PSF Current Trends

PSFs also have to meet the challenges of today's tough markets, in common with all other sectors. These include the recession, globalisation, the rise of emerging economies, increased focus on diversity, need for work-life balance, rapid generational shifts, technology developments creating new routes to market e.g.Twitter, You Tube, and rising security concerns (e.g. data loss).

However, there are also many specific PSF trends and challenges, which firms need to respond to to stay ahead in their markets. Some of the major ones include:

International Expansion

Overseas competitors crossing geographic boundaries
Choosing the right expansion model: organic growth, merger/acquisition, ‘best friends’
Getting the market and economic benefits from mergers
Creating and managing integrated business models across multiple countries and practice areas
Managing risk across geographic boundaries

Increasing Scale

Scale brings bureaucracy, an anathema to all professionals
Being ‘corporate’ at the top while remaining practice-based below
Not adapting the firm’s business model across different market segments and products and services
Outsourcing of standardised work/back office functions

People

Younger staff are more demanding, with different values and aspirations
Rise of para-professionals
Horror stories in banks have led to renewed questioning of real business knowledge of many professionals
Creating incentive models that reward longer-term performance

Winning Business

Many firms look and act the same
Clients increasingly better informed and more demanding
Dominance of key players leading to increased conflicts of interest
Greater competition as partners opt out of scale & set up boutique firms
Creating a sales culture

Leadership

A catastrophic failure of leadership in banking
Many leaders have limited experience in managing in such tough markets
Many partners are great client handlers but poor leaders
What the partners do sets the tone for what gets done and how it gets done
Minimising change to positive aspects of a firm's culture in light of redundancies

For more information on how our services can help address these challenges please go to our services page.