I asked professionals whose opinions I respect what they think will define success over the next 25 years.
Two themes emerged.
“Devotion to the end customer.’ and related to this was
“As AI makes technical knowledge easier to access, the real value will be in understanding the whole client and making sure the right specialists are around the table at the right time.”
These related points raise an interesting question.
If so many professionals agree that the future lies in understanding and serving the client, why do professionals so often know remarkably little about what their own colleagues and other advisers actually do for their clients?
And why is it still comparatively unusual to get all the right people around the table?
The second theme to emerge was education and collaboration.
“The successful professional and firm will be the one that educates, first colleagues, other advisers and clients… Firms that invest in that internal education, and in genuine collaboration across departments, will be the ones that win the good quality, profitable work.”
So we have considerable agreement.
Client first. Education. Collaboration.
But if we already know this, why is it not put into practice?
One clue comes from my own past.
When I was a partner at Simmons & Simmons, a corporate colleague approached me. He was selling a business for two brothers who were his clients.
He said: “I don't know what you do, but I am sure my clients could benefit from your services.”
This was a partner I spoke to every week in the partners' dining room.
I knew he collected British porcelain. I knew about his wife and children, where they lived and some of his friends.
But apparently he didn't know what I did for my clients.
Wasn't that supposed to be one of the purposes of a partners' dining room?
I met his clients and subsequently established a single family office for them. I also introduced them to a wealth manager and financial adviser.
But his comment stayed with me.
Why do professionals who know each other extremely well personally, sometimes know so little about what each other actually does for clients?
I began looking at the psychology of influence and resistance to persuasion.
There is a curious distinction.
We will happily listen to somebody speaking about their expertise when they are on a podium if of interest to me and what I want to achieve. We regard it as education.
But put the same two people opposite one another over lunch and ask one to explain why the other should introduce clients to them, and the experience can feel quite different.
It feels like I being sold something.
And selling can create resistance.
That distinction between education and persuasion may help explain why traditional networking, internal referral initiatives and even incentives to cross-refer do not always produce the results firms expect.
Education works when the recipient wants to understand something because it is relevant to a problem they are trying to solve. Selling is telling someone what we want them to hear.
This distinction is more relevant than ever now that AI changes professional services.
If technical knowledgeis now increasingly accessible, the successful professional may no longer be distinguished simply by knowing more.
The greater value may lie in understanding the client well enough to recognise their problem, knowing when other expertise is required and knowing whom and who to bring them in.
That requires professionals to understand not simply who their colleagues and contacts are, but what they actually do for a client.
It sounds obvious.
Twenty-five years in professional services suggests to me that it isn't.
Many firms already describe themselves as client-centric. Many encourage collaboration. Some reward referrals. Others have invested heavily in technology designed to share client information.
But policies, incentives and technology cannot by themselves make professionals understand one another's expertise.
That requires effective implementation.
My research eventually led me to summarise the problem in a simple equation:
Growth = visibility + strategy + effective implementation.
The last element is increasingly important as AI erodes the superiour knowledge of a professional and it requires a better understanding of human psychology and what to do to sidestep the resistance to persuasion to get across what you are doing for your client without resistance.
The question is no longer whether firms believe in collaboration and client service.
Almost everybody does.
The question is whether they want to know how to make it happen.