Chillin'Competition

Law has become a truly important aspect of firms’ business strategies (apologies for stating the obvious but similarly to poor good antitrust papers, an attractive post must start with a sweeping strong statement).

Yet, in the view of a significant share of firm’s personal, legal matters remain often perceived as secondarily important, “support”, matters as compared to finance, marketing, etc. A recent story shows that it is crucial to raise personal awareness to the fact that legal matters/risks are almost equally as important as other “core business” issues. As reported by Reuters recently:

A Wisconsin judge has ordered PepsiCo Inc to pay $1.26 billion to two men who said it stole their idea to sell purified water after a secretary mislaid a document alerting the world’s No. 2 soft drink maker the lawsuit existed.

It is reported that the sum of $1.26 billion represents 20%  (!) of PepsiCo’s average yearly profit (BTW: an amount which is in the range of the fines now imposed by the EC antitrust authorities). It is also reported that the secretary was too busy preparing a board meeting, of a supposedly higher importance…

For more on the fact that firms’ legal performance (in terms of compliance processes, litigation strategy, etc.) may influence their market competitiveness, see the innovative research carried out by Christophe Roquilly and Christophe Collard from LegalEDHEC as well as a book published under the direction of Antoine Masson earlier in the year.