Creating a strategy for successful business model transformations at accounting firms

As a new generation of accountants enters the workforce, and firms adapt to new ways of working and providing services, a roadmap is needed. In my last article, I outlined what business model transformation entails — and the first step is always going to be creating a strategy. 

Mapping out a pathway for your firm’s new business model can seem like the hardest part of the transformation process. In some ways, it is. It requires thinking through goals and methods very thoroughly, and taking into consideration numerous external and internal factors and their effect. It also requires gathering input from a wide array of stakeholders, from firm partners to junior accountants and everyone in between. 

I’m the type of person who likes everyone to buy into a plan. Creating a vision that is shared by all — and even better, one that everyone is passionate about — is the best way to ensure your strategy is successful. 

Conversations

The first step to creating your strategy is to identify the group who will lead the effort. This can simply be firm leadership, or a group that also includes key people with special knowledge of areas in your firm. 

Then comes conversation — and lots of it. You can also view this as a “research phase.” Have conversations between leadership, with junior staff, non-CPA staff and clients. Take the time to uncover, through in-depth discussion, what has been working well so far, and what these various players want to see in the future. Talk about collective goals versus personal goals for everyone involved. 

These conversations can help to identify conflicting goals and ideas. Take the time to debate and work out what causes these conflicting interests. 

Hindsight: How did we get here?

When creating your plan for the future, it’s helpful to look to the past. Looking back at what the firm’s major successes were helps fine-tune where the firm wants to spend its focus on in the future. 

Look at major milestones, key projects and events that helped boost your firm’s success in the past. Pinpoint which people made those successes possible, which can help shape hiring practices in the future. Identify exemplary customers so you can envision what type of clients you might want to work with more. 

Of course, we learn from our mistakes as well. When reviewing past missteps, the most valuable practice is to ask, “What did we learn?” These answers will be some of the most valuable inputs into your strategy document, and can help everyone look to the future with optimism. 

These past successes and lessons all come together to create a firm story. This feeling of a shared history can really inspire and motivate the group for what is to come. 

Foresight

Of course the point of looking back is to look forward with clarity. After you take into consideration your firm history, you’ll then want to look at external factors that will impact your firm’s future. 

What are the economic, political, regulatory, workforce, technological and social factors that will have an effect on your firm? This will be different for firms in different regions, and will also be heavily influenced by which verticals you serve.

It’s important to identify hard trends, which are trends based on measurable, predictable facts. For example, exponential technological advancement is a hard trend. In response to one of these trends — the rise of artificial intelligence — firms have been adopting technology like ChatGPT for firm communications. Hard trends are important because it’s almost impossible to strategize around “maybes.”

Insight and beyond

All this study of the past and envisioning of the future leads to bringing it all together in a cohesive plan. One of the most helpful pieces of advice I could give here is to be specific. At this point in the process, you want to identify any issues and come up with specific solutions. You cannot strategize around generalizations.

Take the hard trend of an increase in remote workers. This is a general reality. What specifically about the increase in the remote workforce is an issue, and what about it is an opportunity? What can you do to harness the opportunities and address the issues? These details are what make a robust and successful strategic vision. 

A shared vision

Remember that nothing about this process is a solitary or shrouded endeavor. Having everyone’s thoughts and ideas visible to everyone else creates the feeling of being part of a collective with the same interests. The available resources can also help guide the process, so it doesn’t have to be imagined from the ground up. 

Strategy is a process. The degree of alignment of everyone in the group at the end is directly related to how much time is spent on the process — so don’t rush this phase.