Vending machine or butler: how should a ‘firm of the future’ serve its clients?

We asked a big question at this year’s Finance Takes The Piste: if you were to build a firm of the future starting today, what would you do (and not do)?

The group was divided.

Some said they’d focus on building a standardised process-led offer. They’d use heavily automated workflows and push clients to self-serve. A “vending machine” accounting firm, as one member observed. 

Some pulled in the opposite direction. They thought they’d invest in more of a “butler” approach. Bespoke, premium, service-led. People over process.

Or in other words, a compliance-only firm or an advisory-first firm - and you might be surprised which leaders sided with each!

These two concepts sit at distant ends of the spectrum of opportunity. Does one have more potential than the other? What do clients want? Is it possible to do both and answer both sets of needs? 

And for the leaders who said they’d switch from one type of firm to another, is one business model harder than it seems on the surface? Or is it just that the grass always appears greener on the other side?