As I approach three years in my role, I’m excited to reflect on where we were as an organization and look forward to the future. We’re now completing our three-year strategic plan and beginning the next three-year exercise. As part of this process, the association’s Global Executive Board asked that I write a paper on the future of associations and networks, which was submitted at the end of 2022 and distributed to our member firm leaders. The response has been incredibly positive.
The paper addressed the following areas:
- Trends in the profession
- What is gone, what remains, and new considerations for associations/networks
- The Allinial Global strategic plan in relation to these trends
In considering these areas, the paper encourages our member firms to think about where we’re heading, and more importantly, how Allinial Global can help members achieve their goals. Here’s a summary of key points.
Trends in the Profession
In order to understand the best way forward as a firm association, it’s important to look at the trends that affect where the profession is heading. Daniel Burrus is a futurist and bestselling author who has written several books, including 2017’s The Anticipatory Organization: Turn Disruption and Change into Opportunity and Advantage. Having worked closely with the accounting profession in the last few years, Dan is a great resource in identifying what is coming at the profession.
In his book, Dan discusses hard and soft trends, distinguishing among them based on their probability. Hard trends are highly probable, often having a 90% chance or greater of coming to pass. Soft trends can become hard trends as facts change, but given the past and present, soft trends have a lesser probability of certainty. That doesn’t mean they won’t be more permanent in the near future. Some fade while others continue into hard trends.
Here are the trends we discussed in the paper:
Hard TrendsÂ
- Doing more with less people
- Digital acceleration
- People flexibility
- Regulatory
- Globalization
- Profession consolidation
- The billion-dollar firm
- Pricing
Soft TrendsÂ
- Private equity and ownership model
- Outsourcing
- Skills gap and skills enhancement changing
- The 40-hour work week
- Enculturating diversity, equity, and inclusion
- Changing client needs
- Recession
- Split of advisory and audit
What’s GoneÂ
- Geographic exclusivity
- Practice generalist
- Old boys club
- Vacation planning
- Lack of profession experienced management team
What RemainsÂ
- Learning
- Leadership development
- Networking
- Collaboration
- Commerce
New ConsiderationsÂ
- Greater technical support with real-world experience
- Greater technology collaboration
- Multi-firm opportunities
- Supporting multi-country firms
In today’s fast-paced environment, regional and global meetings have undergone a transformation, with members now gathering to accomplish goals, collaborate, and focus intentionally on the business objectives that bring association and network members together. We are seeing even greater commerce and success from these meetings and creating more value in shorter periods of time to accommodate our members’ busy lives. And with the changing complexity of client needs, it’s even more important to staff a team that can understand and accommodate complicated multi-country, multi-service client demands.
Learning, developing leaders, networking, collaborating, and commerce have always been around and will continue. While the ideas are the same, the delivery is ever evolving and needs to keep up with the times.
Finally, in looking at the new considerations, it’s essential to provide firms with the tools they need to succeed. While the old ways of delivering tools and resources relied on sponsorships at conferences and on websites, today it’s about true collaborative partnerships, making sure members are taking advantage of the resources and getting the most out of the relationships for growth and profitability. We don’t make our members use any of these resources, as we’re an association who can recommend but not require. But that’s the power of the relationship. And if we provide the right tools, they will be utilized.
The Future of Allinial GlobalÂ
Based on the constant feedback from member firms and seeing what’s coming at the profession, a solid strategic plan is vital to navigating these rough waters. Three years ago, the Allinial Global strategic plan was organized into five pillars:
- Global Brand
- Connectivity
- Commerce
- Future-Ready – Member-Driven
- Client-Focused
Many of the initiatives we developed over the last three years moved Allinial Global and our member firms forward to truly serve clients better and provide services that are very relevant in today’s market. Over the next few months we will be meeting with members at various regional events to seek feedback for our next three-year plan that will be developed by the Global Executive Board after our Global Forum. It will be interesting to see what the next three years bring, and I look forward to embarking on that journey to win together with our member firms.
