Build a Strategy Around What Won't Change
By Jeremy Clopton
Strategic planning often involves a lot of predictions. What will AI do to the accounting profession? How will staffing models change? Which services will clients need five years from now? What will the next generation of firm leaders look like?
Those are important questions, but they’re also difficult to answer with any certainty. And when firms build their strategic plans around predictions that may or may not come true, they’re building on a potentially shaky foundation.
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, has a unique perspective on this.
“I very frequently get the question: ‘What’s going to change in the next 10 years?’ And that is a very interesting question; it’s a very common one. I almost never get the question: ‘What’s not going to change in the next 10 years?’ And I submit to you that that second question is actually the more important of the two – because you can build a business strategy around the things that are stable in time.”
His point is that businesses can build lasting strategies around the needs they know will remain important, regardless of change. For Amazon, those were low prices, fast delivery, and a broad selection. Technology, competition, and customer behavior might change, but those fundamental expectations are unlikely to disappear.
The same thinking applies remarkably well to accounting firms.
Instead of trying to predict every development in the profession, what if firms started by identifying what isn’t likely to change?
The More Things Change...
The AICPA’s biennial CPA Firm Top Issues Survey offers an interesting perspective on what has and hasn’t changed in the accounting profession.
Over nearly three decades, the profession has navigated economic downturns, changing regulations, technological advancements, shifting client expectations, and an evolving workforce. Throughout those changes, the issues occupying firm leaders’ attention have shifted considerably.
A historical review of the survey by the Journal of Accountancy shows how economic conditions have influenced firms’ priorities. During periods of growth, recruiting and retaining qualified professionals emerged as major concerns. During the Great Recession, client retention took center stage. As conditions improved, firms returned their attention to growth, staffing, and succession planning.
Today, AI and technology are driving many of the conversations about the profession’s future. The 2026 AICPA survey found that managing change related to technology and AI was the leading anticipated challenge over the next five years for firms of every size.
But the old concerns haven’t disappeared. Staffing, leadership development, workload management, and client service remain prominent in the results.
The profession has experienced recessions, economic growth, cloud computing, automation, remote work, and now artificial intelligence. Yet the same fundamental needs keep resurfacing.
Looking across two decades of research, five strategic foundations stand out.
1. Investing in Talented People
The skills accountants need are evolving, and technology will undoubtedly transform how many tasks are performed. Yet firms will continue to need capable professionals who can analyze information, exercise judgment, solve problems, and work effectively with clients.
Finding and retaining those professionals has been a recurring concern in the AICPA surveys for decades. Even as economic conditions and technology have changed, firms have consistently needed people with the right skills, attitudes, and capabilities.
That makes talent development a strong foundation for long-term strategy.
Instead of focusing exclusively on how many people a firm will need or what their future job descriptions might look like, consider the capabilities that will remain valuable across different scenarios. Critical thinking, communication, professional judgment, adaptability, and relationship-building are unlikely to become irrelevant.
Building those capabilities requires more than occasional training. Firms need intentional approaches to recruiting, mentoring, professional development, and creating an environment where strong professionals want to stay.
The specific skills needed to perform a job may change, but a culture that consistently develops capable, engaged professionals will remain an asset.
2. Building Strong Client Relationships
Client expectations have changed considerably over the years. Technology has transformed how firms communicate, exchange information, and deliver services. Many clients now expect faster responses, easier access to financial information, and more proactive advice.
But underneath those changing expectations is a consistent need: clients want professionals they can trust to understand their businesses and help them make good decisions.
The importance of these relationships became particularly clear during the Great Recession, when client retention emerged as the top concern for accounting firms across the AICPA’s survey categories. While economic conditions have improved and deteriorated since then, attracting and retaining clients has remained essential to firm growth and sustainability.
The strategic opportunity isn’t necessarily to predict which services clients will want in ten years. It’s to build relationships and capabilities that enable firms to understand and respond to those needs as they evolve.
That might mean investing in stronger client communication, developing advisory skills, improving responsiveness, or creating more opportunities for professionals to better understand their clients’ businesses.
The services and delivery methods will change. The importance of providing value and building lasting relationships won’t.
3. Developing Future Leaders
Leadership development and succession planning have been recurring concerns for accounting firms for years.
While firm structures may change, firms will always need people who can set direction, develop others, manage relationships, and make difficult decisions.
