Is this what they meant by "baking a bigger pie?"

The September 11, 2006 800 CEO blog post featured a new book called "The Power of Nice: How to Conquer the Business World with Kindness."  Blogger Jack Covert writes: "One of the chapters is called, “Bake a Bigger Pie”. The premise is that we should share and if your share is too small, bake a bigger pie, instead of envying someone’s bigger slice."   

Fresh on the heels of that post came another, about the potential merger of two law firms:  Dewey Ballantine and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. 

I find the juxtaposition of these two business concepts ironic: for many professional service firms, the idea of growth simply means merging with or acquiring another professional firm.  The idea of "baking a bigger pie" is too often misinterpreted as simply bringing in more bodies, and not thinking about growing  a firm's market share with innovations of services or service delivery. 

Is my impression correct, or can others cite solid examples of a substantive evolution in the way professional service firms think about growth?