusion and recruitment and retention. The second centred on the need for an organisational purpose. Carole reports: ‘Our internal strategy committee took all the points and created working groups. We are putting into action insights that were clearly identified during the Strategy Swirl sessions.’

•  Developing transparency in communication

There was a sense that many in the firm didn’t know its history, purpose or strategy. After the programme, Arendt created internal newsletters to share information and foster the strong community inherent in its One Arendt vision. They also plan to produce internal videos and improve external communication platforms.

• Envisaging Arendt 2030

Thinking about the future led to Arendt 2030, an initiative for professional development and succession planning. It includes a transition programme to prepare and assist those who plan to retire.

• Strengthening diversity

The firm is developing plans to increase diversity and representation across the organisation and facilitate employee recruitment and retention. Carole shares: ‘We have worked hard on diversity and inclusion, but we can go even beyond that.’

• Increasing competency and expertise

Arendt is creating a training curriculum for the entire firm and has launched Arendt University. This investment makes employees feel valued and supported to accelerate their careers.

• Creating training to benefit clients

Discussions about offering more to clients resulted in a partnership between Oxford Saïd and the Arendt Institute to provide client training services. 

The experience created a shift in partners’ behaviour toward more transparency and understanding of the firm’s strategic priorities. To grow as One Arendt, the partners worked to foster a greater sense of collective ownership and trust in one another.

This includes creating a community of management that meets twice yearly to open minds by bringing in high-level speakers in new areas and subjects. They also discuss strategy updates on where Arendt stands and where it needs to be in the future.

All of these outcomes resulted from the high level of trust between the Oxford Saïd and Arendt teams. This close working relationship allowed partners to discover ways to realise their vision of One Arendt.