In general we see two distinct groupings among service professionals. One is focused on being at the forefront of business developments, able to guide clients through cutting edge knowledge. Among these firms, the ability to remain competitive is gained through thought leadership. Slowing down internal innovation and similar exploratory queries for cost reasons serves only to weaken your long term position.

The other set of firms have at their core to offload difficult to master disciplines from clients. Maintaining strategic thought or legal mastery in-house for clients is an expensive exercise best left to professionals with economies of scale on their side. The challenge here is closer to that of their clients. How to increase operating efficiency without trading off quality of output. As the cost of maintaining sufficient knowledge is reduced, so are the fees able to be charged for services. Only the truly efficient can stand the test of time.

A second set of challenges faced are found in the death of trust, development of the gig economy, and changes due to work-from-home initiatives, qualified talent shortages. Professional service firms of any kind will have to move fast in order to remain relevant.