Insights

Field notes on productized advisory.

Why STAR Is Built for Mid-Market Consulting FirmsAI is changing the economics of consulting faster than it is changing the consulting business model. That gap may be one of the largest strategic opportunities or constraints facing mid-market consulting firms. For decades, consulting economics have been…9/21/2026

AI Made Execution Cheap. Decision Quality Just Became More Valuable.For the last several years, companies have been asking what they can do with AI. That was the right question when the technology was new and implementation was difficult. It is rapidly becoming the wrong question. AI can now generate ideas, conduct research…9/7/2026

AI Is Not Just Changing Professional Services, It Is Changing What Clients Are Willing to Pay ForFor years, the conversation around AI in consulting and professional services has focused on adoption. That conversation is changing fast. Major enterprise clients are beginning to ask a much more consequential question: If AI allows you to do the work…9/2/2026

The Eight Largest Consulting Firms in the World Are Changing Their Consulting Models, are you changing yours?The Eight Largest Consulting Firms in the World Are Changing Their Consulting Models, are you changing yours? Deloitte — “Engineering a New Era: Deloitte's Tech-Driven Consulting Revolution” — 2026 Of the eight, this may be the most explicit statement that…8/25/2026

Forward Deployed Engineers, The Unknown Cost and the Uncertain HandoffThe Big Four, the large consulting firms, and some of the largest investment firms have decided that their Enterprise clients are not capable of implementing AI on their own. I fully agree with that. None of us can drop in a system and declare any size…8/24/2026

Are You the Handle or the Blade?Gillette figured out something a long time ago that consultants are going to have to learn very quickly in an AI world. The razor handle is not where the money is made. The money is made in the blades. Gillette can afford to sell you a razor handle and a few…8/23/2026

AI Is Changing Consulting. That Is Why I Built STAR.For most of my career, the fundamental value proposition of consulting has been relatively straightforward. A client encounters a problem that management either cannot solve internally or believes would benefit from outside expertise. A consultant is brought…8/20/2026

Your Work Is Not Too Customized to Systematize“Our work is too customized to systematize” may be one of the most expensive assumptions in consulting. Clients absolutely need solutions tailored to their circumstances. Their strategies, capabilities, constraints, markets, people, and objectives are…8/19/2026

When Too Much of Your Revenue is Project BasedOne of the biggest weaknesses in the traditional consulting business model is surprisingly simple, too much of the revenue is project based. A firm can acquire an excellent client, deliver an outstanding engagement, and create significant value. However, the…8/19/2026

Ending the Feast-or-Famine Cycle in ConsultingMany successful consulting firms have a structural revenue problem that has little to do with the quality of their work: too much of their revenue expires. A firm can win an important engagement, deliver excellent work, create meaningful value for the…8/17/2026

The Coming Business Exit Wave Will Create Winners, and a Lot of Disappointed SellersA massive supply of privately held businesses is heading toward the market. Private equity firms are already sitting on a backlog of roughly 33,000 portfolio companies representing $3.8 trillion in value , while approximately 1.4 million privately held…8/14/2026

Are You Building the Next Practice, or Cutting Your Way to the End of the Current One?Professional service firms face an uncomfortable strategic reality. The economics of traditional compliance work are changing. AI and automation will allow firms to perform more work with fewer people. Routine activities that historically consumed thousands…8/12/2026

We Know Where AI Is Going, The Harder Question Is How to Get There.There is no shortage of compelling visions for an AI-transformed business. The major consulting firms describe organizations where AI is embedded throughout the business, humans and AI work together, decisions happen faster, workflows become more autonomous…8/7/2026

Competitive Advantage of MCEDS for a Business ConsultantWe were asked by a consultant about how our knowledge regarding enterprise value growth and AI could generate more valuable outcomes in the medical concierge space. I have not spent a lot of time in that space but I have a significant background in the…8/3/2026

There Are No Shortcuts to Building an AI-Powered CompanyA company can purchase AI technology in weeks. It cannot become an AI-powered organization in weeks. That distinction is being lost in the rush to deploy copilots, agents, automation tools, and customized AI applications. Executives are being shown systems…7/30/2026

The Cost of Waiting: Why AI Hesitation May Become Your Greatest Competitive RiskOne of the questions I hear most often from CEOs is not about AI. It is much more based in fear. "Are we falling behind?". The concern is not that a competitor purchased ChatGPT or deployed another AI assistant. The concern is that competitors are…7/25/2026

The $100 Million AI Question: Where Is the ROI?AI is one of the largest capital investments in modern business. Organizations are committing millions, and in some cases hundreds of millions of dollars, to AI software, cloud infrastructure, implementation projects, consultants, and internal technology…7/22/2026

AI Does Not Create Enterprise Value, Proprietary Systems and People Do.Every major consulting firm, technology provider, and software company is talking about AI. New claims are made weekly based on shifting public opinions designed to accelerate demand for AI consulting. Last year was about automation that led to productivity…7/19/2026

The 10 AI Questions Keeping CEOs Awake at NightEvery major consulting firm, technology provider, and software company is talking about artificial intelligence. New models are announced almost weekly. Vendors promise greater productivity, smarter automation, and unprecedented innovation. Despite investing…7/17/2026

AI Is Not The Problem, Using It to Forward Deploy Automation Engineers IsAI has moved beyond curiosity in most mid-market accounting and consulting firms. It has become a pressing strategic question that firm leaders are facing. The answer is not to abandon everything that the firm is to become something that the firm is not…7/16/2026

Why Consulting Firms Must Become Platform CompaniesFor decades, the consulting business has hired talented people, developed specialized expertise, and sold that expertise by the hour. The firms with the most knowledgeable people became the most valuable firms. It was built on intellectual capital. However…7/15/2026

Computers and Models Do Not Make Change, People Using Computers and Models Make ChangeEvery consulting and professional service firm wants to create more enterprise value. However, very few firms teach their people how to do it. Most workforce development programs focus on improving individual skills, competencies, and technical abilities…7/13/2026

The Future of Consulting is Not AI, It is Enterprise ValueEvery consulting firm is trying to determine how they can compete in an AI world where business information and prompts are freely available. Many firms have experimented with AI tools, chatbots, or workflow automation. These pilot programs have generally…7/11/2026

The Most Valuable Frontier of AI, Enterprise Value CreationI review the the top ten Google search trends, Reddit discussion trends, and LinkedIn posting trends related to AI and the various types of professional service firms each day. I am not interested in simply being able to identify and articulate what is…7/10/2026

Transformation to What? Reframing Transformation Around Value Creation"Transformation" is the hottest topic in business right now. Every major consulting firm offers digital transformation, AI transformation, finance transformation, operating model transformation, workforce transformation, customer transformation, and…7/9/2026

Why Productized Services Are Replacing Traditional Project-Based ConsultingFor decades, professional service firms were built around customized, project-based engagements. Every client was unique, every proposal was different, and every engagement was executed differently. AI is changing that model. As AI automates much of the…7/2/2026

15 Ways STAR Transforms the Way Consulting and Professional Service Firms WorkAI is not simply making consultants more productive. It is fundamentally changing the consulting business model. Firms that continue selling customized labor will not be able to compete with firms that deliver technology-enabled, AI-powered outcomes through…7/1/2026

From AI Novice to Patent PendingI started my AI journey about two years ago and it has been a steady series of progressions that led to our patent pending technologies. I did not get into AI with any grand plans. I am a business advisor and I did not think that I could advise businesses…6/30/2026

Productized Services, Why Now Is the Time to MoveThe professional services industry is approaching an inflection point unlike any it has experienced in decades. Artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing how knowledge work is created, delivered, and valued, while clients are demanding faster…6/30/2026

What Accenture's Earnings Report is Telling Us About the Future of ConsultingBookings Defined - Contracts that have been agreed to that will be performed at a later date. A rise in bookings generally signals strong forward looking demand and rising revenue expectations. A decline in bookings indicates weak forward looking demand and…6/22/2026

Agentic AI: The Next Evolution of Consulting?For the past two years, consulting and professional service firms have used AI to work faster and generate client deliverables such as contracts, tax returns, and strategic plans. Their marketing departments are creating content for blogs, email campaigns…6/18/2026

Don't Show up to a Client Meeting With a Slide Deck, Assessments, and AdviceHere are the top ten AI search trends around AI and traditional consulting today. With each passing week, demand for traditional consulting models are decreasing and it becomes harder and harder to catch up. The most important trend is that businesses are no…6/18/2026

Your First Project as an AI Consultant, Helping Your Firm Become AI ReadyI have written extensively about the changes in the traditional consulting model moving forward. One way to protect yourself is to productize your services in your specialty area. The better way to protect yourself is by productizing an AI consulting model…6/15/2026

AI First or AI Last, There is no AI miThe AI Consulting Operating System is a comprehensive framework that enables consultants to assess, advise, implement, monitor, and optimize AI transformation initiatives for their clients through a repeatable and scalable methodology. Rather than selling…6/13/2026

Ten Diagnostics That Allow you to Start Your Your Own AI Consulting Practice ImmediatelyI have written extensively about the changes in the traditional consulting model moving forward. One way to protect yourself is to productize your services in your specialty area. The better way to protect yourself is by productizing an AI consulting model…6/12/2026

Most Consultants Are Solving the Wrong ProblemMany consulting firms have embraced AI by expanding their technology capabilities because their clients are phrasing the ask and needs in the form of technology transformation. Underneath the surface though, clients only care about using AI to increase…6/10/2026

Why Most AI Projects Fail Before They BeginMost AI discussions before deployment focus on technology. The questions turn on what platform, model, or software they should use. Those questions distract from the more important issue of whether the firm is AI ready. A firm that is AI ready has clean…6/9/2026

Traditional Consulting Did Not Die Today, It Just Took a Year to Schedule the Memorial ServicesWelcome to the new world of consulting and professional services. Here is what you will need to deliver moving forward. Results tied to sales, margins, EBITDA, risk, and multiples. Implementation to help drive results. Speed that tracks the pace of business…6/1/2026

The Outcomes That AI First Consultants Have to DeliverThe vast majority of consultants and professional service providers are still trading time for money. That worked when they had specialized expertise, knowledge management capabilities, a system based on leveraging junior staff, long term client…5/30/2026

Back Office Automation and Single Purpose AI Tools Will Never Produce AI ROII follow the top Google, Reddit, and LinkedIn trends related to AI and consulting every day. No one has been able to compute how to measure the potential enterprise value increase from a a successful firmwide AI deployment. I curated the five articles below…5/29/2026

Calling Your Firm AI-First Does Not Make It AI-FirstEvery consulting firm is becoming “AI-first” on LinkedIn now. The phrase is everywhere in various different forms such as AI-first consulting firm, AI-native advisory firm, AI-enabled transformation partner, and AI-powered delivery model. It was the number…5/28/2026

Autonomous Workflow Systems Are Mostly TheoreticalThere is a growing narrative that consulting firms are rapidly building autonomous AI execution systems. That is not happening because t here is no demand for that yet with professional service firm partners or in the C-Suite. You would be asking…5/22/2026

AI ROI Is About Enterprise Value, Not ProductivityImagine picking up the Wall Street Journal and reading that Microsoft reported its third quarter productivity per share instead of their third quarter earnings per share. It sounds crazy because productivity per share does not tell their investors anything…5/21/2026

Why Most AI ROI Models Still Fail to Explain Enterprise ValueAI concepts in a generic sense will never support how I can help a consulting firm move from a 20m valuation to a 50m valuation in five years. Concepts do not tell me what the what the company should do, when the company should do it, and why the company…5/19/2026

The Executive Committee or Your Board Keeps Asking What Your AI Spend Is Worth. Most Firms Still Don’t Have an Answer.Your Executive Committee or Board is asking what the AI spend is worth. I built the math that shows how a 20M consulting firms transforms into a $50M consulting firms in 5 years. I am a CPA (inactive), JD, and a business growth advisor that has worked…5/14/2026

The Fastest Path to Client Satisfaction and Structural Cost Advantage in Professional ServicesYesterday, I wrote that the fastest path to creating a structural cost advantage in the services industries is to productize your service model. I believe this will become one of the defining strategic shifts of the next decade for consultants, attorneys…5/8/2026

Title: The AI Delay in Professional Services Isn’t About Technology. It’s About Strategy and Governance.Consulting and professional service firms are being conditioned to accept a 12–18 month timeline before AI delivers meaningful results. That timeline is not a technological constraint. It is a strategic one. In most firms, progress is stalled by two gating…5/7/2026

Productization Is Now the Single Most Important Strategy for Professional Service FirmsFor consultants and professional service firms, productization is no longer optional. It is the most important strategic initiative available today. Because productization is not just a delivery improvement. It is: A structural cost advantage A recurring…5/7/2026

The Biggest Factor in AI ROI, How Quickly Can You Create Structural Cost Reduction and Pricing Power?There is a lot of confusion in the AI market because tool pilots are failing, automation pilots are failing, and pilots viewed as successful are failing because companies are not seeing any positive impact in their income statements. Consultants and…5/3/2026

The $8M Mistake CFOs Make When Evaluating AI and Operational TransformationMost business advisors and the CFOs evaluating AI stop the analysis of the potential enterprise value creation at cost savings that turns into additional profits. The problem is that EBITDA is just a piece of the outcome that we are trying to achieve and its…5/1/2026

The 6-Step System for Deploying AI Across Your Organization (Without Wasting Time or Money)Most firms get AI wrong. They jump straight into tools that either do not work as advertised or they do not talk to each other. They jump straight into AI automation without standardizing and optimizing business processes. Or worse, they start with “AI…4/27/2026

The Hidden Value Gap in AI Investment and Why it is the Biggest Opportunity for CFOs and Advisors Right NowThe Problem: Boards Are Making Decisions on Poorly Constructed Value Enhancement Computations Across the mid-market, a pattern is quietly repeating itself. CFOs are being asked to evaluate AI investments. The models they’re handed are clean, rational, and on…4/26/2026

There Are no Fees in the Fields of Advice and RecommendationsThe top Google search trends related to consulting right now are clustering around one clear shift: Buyers are no longer searching for advice, they are searching for implementation, AI systems, and measurable outcomes. We are looking for consultants and…4/25/2026

AI Deployment Failures, Death by Tools, Success Through SystemsMost AI initiatives are not failing because the technology is weak. They are failing because the operating model is weak. Spend ten minutes on Reddit and the pattern becomes obvious. Business owners, operators, consultants, and employees are all saying the…4/23/2026

The AI Problem Nobody Wants to AdmitMost companies did not fail at AI because the technology failed. They failed because they treated AI like a tool purchase instead of an operating model decision. Every week, the same themes keep showing up across executive conversations, operator…4/23/2026

The Choice for Consultants is Clear Now, Adaptation or ExtinctionI study the consulting market every day and it is clear that consultants will either change their approach significantly or they will become extinct. Companies do not want to know what they should do, they want it done. They do not buy effort, they buy…4/22/2026

The Market Isn’t Curious About AI Anymore. It’s Cornered.There’s a very specific shift happening right now, and if you are paying attention to what business leaders are actually searching for, it’s not subtle. The top business searches on Google today aren’t about “what is AI” or “should we use it.” They’re about…4/16/2026

Business Transformation and AI at its Simplest LevelIf you study something long enough, apply your knowledge to real life use cases, amplify that knowledge, and be flexible enough to adapt to dramatic changes (Anthropic trying to take over all of the knowledge based work in the world), you continue to find…4/13/2026

Why Most AI Initiatives Fail (And Why That Shouldn’t Surprise You)There is a growing disconnect between the promise of AI and the results businesses are actually experiencing. On paper, AI should be driving massive efficiency gains, accelerating growth, and expanding margins. In reality, many companies are frustrated…4/9/2026

The Only Logical Choice: Why Our Positioning Wins the Next DecadeMost firms are still experimenting with AI. We have already rebuilt how a firm operates around it. That difference, between experimentation and system-level transformation, is why the skills we have today, and the way those skills multiply every single day…4/8/2026