Intelligent Use of Resources – Val’s Version featured image

Intelligent Use of Resources – Val’s Version

Part 1: Defining the “Intelligent Use of Resources.” 

When Beth Lebowitz first founded Auxana in 2018, she talked a lot about the Intelligent Use of Resources (“IUR”). This phrase has always stuck with me, and not just because she was my business partner and mentor, but because it struck me as so innovative for an attorney.  To me, this term refers to the concept of achieving optimal outcomes while minimizing waste of some of our most valuable resources: human effort, time, and money (and, most often, CLIENT money). It involves making informed decisions, planning, and implementing best practices focused on long-term value of the end client, as well as a certain “quality of life” value for the practitioner. 

In relation to the business of Auxana Legal, IUR is how we are able to offer our flat-fee legal and outsourced general counsel services while staying profitable and providing best-in-class services. Without this concept, our model would fail. You can read more about Beth’s real-life scenario of IUR in action here. 

The principles we live by:

When I asked AI about intelligent resource management (hey, efficiency!), it spit out a pretty impressive list of principles. While some were not relevant to our line of work, there are 4 of the principles that I find particularly applicable: 

  1. Efficiency: Using resources to minimize unnecessary effort, time, or resources, while achieving desired results. Efficiency often involves streamlining processes and reducing redundancy. 
  2. Scalability: Adapting resource allocation to accommodate changes in demand or scale of operations. Resources should be flexible enough to grow or shrink as needed. This can also apply to service delivery! 
  3.  Prioritization: Identifying and allocating resources to the most critical tasks or objectives, ensuring that limited resources are directed toward the highest-priority activities. 
  4. Innovation: Seeking new approaches, technologies, or methods to optimize resource use, enhance productivity, and achieve better outcomes.

In this series, I break each of these principles down further to exemplify how Auxana Legal (and, frankly, the entire Auxana Organization) puts the concept of IUR at the forefront of our business model. I hope you will check out each of these articles. 

If you are interested in learning more about how Auxana can help implement best practices for legal operations within your organization, we’d love to hear from you!