And those capabilities don’t develop overnight.
Firms that wait until a partner announces retirement or a leadership position becomes vacant to begin developing future leaders are already behind. Developing effective leaders requires consistent investment, practical experience, mentoring, and opportunities to take on increasing responsibility.
Strategic planning should account for that development well before a specific leadership transition is on the horizon.
Rather than trying to predict exactly what a managing partner’s responsibilities will look like in 2035, firms can identify the underlying leadership capabilities they’ll continue to need and begin developing them today.
4. Maintaining Professional Credibility
Trust has always been central to the accounting profession. Clients depend on CPAs to provide reliable information, protect confidential data, and exercise sound professional judgment. As Marty Brown of PYA says, “We are here to serve the public trust.”
Gallup has measured Americans’ perceptions of accountants’ honesty and ethical standards since 2000. While those perceptions have fluctuated, the research reminds us that professional credibility can’t be taken for granted.
As technology takes on more work traditionally performed by accountants, maintaining that credibility may become even more important.
AI may help analyze financial data, prepare reports, or identify potential problems, but firms still need to ensure the accuracy, integrity, and reliability of their work.
That requires more than good technology. It requires strong quality management, ethical leadership, accountability, and a culture in which professionals understand their responsibility to clients and the public.
Strategic plans should reflect those priorities. Investments in quality, professional standards, and sound judgment aren’t simply compliance expenses. They’re investments in the firm’s reputation and long-term sustainability.
5. Building the Ability to Adapt
Perhaps the most interesting constant is change itself.
Technology has been transforming the accounting profession for decades. The tools have evolved from desktop software to cloud computing, automation, advanced analytics, and now artificial intelligence. And it’s unlikely the profession has seen the last major technological shift.
The AICPA’s surveys have repeatedly identified technology as an important concern for firms, although the specific challenges have evolved.
That suggests an important strategic distinction: firms don’t necessarily need to predict which technologies will dominate the profession to prepare for technological change.
They need to become good at adapting.
That means developing a culture of continuous learning, encouraging innovation, building effective change-management processes, and giving professionals the skills and confidence to navigate new ways of working.
It also means recognizing that adaptability and consistency aren’t opposites.
A firm can remain committed to outstanding client service while completely transforming how it delivers that service. It can maintain high professional standards while embracing new tools. It can preserve its values while reconsidering longstanding processes that no longer serve the organization.
Lisa Simpson, vice president of firm services at the AICPA, summarized the relationship between technology and the profession’s enduring priorities in the 2026 Top Issues Survey:
“Regardless of technology capabilities, accounting is still a people business.”
It’s an important reminder that the most valuable investments aren’t always the ones attracting the most attention.
Build on the Constants, Prepare for the Changes
None of this suggests that firms should ignore emerging technology, evolving business models, or changing client expectations. Quite the opposite.
The purpose of identifying strategic constants isn’t to resist change. It’s to provide a foundation that helps firms navigate it.
As firm leaders begin planning for the coming years, I’d encourage starting with three questions:
- What will clients, staff, and partners still need from the firm five or ten years from now? Identify the fundamental needs that are unlikely to disappear, even as the methods used to meet them evolve.
- What investments will remain valuable across multiple possible futures? Leadership development, strong client relationships, professional judgment, and the ability to adapt are examples of capabilities that can serve a firm well regardless of which technologies or business models emerge.
- Which parts of the strategic plan need to remain flexible? Specific technologies, service offerings, staffing models, and operational processes may need to change as new information becomes available. The goal is to remain consistent in strategic priorities while being willing to adjust how they’re achieved.
Firms can also use these questions to evaluate new opportunities. Rather than pursuing every emerging trend, leaders can ask whether a particular investment strengthens one of the firm’s enduring priorities. If it doesn’t, it may not deserve a place in the strategic plan, regardless of how much attention it’s receiving.
There’s nothing wrong with looking ahead and trying to anticipate the future. Firms need to do that. But no one can know with certainty what the profession will look like in ten years.
What firm leaders can do is build firms with talented people, strong client relationships, capable leaders, professional credibility, and the ability to adapt.
Those foundations have helped firms navigate decades of change. They’re a pretty good place to start when planning for the future.
The best strategic plans don’t require a perfect prediction of the future. They build on what matters most, regardless of what the future brings.
