Survey Results: CPA Firms Are Betting Their Future on Change. Are They Equipped to Deliver It?

CPA firms are facing unprecedented changes, from AI and advisory growth to succession and private equity, yet many struggle with how to make change happen and make it stick. We conducted a poll to see what changes firms are prioritizing, what their process for change is, and how well it’s working.

Here are the results from 56 firms, most with $2M-30M in revenue, with responses coming mainly from managing partners and partners.

What kind of change is your firm working on?
The top three change initiatives at firms were Succession/Developing next-generation leaders (84%), Adopting AI across the firm (74%), and Growing revenue (72%). Succession’s impact on firms is almost universal in my experience, and it is often an involved, multi-year process. While AI has emerged as a more acute issue, revenue growth is a perennial one, so both make sense on this list.

How big a lift is your most important change initiative?
Almost two-thirds of respondents said their change initiative was a significant lift, requiring new skills, people, service lines, or ways of working. Approximately a third said it was a moderate lift, but only 4% said it was simple.

How confident are you that it will be a success?
Respondents rated their confidence in the success of their top change initiative at an average of only 6.38 out of 10. While not abysmal, this signals significant concern at most firms about whether these changes will be fully implemented.

How many major change initiatives are you running right now?
We asked how many simultaneous change initiatives firms are undertaking. Seventy percent said 2–3, 23% said 4+, with only 7% running one or none. Based on the above data, most firms are trying to tackle succession, AI implementation, revenue growth, and/or advisory growth all at the same time. This puts a clear strain on change leaders as well as team members who are responsible for making or living with those changes downstream. This is especially concerning given that these initiatives were rated above as requiring a significant or moderate lift.

How did past changes turn out?
We asked how major changes over the past 2–3 years turned out for firms. Sixty-three percent of respondents said the changes were partially adopted. Twenty-one percent achieved full adoption, with 16% of initiatives fading or never getting off the ground. As we’ll see later in the data, this may be due in part to not clearly defining what the goalpost for success means, but it’s more likely due to the various barriers to creating lasting change.

What are the biggest barriers to creating changes that stick?
The biggest barriers firms cited to creating lasting change were Lack of capacity/too much work (74%), Lack of people taking ownership (60%), and Legacy systems or fears (50%). In my experience, “lack of capacity” usually boils down to unclear priorities or a low sense of urgency around a particular initiative. When leaders are aligned around a hot item that must move, there is often more energy to find a path, even if one doesn’t exist yet. No clear ownership is a common cause of initiatives stalling, but fortunately, it can be easily fixed with a stronger process for assigning owners before you get too far down the road. An often-overlooked step in an effective change process is removing barriers. These are systems, processes, or persistent detractors that will anchor the firm to a past it no longer wants. Firms need to make those barriers visible and build their removal into the change process.

What is your firm’s approach to change?
Half the respondents said change was led by leadership but executed inconsistently at their firm. Eighteen percent said their change process was structured with defined owners or embedded in firm strategy and operations. Almost a third said change was either driven by individual partners or was ad hoc and reactive. Overall, this feels reasonable, albeit with some room to improve the rigor of the process.

Who owns the change initiatives?
The Managing Partner (35%) and Executive Committee (29%) were the most frequent change owners, with only 11% of firms citing no clear leader.

How are staff usually involved?
Interestingly, firms involved their staff in a variety of ways during change initiatives. Forty-three percent of respondents said their firm consulted staff selectively during a change process. Twenty-three percent informed staff after decisions were made or not at all, and 34% actively involved staff in execution or feedback and pilots.
Successful change efforts typically ignite a volunteer spirit in the organization – meaning people at many levels in the firm are genuinely excited and want to get involved in owning the change at their level. This helps logistically with executing the work, and it also ensures a broad degree of buy-in that can translate into more lasting results.

What would most improve your firm’s ability to manage change?
The factors that would most improve a firm’s ability to change were clearer strategy and priorities and dedicated leaders for each change initiative. These were followed by stronger partner alignment and better communication. At a high level, embracing a more structured or systematic approach to change may help firms tip the odds in their favor, as opposed to taking a more reactive or ad hoc approach. At a more micro level, specificity matters. What is the firm’s #1 change coming out of its strategy? Who specifically will lead that initiative? Who will this be communicated to, and when? Getting to that more tactical level can mean going from good intentions to real momentum.

Final Thoughts
Peter Drucker famously said, “The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.” Change can be hard, and many firms are juggling several significant changes simultaneously. While many firms are making some progress, taking a more structured and specific approach to change management could increase the odds that they fully adopt initiatives that may be critical to their long-term survival and success.

What are your biggest change barriers? What’s working at your firm?