Managing Partner
Roundtable
Four conversations about the next five years — shaped by your own answers.
Every firm in this room answered the same questions.
Before this session, each managing partner responded to a shared survey. What follows is what we said — compiled, anonymized where appropriate, and put on the table for a working discussion. This is our data, about us.
Staffing, Compensation & Outsourcing
The people model: what we pay, who we can find, where the work sits, and what the team looks like in five years.
The talent conversation.
Recruiting & retention
What is working, and what isn't, to recruit and retain experienced staff? Have the new CPA licensure pathways changed entry-level hiring?
Offshoring
Expanded, reduced, or maintained in the last year? In which areas of the practice, and what have we learned?
Comp & incentives
Anything unique in bonus structure or incentives heading into 2027?
Technology & AI
Past the hype: where AI is actually saving time, how firms are governing it, and what it does to the way young accountants learn the craft.
Real results, real gaps.
What's actually working
Which AI tools delivered real, measurable time savings this year — and where have results fallen short of the hype?
AI champions
Has anyone hired or designated an internal champion for AI and software adoption? How is the role structured, and has it accelerated anything?
Training & governance
How are staff being trained to use AI well? Who has a formal AI use policy covering client data, confidentiality, and quality control?
The apprenticeship problem
As AI absorbs entry-level work, how does it change what we hire for and where new staff get their reps?
Operations, Pricing & New Ideas
Fees, billing models, firm structure, and the initiatives that actually moved the needle this year.
How the work gets priced and run.
Client portfolio
Who has culled or repriced poor-fit clients this year — and what criteria did you use?
Beyond the billable hour
Moving from WIP/hourly to fixed fee or value billing: what share of revenue has converted, and how are firms forecasting under the new model?
Compliance at risk
How much compliance work is at risk of commoditization — and what are we doing to move up the value chain as proactive advisors?
The shape of the firm
Still a traditional pyramid, or shifting to flatter, apprenticeship-style, technology-leveraged teams? What's driving the change?
What worked this year
New practice groups, workflow changes, billing systems, meeting cadences — plus cybersecurity readiness, disaster recovery, and portal data retention.
Private Equity & the Future of the Profession
The biggest question in the room: what pushes a firm toward PE, what keeps one independent, and what we can do for each other.
Pressure and independence.
The pressures
Succession funding, technology investment, talent, growth capital, competition — which pressure is most acute today?
The case for independence
What is the strongest case for staying independent — and what would have to change for that calculus to shift?
What we can do for each other
Shared offshore capacity, joint technology evaluation, staff loans in peak season, niche referrals — or combining with a member firm instead of selling to PE.
What the association can do
Succession and buyout guidance, valuation benchmarking, AI vetting at the association level, next-generation leadership development, a process to connect firms considering combinations.
Recommendations, resources, and follow-ups from Q21 will be compiled and shared after the session.