Running Fast to Stay in Place

post # 29 — March 13, 2006 — a Strategy post

There is a fascinating article by Rob Nixon, the Australian specialist in accounting firms. He found a 1964 study of accounting firm profitability, and correcting the numbers for inflation, found that in the past 41 years, Australian accounting firms had improved their profit per partner about 40 percent, a lot less than 1 percent per year, compounded.

Rob attributes the lack of any real progress to time billing, and the focus on such things as growth and size, rather than profitability. Fascinating reading!