Copyright © 2015 Low Murchison Radnoff LLP Earthquake Zone How service professions are being shaken...

Copyright © 2015 Low Murchison Radnoff LLP

Earthquake Zone

How service professions are being shaken and how we come out better and stronger


Today we will be looking at revolutionary change in the service professions, how we can adapt and how we can leverage change to make us even better.

But first, let’s think about change….


Change is part of life. Thank goodness!


River Thames, 1677


Boomers are inheriting gobs of money….


Coopers


Why are barber poles red and white (and sometimes

blue)?


Change is often disruptive. Do you know what this is?


Guess where you can use one?

(For free.)


and dying---


How do we make sure we get our share, and make a profit on it?


So, how do we understand and adapt to change?


Seriously?


What is Driving Change in the Service Professions?


To cope with change, you need to understand why it is happening and where it will likely take you if you

do nothing.


To profit from change, you need to understand its dynamics and find the

pieces (if any) which are beneficial to you.


Driver #1: Regulatory

•Bad Apples•Too Good to Be True•Political Opportunism•Powerful Lobbies


Driver #2: Competition

•From inside the profession (particularly from too many people in the business)•From outside the profession (particularly if they don’t have to match your professional standards•From offshore


Driver #3: Technology

•Consumers have easy access to mountains of information•Upstarts can easily create cheaper alternatives to your product, service or delivery model


Driver #4: Commoditization

In business literature, commoditization is defined as the process by which goods or services that have economic value and are distinguishable in terms of attributes (uniqueness or brand) end up becoming simple commodities in the eyes of the market or consumers. It is the movement of a market from differentiated to undifferentiated price competition and from monopolistic to perfect competition. Hence, the key effect of commoditization is that the pricing power of the brand owner is weakened: when products become more similar from a buyer's point of view, they will tend to buy the cheapest.


Driver #5: Social change and demographics

•Aging population•Ethnic tastes and needs•Gender-specific needs•Wealth demographics


Adapting to survive and to thrive


• The Law of Supply and Demand• Profit = Sale price – cost• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

One thing to remember about change is that some things never change!


Classic supply and demand curves


Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs


Profiting from Disruption


Getting to the Top of the Food Chain


When your oil well is doing this, price

is no object.


“If you want something to put

your flowers in, go to the Dollar Store. If you want a Ming, go to Sotheby’s.”

Copyright © 2015 Low Murchison Radnoff LLPThe Professional Services Pricing Spectrum

ProfessionalCommodity

Highly price elastic

Low barrier to entry

Reliant on advertising

Cost control plus high volume essential for survival

Highly price inelastic

High barrier to entry

Reliant on reputation

Profitability fairly automatic if you are in the right space and not utterly business stupid


Implications for a Professional Services

Firm

• Move up the food chain. Always prefer professional work over commodity work

• To the extent you do commodity work, you need to control cost and maximize volume

Copyright © 2015 Low Murchison Radnoff LLPRule #1: Move up the food chain to high-level professional

work.

• Professional work comes in because of reputation• You have to pay the price to get into the professional space• Your most valuable asset is yourself, and the smartest thing

you can do is find out what it is you do best, and flaunt it• Every commodity task should be pushed along the spectrum

toward professional work (value added)


Why do you need to move up the food chain?

Remember that consumer with access to mountains of

information?


Where can you start to move up the food

chain?


Rule #2: Use technology to be

profitable.


Rule 2a: but be smart about it.


Rule 2a: but be smart about it.

The company has operations in Canada and 40 other countries and has US$673.2 billion of assets under management according to the Scorpio Partnership Global Private Banking Benchmark 2014


Yes, of course there’s this.


But there’s also this. Pick your

battles.

Copyright © 2015 Low Murchison Radnoff LLP Earthquake Zone How service professions are being shaken...

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