What a great business model!

Hat tip to Stephanie West Allen for alerting me to the March 3rd article in the Atlanta Business Chronicle, "Firm won't bill for first-year lawyers."This story truly inspired me. I think we could see a general price deflation across all sectors of the economy if only business were enlightened enough to follow the lead of the law firm business model. Imagine the Utopia:

• Airfares would decrease for all planes flew by first-year pilots
• Your morning ritual at Fourbucks could decrease to $3
• Banks could reduce interest rates and other charges for all their first-year tellers
• Four and Five Star restaurants would become much more affordable because of first-year chefs, sommeliers, waiters, etc.
• Sticker prices on automobiles would decline due to first-year factory workers
• Home prices would decline to account for newbie contractors

I could go on and on, but you get the point.By the way, this idea of not charging for first-years is not new. Richard Reed wrote about this in his ABA books from the 1980s and 1990s.Does anybody else see the idiocy in this??? Especially for an intellectual capital firm full of highly educated knowledge workers.When will firm leaders see the lunacy in the business model of "we sell time?" This is the kind of nonsense you get when you have the wrong theory of value.There's simply no way to correctly implement the wrong idea.