Staying Independent on Purpose — What Firms Must Get Right Now
I’ve been speaking with firm leaders, and most tell me this:
We want to stay independent.
If you lead an independent CPA firm today, you’re not competing against private equity.
You’re competing in a market reshaped by it.
That distinction matters.
Too many firms still talk about independence as if it’s a passive stance—we’re not PE-backed, therefore we’re different. But independence without intention quickly turns into inertia. And inertia, in today’s environment, is one of the fastest paths to irrelevance.
Private equity has reset expectations across the profession: speed of decision-making, operational discipline, clarity of strategy, leadership accountability, and financial transparency. Even firms that never plan to take PE capital are now being measured—by clients, talent, and successors—against those standards.
The firms that remain strong and independent in this next era will do so because they choose to operate differently, not because they resist change.
Independence Requires Intention and a Strategy, Not a Sentiment.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth I often share with managing partners:
Many independent firms don’t actually have an independence strategy. They have a legacy strategy—and hope it still works.
They rely on:
⚫️ Long-standing client relationships
⚫️ Partner goodwill and informal decision-making
⚫️ “We’ve always done it this way” economics
⚫️ Heroic effort from a shrinking group of leaders
That model worked in a slower, less transparent market. It does not scale under today’s pressures.
Independent firms that thrive going forward are far more deliberate. They make explicit choices about where they will compete, how they will lead, and what they will not try to be.
Where Independent Firms Must Level Up.
Across my work with firm leaders, four areas consistently separate firms that are strengthening from those slowly falling behind:
1️⃣ Strategic Focus: Strong independent firms know who they serve, where they win, and where they don’t play. They stop trying to be everything to everyone. They design growth instead of inheriting it.
2️⃣ Decision Discipline: Consensus culture feels collegial—but it often masks avoidance. Independent firms must build clear decision rights, operating rhythms, and accountability, or they will lose speed and credibility.
3️⃣ Manager and Partner Capability: Technical excellence does not equal leadership effectiveness. Firms that invest in developing partners and managers as leaders create stability, confidence, and momentum that money alone can’t buy.
4️⃣ Client Experience by Design: Clients don’t stay loyal to firm histories—they stay loyal to experiences. Independent firms that intentionally design how clients are led, communicated with, and advised build defensible relationships.
Independence Is a Leadership Choice
The most successful independent firms I work with don’t frame PE as a threat.
They frame it as a forcing function.
It forces clarity. It forces prioritization. It forces leadership to grow up.
Independence today means building a firm that could attract outside capital, but chooses not to (at least not private equity) because it already delivers alignment, performance, and purpose.
That doesn’t happen accidentally.
It happens when leaders stop protecting comfort and start building capability.
Your Next Step
If independence matters to you, the question isn’t if you’ll change—but how intentionally you’ll do it.
Visit my website to explore how I help CEOs and managing partners clarify strategy, strengthen leadership, and build independent firms that are future-ready by design.
In the final article of this series, we’ll go deeper into the real work most firms avoid: leadership, human capital, and change management—and why these are now the true battlegrounds of the profession.
Until Next Time!
