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OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

AI Leading to ‘Miracle-Level’ Productivity Increases

Every year, the 2025 Rosenberg MAP Survey asks the industry’s top consultants to share their observations from CPA firms across the country: How do you think the next 12 months will unfold? Trends? Predictions? Other thoughts? Also, how would you assess the last 12 months? Trends? Observations? Struggles?

KPIs likely will change.

By Jennifer Wilson
 The Rosenberg Survey

Mergers and acquisitions and private equity will continue to consolidate the Top 100 and allow new firms to find their way to the list. But brokers will find it harder to convince the quality firms left in late 2025 into 2026 that they should sell out. Those firms believe in their mission, talent and clients, and themselves, and see the immense opportunity to diferentiate by remaining independent and sustaining their firm’s legacy into the future.

MORE: The 2025 Rosenberg MAP Survey is available from CPA Trendlines here.

New artificial intelligence “best of breed” solutions will create miracle-level productivity increases within firms that are in pilot now and we’ll begin reimagining the learning paradigm for interns and associates especially.
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LEADERSHIP

You Need Capable Successors for a Seamless Transition

Younger businesswoman and older businessman smiling and talking in office hallway

Prepare now.

By Jennifer Wilson

As Vince Lombardi said, “Contrary to the opinion of many people, leaders are not born. Leaders are made, and they are made by effort and hard work.”

 To experience a seamless transition as your leaders grow up, and then eventually out of your organization, identifying and developing your up-and-comers must become a core competence. Without these critical abilities, there won’t be anyone to carry out the vision of your firm, serve your clients, or pay your retirement benefits and/or buyout. In this article, we’ll share ideas for developing leaders in your firm, identifying your partner potentials, and preparing them to step in and lead when the time comes.

MORE: Generosity: The Root of Great Leadership
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The first step is to make a cultural commitment to develop leadership skills in your people. Some firms offer a leadership development program that allows people at various levels and in different roles, including administrators, to enroll in the program to enhance their ability to lead.
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LEADERSHIP

Generosity: The Root of Great Leadership

woman smiling and reaching out to shake another woman's hand

How it can benefit you and your firm.

By Jennifer Wilson

“What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.” – Albert Pike, American lawyer and journalist

I wrote a blog post two years ago (almost to the day) entitled, “We’re All Selfish – So Why Hide It?” In it, I suggested that great leaders must have the courage to acknowledge that they have selfish interests in their work, to admit what they most want and then collaborate with others to meet their needs and the needs of the greater good, too.

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My work with firms and individuals since then has only reaffirmed my belief that selfish interest drives us in our work and, when it is subconscious or overpowering, damages an organization’s teamwork, inspiration and ultimately, its growth and progress. While pondering the impact of selfishness, I have recently begun to examine the special AND rare “opposite” human characteristic: GENEROSITY and its impact on leaders, their people and their organizations when it is present.
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OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

As Private Equity Closes In, Firms Seek New Answers to Staffing Problems

Smart leaders are investing in tech, talent and orderly retirement timing.

By Jennifer Wilson
The Rosenberg National Survey of CPA Firm Statistics

We’ll see positive movement in staffing with more firms investing in outsourcing, offshoring, non-accounting staff added to work streams, increasing starting salaries, providing more support on campus to students and candidates, and other pipeline initiatives. The pace of consolidation and private equity investment will only accelerate, changing the face of the Top 100, with firms separating their audit practices .

EDITOR’S NOTE: Every year, The 2024 Rosenberg National Survey of CPA Firm Statistics asks the profession’s top consultants two sets of questions:

    • How do you think the next 12 months will unfold? Trends? Predictions? Other thoughts?
    • How would you assess the last 12 months? Trends? Observations? Struggles?

MORE: When Staffing Falls Short, Clients Get Culled | How Accounting Firms Are Dealing with Retirement | Next Five Years Are Critical for Accounting Firms | Staffing Turnover’s Down, But Why? | What’s Your Firm Worth? Private Equity Wants to Know | The New Pipeline: Outsourcing and Offshoring | Is This the Last Year of Accounting’s Golden Age?
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PE investors will have their hands full, trying to manage by the numbers, and drive change with traditionally change-averse, entrepreneurial partners who didn’t sign up originally to submit to a boss. And I fear that PE firms are overpaying for their equity stakes (and driving firm prices up for acquirers) and that realization will begin to dawn on some of them who realize there might not be a flip in sight.
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OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

Tax & Accounting Firms to See More Consolidation

illustration of business negotiation with paperwork, puzzle pieces

ALSO: Next Gen leadership will rise.

By Jennifer Wilson
The Rosenberg MAP Survey

EDITOR’S NOTE: Every year, the Rosenberg MAP Survey asks the industry’s top consultants to share their observations from CPA firms across the country. How do you think the next 12 months will unfold? Also, how would you assess the last 12 months?

Unless there’s another round of vaccines, we’ll see more COVID-19 disruption as colder weather forces more firm activities indoors. More consolidation will happen as more firm leaders feel pressure to move their problems to a larger firm and the megafirms feel more pressure to keep up with the Joneses and absorb more.

MORE: 2024 OUTLOOK: ‘Specialization Is the Future’ | Remote Work Will See Cuts; PE Will Trickle Down | Tech, Capital Will Drive Accounting Profession Growth | ‘Great Shakeup’ in CPA Firms on the Way | PE, Consolidations to Keep Impacting Accounting Profession | Soft Skills Are Front and Center
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At some point, perhaps longer than 12 months from now, one or more of the superconsolidators is going to falter. More than likely is some significant service failures as their lack of integration and acculturation drives turnover and a talent shortage beyond what they’re able to rescue. I hope this doesn’t happen, but it feels like some of these firms are facing a perfect storm of financial performance and growth expectations, high client demand, capacity issues and a less unified, disorganized leadership apparatus unable to respond to these challenges.
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