Quality not quantity a firm rule for success HENRY Davis York managing partner Sharon Cook believes the expected job cuts at the big firms are the consequence of an important lesson: size does not mean the same as success. As head of a leading second-tier firm, Ms Cook runs a practice that is among the nation's most successful - and which has no ambition to become a national giant. "Clearly, the large firms have realised they have got too big and they need to trim back," she said. At a time when missed revenue targets and a shrinking workforce are the new hallmarks of the top-tier firms, Ms Cook said the absence of growth needed to be examined carefully.