The accounting services industry is highly fragmented and intensely competitive and as is the case with all mature industries its principal services are commoditized which inevitably puts downward pressure on margins. In this webinar, I discuss why this occurs and what you can do about it.
There are five fundamental environmental forces at play that are driving the inexorable shift towards commoditization. I will discuss each of these five forces and explain the impact of how they are combining to further commoditize the industry. Technology, and in particular the “cloud,” is clearly one of those forces and, as has been the case in the past with all productivity-improving technologies, it will drive average margins down despite promising to improve your firm’s bottom line.
However, for those firms that “get it” and who incorporate the cloud in a robust business strategy it will present an extraordinary opportunity to create, deliver and capture value for your clients, your firm, and your team.
In this webinar I will address the question of why the forces of change will put pressure on margins and what options you have to avoid this outcome. This will give you a framework for thinking about how to take full advantage of the opportunities that the emerging competitive landscape promise.
I will share my views on why so many firms struggle to design and implement a coherent competitive strategy and find themselves being drawn into a sea of sameness from which it is difficult to escape. Understanding this will help you more effectively deal with the natural barriers that everyone faces.
I’ll also address the process you can deploy for doing a strategic audit and the key concepts that underpin red ocean and blue ocean strategies. This will include some thoughts on the critically important issue of client selection and client development and the role these play in communicating your value proposition, determining your pricing options, and attracting, developing and retaining your team members.
Most people I talk to about the competitive landscape are fully aware of the need to be implementing, or at least thinking about, cloud delivered applications. But they’re not asking the most important question: “how can this technology enable us to create a differentiated service value proposition?” This goes way beyond the question of “should we implement cloud applications?”
The key take-away from this webinar will be a practical answer to the most important question. Click here to save your place.