For accounting firms, the question is no longer if they need to evolve - it’s how. Most leaders already know they can’t keep doing business the way they always have. The challenge is building the systems and discipline to keep pace with change, without losing focus on today’s clients and revenue.
That’s where relentless innovation comes in. In Will & Vision, Gerard Tellis and Peter Golder found that market leaders aren’t the ones who get there first, they’re the ones who commit to constant renewal. For accounting firms, this means embedding innovation into the DNA of the firm, treating it not as a side project but as a core business discipline.
Why Innovation Stalls in Firms
Two forces typically hold firms back from the kind of innovation that drives lasting growth:
Complacency — believing that past success guarantees future security. In accounting, this often looks like leaning too heavily on tax and audit because “it’s always been our bread and butter.”
Fear of Cannibalization — in accounting this often shows up as hesitation to scale CAS or adopt automation/AI because they may reduce traditional billable work. Firms worry that moving too quickly into new models could disrupt the very revenue streams that have sustained them for decades. Yet holding back on innovation can be more dangerous than the disruption itself.
Both create blind spots. They keep firms in the comfort zone while competitors redefine what the market expects.
Organizing for Innovation
Innovation isn’t just about ideas - it’s about structure. Tellis and Golder highlight how bureaucracy and over-focus on current clients smother new opportunities. In accounting, this often shows up as under-investing in emerging opportunities because partner time and budgets are consumed by today’s client demands.
The alternative is to organize for growth and agility. That means:
Giving teams the autonomy (and accountability) to test new service lines.
Building cross-functional structures that align leadership, marketing, and operations around growth, not just production.
Hiring and empowering growth-oriented talent across disciplines - technology, digital, and client experience - not just traditional technical expertise. The right technology vision and platforms are just as critical to innovation success as the right partners and service leaders.
This isn’t about abandoning core work. It’s about balancing today’s revenue with tomorrow’s relevance.
The CGO Perspective
From a Chief Growth Officer’s lens, relentless innovation isn’t about chasing shiny objects. It’s about building a system that continually aligns market opportunities, firm capabilities, and leadership priorities.
That system includes:
A clear growth vision that guides where innovation should focus.
Leadership alignment to overcome fear of cannibalization and embrace change.
Execution rhythms that move innovation out of one-off projects and into an ongoing discipline.
And today, that discipline also has to include technology. Any new service development that doesn’t factor in automation, data analytics, and AI will be outdated before it scales.
Where Firms Can Start
For firms ready to embed relentless innovation, three practical steps can help:
Audit your blind spots. Where are you over-relying on legacy services? Where are competitors already moving faster?
Create safe zones for experimentation. Give a partner or team the mandate to test new services, client segments, or technologies without being buried in bureaucracy.
Reward growth behaviors. Celebrate wins that come from trying new approaches - not just from hitting utilization targets.
Final Word
Will & Vision makes the case that market leadership isn’t about being first - it’s about having the will to keep innovating, and the vision to know where it matters most. For accounting firms, relentless innovation isn’t optional anymore. It’s the foundation for building new services, adopting AI, and reorganizing around growth.
The real question isn’t should we innovate? It’s: Do we have the will and the structure to make innovation a discipline, not a side project?