Right now, accounting firms are at a critical crossroads—one that Kodak is familiar with. Technological advancements like AI and automation are shaking up the industry and pushing firms to rethink the way they work with clients. The traditional compliance-focused accounting model is no longer enough, and value now lies in being that strategic advisor who can help them achieve their business goals. While Kodak may not have been successful in keeping up with its changing market, your firm certainly still can. 👌🏻Lynda Steffens, Founder of The Small Business Project, breaks down this crucial shift and how you can future-proof your practice: https://lnkd.in/g2JcVatx
Daniel Watts
2mo
"Kodak moment"? Curious analogy. Last I checked Kodak was a leading business in various categories of imaging including medical. That's globally. Yes, they invented then principally ignored consumer digital imaging technology, which has now largely been superseded by smart (and dumb) phone technology. So, even if Kodak capitalised on consumer digital, where would that lead them now? Makes a great headline though. Clearly enough to raise the hackles of Paul Meissner for obvious reason. *this post was crafted by hand. No AI was used.
Ian Vacin
2mo
Paul Meissner in summary, things are definitely changing for the profession for many macro-driven reasons. While some firm owners prior to COVID had mentioned that they wished to shed their tax & compliance parts of their practice, in a market of increased competition and larger firm sizes (who have the ability to do a larger breadth of services), client services like payroll and tax are critical underpinnings to do advisory services like tax planning, business planning and HR advisory.
Paul Meissner
2mo
The same boring, stale, sad death of compliance BS as has been pushed (unsuccessfully) for 13 years. I’d thought Karbon were better than this but do old habits die hard Mr Ian Vacin ?
Thanks Guys - the accounting space is definitely interesting and has been for the last decade. Tech has taken from a space that may have been perceived as boring to one which I think it really exciting! Tech and Finance merging is huge. I love the industry and if more students knew that we spend time thinking about how can GPTs evolve our space they would be jumping into this space. 🔥
Chief Partnerships Officer @ Karbon | Practice Management for Accountants
2moIrrespective of the wording above, I can say Paul Meissner, as a student of the profession, that we are in a very interesting time. There is an enormous amount of M&A activity happening at the lower and upper end of the market causing major consolidation. From my long-standing research, total talent has fallen to or just below the 0% growth line making adding traditional talent increasingly harder pushing more and more towards other hiring models (e.g. outsourcing, insourcing, fractional). At least for North America, we are facing the majority of CPAs (many are owners) going into retirement within the next five years. AI & automation will, in time, help with the velocity of which work overall can be done and will also disrupt certain technology categories providing much needed choice for firm owners. Overall, we are seeing from the data that firms are trying to do more services per client with less headcount to maximize profit. Compliance has become more favorable vs. less favorable because it is the foundation for additional services while maintaining ownership of the client relationship. This behavior can be seen through partnerships and M&A as CAS and tax firms are coming together to own more of the client service pie.