AESC Member Search Firms Form Alliance

One has been talking (and writing) about the evolution of new
business models for the past year or so primarily because of my
exposure to similar trends in the CA profession, where due to the
exponential growth seen by clients it is increasingly becoming
untenable for smaller boutique firms to effectively service their
client's needs (sometimes on account of their lack of geographical
reach/size and at times due to paucity of management/domain
bandwidth). In view of the same, the said professional service firms are adopting new and innovative strategies to overcome their size/expertise limitation and one of the models being increasingly adopted is the formation of an "Alliance of Firms" which operates under one brand globally but firm retains its independent identity too.

I had shared my experience in this regard with some TPRs and some of them had shown preliminary interest in the said model. In the meantime I have come across this "press release" and I would solicit the views and interest of all the members on whether they too feel there is potential in creating such an alliance and what could be the key stumbling blocks/ road blocks in actually creating an alliance of this nature. I am sure others would have had some experiences (or would have heard some war stories) in this regard and it would benefit everybody in case they shared these with the other readers.

As Peter F Drucker pointed out:

"Business once grew by one of two ways: grass roots up, or by
acquisition. Today businesses grow through alliances - all kinds of
dangerous alliance, joint ventures, and customer partnering, which by the way, very few people understand."

Although Mr Drucker is no longer with us in this world, his words of wisdom continue to provide deep insight into this continuously
evolving business paradigm.

Looking forward to all inputs.