How Professional Services Firms Dodged Disruption

Professional services firms have been threatened with disruption for a long time. In 2015, Richard and Daniel Susskind foresaw that technology would cause a “steady decline in the need for traditional flesh-and-blood professionals,” while more recently, CB Insights said that “a tectonic disruption is hitting management consulting.”1 Even earlier, Clayton Christensen and colleagues warned, “Although we cannot forecast the exact progress of disruption in the consulting industry, we can say with utter confidence that whatever its pace, some incumbents will be caught by surprise.”2

But things have not played out as predicted. In consulting and law, the established firms are as influential and profitable as ever.3 Many potential disrupters have come along. Some have failed, some have gained strong niche positions, but none has challenged — let alone toppled — the existing order. Most established leaders have used a wide range of strategies and tactics to adapt quickly to the threats.

As is the case in many well-established industries, professional services markets are dominated by a small, clearly identifiable group at the top and large numbers of lower-tier firms operating in their shadow. Consulting’s giants include McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, and Bain; technology-based firms Accenture and Capgemini; and the Big Four accounting firms Ernst & Young, Deloitte, KPMG, and PwC. In law, the top tier includes the five London-based firms informally known as the Magic Circle — Linklaters, Clifford Chance, Freshfields, Allen & Overy, and Slaughter and May — along with Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, and DLA Piper.

How have these firms been so resilient? Our research, which included interviews with 25 executives and a review of case studies on a dozen would-be disrupters, revealed many factors at work. The one that distinguishes the most effective firms is their capacity to diagnose potential causes of disruption and respond accordingly.

We define industry disruption as an upending of the established order, with incumbents losing out to new competitors.