Reinventing the professional services firm model: The SMA TOD® platform
The conventional wisdom in professional services firms is that the entire relationship is a “high touch experience” – from initial conversations, proposal drafting, and workflow management to the final delivery of the work product. This is true of law, accounting, engineering, architectural, management consulting, and other forms of professional services. Ajay Patel, CEO and case protagonist, recognized that this high-touch experience is fraught with many problems. He and his team decided to build a proprietary online platform that is revolutionizing both the demand-side and the supply-side of professional services. The case focuses on the process whereby clients co-create their consulting team through active participation. The aim was to speed up the process, reduce all friction points, and do value pricing.
- Understanding how a digital platform can disrupt an industry and its core business model.
- Debate the benefits and costs of having completely transparent, real-time access to the entire human resource pool of the firm.
- Debate merits of a new pricing strategy that does not allow for negotiation on the part of clients.
- Discuss the talent management benefits – recruiting, project assignment, rotation, and promotion – of the TOD system.
SMA, Services, Information Technology, Information Technology Services
2015 - 2020
Cranfield University
Wharley End Beds MK43 0JR, UK
Tel +44 (0)1234 750903
Email [email protected]
Harvard Business School Publishing
60 Harvard Way, Boston MA 02163, USA
Tel (800) 545-7685 Tel (617)-783-7600
Fax (617) 783-7666
Email [email protected]
NUCB Business School
1-3-1 Nishiki Naka
Nagoya Aichi, Japan 460-0003
Tel +81 52 20 38 111
Email [email protected]
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in Harvard Business Review May-June 2024, vol. 102, issue 3
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