VARDAMAN BECOMES VIRTUAL FORESTRY FIRM ON 50th ANNIVERSARY
Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, a New York law firm with 750 lawyers and
1,300 other staffers, had to abandon its offices in One Liberty Plaza when terrorists
struck the World Trade Center across the street on Sept. 11. According to The Wall
Street Journal, it temporarily occupies offices at nine other New York locations.
It changed into a kind of virtual law firm, one doing business primarily on the
Internet, and hardly missed a beat. Laptops and cell phones are everywhere. On Sept.
13 it helped a client arrange a $500 million bond offering from a pay phone on a
Manhattan street corner. One of the partners said, "We proceeded to do what we
had to do."
Although compared to Cleary et al, Vardaman is tiny and its "terrorist"
was lack of operating funds, it has rearranged itself a la Paul Romer (see Friday
Reports of 8/03/01) into a virtual forestry
firm on its 50th anniversary. Jim Vardaman, its chief executive, is still in Jackson,
MS, but its treasurer is in Mount Olive, MS, its Friday Reports are published and
changes to its Internet sites are made in Denver, its Internet sites are hosted in
Atlanta, GA Huntington Park, CA, and its 31 foresters (many of whom
were once JMV&CO employees) are scattered over eight Southeastern states. Except
for Vardaman, none of these persons is a full-time employee.
Rearrangement cut our costs to the bone. We out-source all technical skills, so
there are no idle hands and payroll costs during slack times. To reduce their travel
time, we choose foresters for woods work mostly because of proximity to tract.We pay
them per diem to eliminate their financial risk in sale failures. There is no fax
machine or postage meter (almost 100% of correspondence is by e-mail); we rent no
offices and own no vehicles except Vardaman's black VW Bug. We prepare timber sales
in the same manner we have used for 30+ years, but we market them on the Internet to
the 500+ persons who visit our sites each week. We also market forestry services
solely by e-mail and the Internet.
This means a lot to clients, for we pass along all savings to them. Let us make a
proposal to sell your timber, and you'll see. We're available about 18 hours a day
at jacksonms@vardaman.com. You'll discover
that rearrangement has reduced this important transaction cost by 30-50%, a big help
in making money growing trees.
And there's a unique plus. Every contract you make with us and every bit of advice
you receive will involve Jim Vardaman personally. Not many 80-year-old foresters still
get to the office six days a week at 6:45 am.
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