When at the dawn of the year 2018, we start our first JM Fest (for Jus Mundi Festival) in a farm located 200 kilometers from Paris, the values of this quarterly collective meeting lay the foundations of a tradition that continue today, more than three years later. 

The JM Fest may seem to an outsider like a simple seminar, but it is not. This quarterly ritual is the cornerstone of our company culture that ensures our continuous growth, alignment on common objectives, creativity and strong connections.

The first step starts actually just before the JM Fest, during our quarterly performance reviews. Every employee, every team and then the whole company take the time to assess the achievement of the objectives that we defined during the previous JM Fest. Some of them are achieved, other not. The most important is to understand why. What worked and should be continued, and what should be abandonned. 

One of our core values is Excelsior, which means that we believe in infinite personal and collective growth by relying on humility and feedback. This quarterly review time helps us to pause the clock and reflect on the past. Beyond objectives, everyone is also invited to share feedback to her/his manager and team members to help her/his to grow. These continuous reviews allow us to detect successes and failures early on and discus the importance of having a strategy to help our organization, but more importance of an effective planning process. 

Jus Mundi Festival 2022 / Source: Jus Mundi

Another objective of the JM Fest is to make sure that our entire team is onboard and aligned on the organization’s strategy. Our company has a mission, democratizing access to global legal resources, and an ambition, participating in building the global Rule of Law. But how do we achieve it? It is crucial to define objectives for the whole company to all move in the same direction and to understand the value of our actions. 

A strong organizational strategy is not limited to a document and is embedded throughout the fabric of our organization. The best way to achieve this level of strategic continuity is by moving through the entire cycle on a regular basis. Some organizations do this every second year, others yearly, some twice a year, and many on a quarterly basis.

At Jus Mundi, we define company objectives on a yearly basis. For instance, for 2022 we defined 5 objectives including tripling our ARR by keeping a churn below 2%. These yearly objectives are the strategical guidelines on which each team and individual then defines quarterly objectives that will help them focusing on the most impactful actions and measuring their progress. Creating quarterly goals also gives managers better visibility into each of their employee’s performance, overall productivity, and ultimately increases accountability. Another of our values is commitment. Each of us commits to the other members of the team to do his or her best to achieve our common goals together. 

While long-term goals may require little change throughout the life of the company, short-term goals will likely need to be revised as the business grows and develops such as Jus Mundi. 

Reassessing our metrics as quarterly goals are reviewed will ensure that your company continues to measure what is working or whether adjustments are needed. Our team will also be able to use any new data to change or update their goals and feel confident in their continued success as an integral part of the company’s overall vision.

The exchanges between the different teams makes it also possible to explore (another value) new ideas. The idea of the Conflict Checker, a unique and innovative tool that allows our users to instantly identify past and present relationships between arbitrators, lawyers, law firms, parties, etc., was for example born during one of our JM Fest. For us, being explorative also means seeking the greatest diversity among our team members. We believe that this makes us better and boost our creativity.

Finally, our last value is to be friendly. We like to work with kindness and humor, with colleagues who think as a team rather than as individuals. JM Fest is an opportunity to be together and just enjoy the good times. This is even more valuable in an environment where we work most of our time remotely in front of our computers.

If the JM Fest is the keystone of our high-level organization as a company, it is also the expression of our culture, as well as our way to further build it.