Your firm's valuation matters even if you never sell

So many firms still bill by the hour. How do you make the shift to pricing based on the outcome you deliver instead?

The shift starts with culture, not pricing. Firms that make it work have client-facing people who want to work this way. Without that, the model falls apart no matter how good the plan looks on paper. Most of the early effort goes into helping the firm's leadership–the managing partner, management committee and practice/industry leaders–understand what the change really buys them. That usually takes an internal champion who already sees the upside, often paired with an outside advisor who frames the case, holds team members accountable and keeps the transition moving.

What they're helping leadership see are clients who stay more engaged, teams that get more ownership over their work and a move away from the transactional "here's the deliverable, here's the invoice" pattern toward something more advisory. There are always exceptions and edge cases, but once the growth mindset is in place, teams are willing to do the harder work up front, which requires a clear understanding of what a client wants from an advisor rather than from a service provider.

Everyone talks about growth, but what does intentional growth look like in practice?

It looks like discipline about what not to do. The profession is loud right now with AI, international, transformation and talent and firms can burn a year reacting to whatever feels most urgent that month. Intentional growth means the firm knows where it's trying to end up and aligns its strategic plan and the decisions underneath it to that end.

It doesn't mean turning down every opportunity. It means being clear enough on the end goal to tell the difference between an opportunity and a distraction. The other piece firms tend to forget is organic growth. M&A gets the attention, but the organic engine–service mix, people development, go-to-market strategy, ideal client profiles and client retention–matters just as much, and neglecting it is one of the more common mistakes.

Why should you care what your firm is worth if you have no plans to sell it?

Because the things that build enterprise value are the same things that make a firm stronger to operate. Top-line growth, margin expansion, technology enablement, evolving the talent model and governance and capital discipline–none of this is specific to a sale. It shows up in how the firm runs day to day, whether a transaction ever happens or not.

The market timing matters too. With the pace of consolidation, firms are being valued right now whether they engage with it or not. Since 2021, private equity has taken a stake in roughly a quarter of the top 100 U.S. accounting firms, including at least 10 of the top 30, and by most estimates, consolidation has increased fourfold in that time. Knowing that number, and knowing what drives it, gives a firm options and control. It’s the difference between deciding the next chapter on your own terms and reacting when someone else forces the question.

Where does AI add value for a firm, and where does it just create disruption?

It depends entirely on where the firm is, and most firms aren't in the same place. Some are building agents and work streams while others are just testing out different tools. Those are very different situations, and they call for different approaches. Roughly three-quarters of firms have adopted some form of AI, but adoption and value aren't the same thing. If AI is taking more time than it gives back, something is off.

When it works, the gains are real, where some firms are cutting standard tax-prep time by half or more, freeing up the equivalent of several weeks per person each year. The firms that struggle try to do too much at once. The ones that get value pick a single repetitive task, prove it out and expand from there. Starting small and getting one clear win–a pilot you can measure–beats a broad rollout that no one can track.

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