Costing of Knowledge Worker-Final

7/29/2019 Costing of Knowledge Worker-Final

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Xavier Institute of Management &

Entrepreneurship

10

Cost of a Knowledge Worker

Submitted By:-Rahul Arora (82)

R. Shiva Kumar (98)

Shraddha Ghag (99)

Shreyansh Sharma (100)

Theagarajan (111)

Varun Agarwaal (113)


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Introduction

Knowledge worker productivity is the only real competitive advantage in a global economy" - Peter

F. Drucker

The very definition of a knowledge worker is one who knows more about his or her job thananybody else in the organization. Knowledge workers cannot be managed as subordinates; they are

associates. They are seniors or juniors but not superiors and subordinates. Knowledge workers in

today's workforce are individuals who are valued for their ability to act and communicate with

knowledge within a specific subject area. They will often advance the overall understanding of that

subject through focused analysis, design and/or development. They use research skills to define

problems and to identify alternatives. Fueled by their expertise and insight, they work to solve those

problems, in an effort to influence company decisions, priorities and strategies.

Knowledge workers may be found across a variety of information technology roles, but also among

professions like teachers, librarians, lawyers, architects, physicians, nurses, engineers and scientists.As businesses increase their dependence on information technology, the number of fields in which

knowledge workers must operate has expanded dramatically.

Knowledge workers bring benefits to organizations in a variety of important ways. These include:

analyzing data to establish relationships assessing input in order to evaluate complex or conflicting priorities identifying and understanding trends making connections understanding cause and effect ability to brainstorm, thinking broadly ability to drill down, creating more focus producing a new capability creating or modifying a strategy

General benefits of costing:

It assist management to make decision for example make or buy, whether to accept aspecial order and others;

It assist management in planning and control; Costing assists management to appreciate scarce resources in the increasingly complex

business operations;

Understanding costing assist in cost awareness, cost control / management;


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Is vital to an organizations survival re: using marginal cost in competitive tendering andothers.

Current Industry Standards

Not all lawyers make money, but some do. Cost of a lawyer depends upon various factors such as byhis years of experience, numbers of certificates he/she has, the ratio of winning & losing cases in the

past, by BAR association, by industry or company he is associated with in the case of corporate

lawyers, by primary responsibilities he is having and many other.

Apart from this it also depends upon what kind of practise they are doing, whether they are:-

Working for public interest i.e. for non-profit works. Doing private practise. Government counsel working in 9 to 5 timings. Corporate counsel. Handling critical cases of a firm. In India the average salary ranges from ` 4, 00,000 to ` 20, 00,000. Few lawyers charge a lot

based on the experience and the clout they have in this area. Top 10 lawyers in India are:-

1. Fali NarimanThe "wise man of the Bar" with a stature that "allows him to be blunt in court". Charges ` 300000 for 5

minutes.

2. Soli J SorabjeeFormer glorious AG, fierce free speech and HR advocate, successful daughter. Charges ` 250000 per

hearing.

3. Harish SalveThe "legal robot" and all-round legal talent.

4. K. Parasaran"Articulate" and "ethically driven" "man for all seasons".

5. Ram JethmalaniPassionate about crimes with "rapier-sharp wit", proving crime does pay.

6. Abhishek Manu Singhvi"Buddha of the Bar", youngest additional solicitor general ever and happy enabler of all tricolor-wavers.

7. Mukul RohatgiVoluble "king" of Delhi HC and Anil's gas dispute trusted counsel.

8. K.K. Venugopal" Emergency counterweight and collector, Charges ` 300000 for 5 minutes & do charity a lot.

9. Rohinton F NarimanCheerful corporate stalwart, fast riser to senior counsel, Fali's son.

10. Ashok DesaiReclusive former AG, softly-spoken but packing a serious punch and control.


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Typically lawyers fees are based on a number of factors, which may include the time and energy

spent on a case, the outcome of a case, the difficulty of a claim, the experience and prominence of

the lawyer, and the costs associated with the case. There are different types of lawyers based on

their area of focus namely civil and criminal broadly. Lawyers tend to focus more narrowly so that

they can improve the quality of consultancy. They can be classified as business, property case,

constitutional, criminal, family, labour, Intellectual, taxation and others. There are several standard

payment options a personal injury lawyer may offer his/her clients. These options include

contingency fees, hourly rates, flat fees, and retainers.

A contingency fee is a prior arrangement between lawyer and client in which the lawyer receives

a set percentage of the amount of recovery awarded to the plaintiff in a case. In most cases,

monetary recovery is obtained through settlement, mediation, arbitration or trial. Generally, when a

lawyer takes a case on a contingency fee, a client has no obligation to pay his/her lawyer a fee unless

the case is successfully resolved. Most personal injury lawyers work on a contingency fee basis. An

hourly rate is also a common payment option that involves an agreed amount of compensation for

each hour the lawyer spends on the case until its resolution. In some cases, personal injury lawyers

charge a flat fee, which is a set amount, or a retainer, which is an arrangement where a certain

amount of money is paid before legal representation begins. These fee arrangements may also be

combined. Fee can also charged based on no. of hearings.

Costing of a Knowledge Worker

Activities of Lawyer can be broadly classified into 1) Interaction with Client 2) Case preparation 3)

Arguing in Court.

Client consultation with lawyer is the initial step. Knowledge workers tend to charge based on no. of

hours of consultation or no. of visits or meeting with client. It can be mix of both, because an

efficient lawyer could be skilful enough to ask smart questions and get most of the details he

requires in short duration of time. Suppose if we consider cost based on no. of hours of consultation,

and then we will measure the cost of an efficient lawyer, who has good investigation skills lesser

than ordinary lawyer. Lawyer who are good at investigation skills tend get all the details in lesser no.

of client meetings. Suppose if we consider based on no. of visits or meetings, then again we will

measure the cost of an efficient lawyer lesser than an ordinary lawyer.

Case preparation:

Costing of this particular activity can be done by measuring the uniqueness of the case. If the

uniqueness of the case is higher than number of hours spent by the lawyer for preparing the case is

higher. Uniqueness of case can be measured by comparing with all cases that have been given

judgement by the courts till date. Suppose resemblance is very less, then lawyer has to spend a

substantial amount in preparing the case. Time required for preparation of case should be measured

based on new lawyer. Suppose a case requires 10 hours of preparation time for a newly graduated

lawyer, but an experienced lawyer does it in an hour, because of his experience, case may not that

unique. Costing should be based on 10 hours which means experienced lawyer will be rewarded 9

hour of pay due to experience he has gained.


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Fixed cost can be based on education background and no. of years of experience. Cost associated

with acquiring education has no meaning to customer. After finishing MBA, a student cannot

demand salary based on his college expense. He can demand salary based on the profit that he is

capable providing to the employer. In this case we have included education background has factor in

measuring fixed cost in hiring a lawyer because there is general belief that greater the educational

qualification better is the quality of insights. Experience is an important factor that affects the

quality of insights. Experience can be measured based on no. of years or no. of cases. Experience can

also be a measure of networking the lawyer has. Level of networking a lawyer determines the ease

at which he gains information. Costing based on networking should consider importance of

members in the network to the current case in hand. Fixed cost associated with hiring a newly

graduated lawyer will be solely based on educational qualification.

Documents

Costing of Knowledge Worker-Final