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Case Study

Wachtell vs. Watson: The future of professional services (Mini case)

By Knut Bjarne Haanaes, Lisa Simone Duke and Øystein D. Fjeldstad

4 pages

May 2020

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Reference: IMD-7-2202

The case looks first at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, a renowned M&A law firm in the US that changed the business model of corporate law firms with a very specific offering and a specific way of being remunerated. It became so successful that it was the top firm for compensation for several years. The case then looks a IBM and its Watson AI, which famously won the TV quiz Jeopardy! in 2011. IBM built various applications around Watson such as in automotive, customer services, healthcare etc. However, it was criticized for being a black box that other developers could not built upon. The most recent business Watson has entered has been law to disrupt low-value/high-volume work. The case ends asking how far Watson can go in disrupting professional work and what should Wacthell be thinking about Watson?

Learning Objective

This case is part of a mini-case series “Reshaping Industries – Embracing the New Normal Mini Case Series“.
Learning objectives focus on business models and how these can threaten or become threatened quickly with the rise in technology. In this case, Wachtell changed the payment model within M&A law and is focused on certain work only.
We contrast that with IBM Watson which, as an AI, is being applied to more and more industries to remove some lower-level work from humans. The learning objective is to think about threats to business models from digital and whether AI will take more value-adding work from humans.

Keywords

Strategy, Artificial Intelligence, Business Model

Settings

World/global
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen ＆ Katz
1965 to 2020

Type

Published Sources

Available Languages

English

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This case study is part of a series

Connecting the world: From AT&T to Zoom (Mini case)
From the Model T to the Tesla Y to “what” now? (Mini case)
Platforms everywhere: GE vs. Haier (Mini case)
Wachtell vs. Watson: The future of professional services (Mini case)

This case study is part of a series

Connecting the world: From AT&T to Zoom (Mini case)
From the Model T to the Tesla Y to “what” now? (Mini case)
Platforms everywhere: GE vs. Haier (Mini case)
Wachtell vs. Watson: The future of professional services (Mini case)

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Case reference: IMD-7-2455 ©2024

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Reference IMD-7-2455

Organization Mastercard

Industry Finance and Insurance, Financial Services

Available Languages English

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Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications