Bigger. Better. Both?
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1 May, 2013
Succession: Trade sales – gain, pain, both?
Warren Riddell. Accounting. Consulting engineering. Engineering. Law. Management consulting. Mergers & Acquisitions. Other professional services. Strategy
Succession for many firms is a trade sale, usually because owners have not transitioned ownership to the next generation of leaders and key managers in their firm. Sadly many owners are disappointed in what they are offered for their life’s work. Why is this and what can be done about it?
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30 April, 2013
Succession: mergers are minefields
Warren Riddell. Accounting. Beaton Benchmarks. Consulting engineering. Engineering. Law. Management consulting. Mergers & Acquisitions. Other professional services. Strategy
Professional service firms often become ‘succession stuck’. They do too little, too late for an orderly internal transition of ownership. As a result they either reach for a trade sale or seek a merger. Mergers can work well when managed well. Or mergers can destroy shareholder value.
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8 March, 2013
Beaton450 says hello, goodbye and congratulations for 2012
Eric Chin. Accounting. Consulting engineering. Law. Management consulting. Mergers & Acquisitions. Other professional services. Strategy
The second instalment of Beaton Capital’s league table of the world’s largest 450 professional services firms is made up of 41 accounting & advisory firms, 165 consulting engineering firms, 208 law firms and 37 management consulting firms. The 2012 Beaton450 firms generated US$521 billion through 4 million professional staff operating from nearly 44,000 offices. The [...]
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6 March, 2013
Why fear and fire don’t help in the PSF pricing war
Dr George Beaton. Accounting. Beaton Benchmarks. Consulting engineering. Law. Management consulting. Other professional services. Strategy
This post is a really helpful insight into why law firms and their corporate clients often appear to be chasms apart on fees. And it’s not just law firms that are under fire. To varying degrees accountancy, consulting engineering, management consultants, patent attorneys and all other business-related professions seem under attack. What’s changed? And what’s [...]
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19 February, 2013
How hunger and hygiene drive valuations
Warren Riddell. Consulting engineering. Management consulting. Mergers & Acquisitions. Strategy
Beaton Capital recently acted as an expert witness for the sale of shares in a professional services firm. Unusually, we were asked to comment on the factors that would influence a buyer in determining a multiple. It boiled down to the ‘hygiene factors’ of the target and the ‘hunger’ of the acquirer.
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12 February, 2013
Beaton Indices: will growth continue in 2013?
Marc Ewen. Consulting engineering. Management consulting
The two industry indices tracked by Beaton Capital – consulting engineering & environmental (CEE) and management & consulting services (MCS) – both displayed solid growth in 2012. Is this trend set to continue into 2013?
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6 February, 2013
Employee shareholders – 8 top tips from 8 top performing firms
Warren Riddell. Accounting. Consulting engineering. Engineering. Law. Management consulting. Other professional services
Late last year Beaton Capital surveyed eight leading privately owned consulting engineering and management consulting firms with employee ownership. Our objective was to learn what works and what doesn’t–and why. The firms we selected all are high performers and respected by their peers. Here’s what we learned.
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3 February, 2013
Another look at brand permission in professional services firms
Dr George Beaton. Accounting. Consulting engineering. Law. Management consulting. Mergers & Acquisitions. Strategy
In his October 2012 post Professions, acquisitions and brand permission Warren Riddell raised many vital points about the opportunities ‘brand permission’ poses for professional services firms.
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8 January, 2013
Without diversification, how will law firms survive?
Eric Chin. Accounting. Law. Management consulting. Mergers & Acquisitions. Strategy
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change” Attributed to Charles Darwin Beaton’s cross-professions analysis reveals the Big 4 accounting firms have outgrown their legal counterparts, the Big 6 in Australia in the last 10 years. [...]
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11 December, 2012
Best-in-class: Five tests to see if your firm qualifies
Warren Riddell. Accounting. Consulting engineering. Law. Management consulting. Strategy
At a recent conference in the USA of consulting engineers, environmental consultants and architects the question was asked – how does our firm know if we are best-in-class?
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