Law firms and other businesses need to adapt to new business models and that could mean changing the partnership structure so that it is not so heavily focused on profit.

So says Taylor Vinters chief executive Matt Meyer, who has set up a project that will examine the changing world of work. 

‘Business leaders are currently exploring whether purpose and value potentially outplay profit as business drivers. We are seeing a growing number of companies experiment with crowds and platforms, testing whether they emerge as dominant hierarchies,’ Meyer told the Gazette.

In response to a time when business leaders are ’grappling with the increasing challenge of jobs and skills needed from the future workforce’ Taylor Vinters has set-up The Zebra Project.

The 12-month scheme is designed to prompt business leaders to participate in a ‘future-focused discussion’ and identify ‘game changers that will shape the future world of work’. Starting next month, business leaders, academics and visionaries will discuss opportunities, employment structures and technology in society. Topics include the rise of AI and digital technology in the workplace.

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the RSA and author of this year’s Taylor Review into modern employment practices, will open the project with a keynote speech on 18 January. He will argue that business leaders need to focus on a ’set of interlinked issues’ if their businesses are to flourish in the future. Responding to his comments will be Warren East, CEO at Rolls-Royce plc, Alex Jones, director of industrial strategy at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and Tim Minshall, professor of innovation and head – Institute for Manufacturing at the University of Cambridge.

Meyer added: ‘These shifts are evolving in a context of creeping regulation, enhanced corporate governance expectations, a heightened sense of business ethics and of course uncertainty on the global political stage driven by the rise in populism.’

Next month’s launch will be followed by monthly seminars.