Case Studies
These case studies analyze the strategic decisions, governance tensions, transformation programs, private equity transactions, AI platform shifts, audit failures, and operating model changes reshaping the professional services industry. Each case study combines deep research, public sources, and board-level analysis to examine what happened, why it happened, and what it may mean for the future of professional services firms.
Other categories
Subscribe to our newsletter
Case Study 31: BDO’s Third Way – The Accounting Network Trying to Stay Independent While Learning to Live With Private Capital
11. May 2026
For a while, BDO looked like the firm that might give the professional services industry a clean counter-narrative. Grant Thornton had moved into private equity-backed consolidation. Baker Tilly US had accepted external capital. Moore Global had member firms benefiting from sponsor-backed growth. But BDO seemed to be drawing a line. In October 2025, BDO announced
Case Study 30: Afileon – How Private Capital Enters a Protected Profession Without Owning It
6. May 2026
For decades, the German tax advisory market was not simply fragmented. It was deliberately engineered to remain so. More than 100,000 licensed tax advisors operating across roughly 55,000 firms created a system that prioritized independence, continuity, and professional judgment over scale. Ownership was tightly restricted to qualified professionals, effectively excluding external capital and preventing the
Case Study 29: When the Firm No Longer Owns Its Talent – PwC vs Unity
27. April 2026
Professional services firms have long operated on a simple but rarely questioned assumption. They do not just employ talent. They contain it. Over decades, partners build client relationships inside the firm, convert those relationships into revenue, and accumulate economic value through profit participation, deferred compensation, and retirement structures that can reach several million dollars. The
Case Study 28: Forvis Mazars – One Brand, Two Firms, and the Structural Experiment That Runs Against the Industry
21. April 2026
When Mazars and FORVIS officially launched Forvis Mazars in June 2024, the headline numbers made the story look familiar. The new organisation entered the market with roughly $5 billion in combined revenue, around 40,000 professionals, operations in more than 100 countries and territories, and close to 1,800 partners, immediately placing it among the new entrants
Case Study 27: Baker Tilly and Private Equity – When a Network Starts Becoming a Platform
14. April 2026
Originally published April 2026, updated May 2026. Baker Tilly presents itself as a global firm, and by most external measures, it looks like one. The network operates in more than 140 territories, employs more than 50,000 people, and generates global revenues exceeding $5 billion, placing it among the largest accounting and advisory organisations worldwide, while
Case Study 26: Accenture – The Success Story That Was Never Meant to Happen
8. April 2026
In boardrooms across the professional services industry, one reference point appears with almost ritualistic regularity whenever the idea of separating audit and consulting is raised: Accenture. The story is compelling precisely because it is so clean. A consulting arm breaks away from an audit-dominated structure, frees itself from regulatory constraints, accesses capital markets, and emerges
Case Study 24: PwC’s “Monday” – How a $20bn Spin-Off Fell Apart
29. March 2026
In June 2002, inside PricewaterhouseCoopers, something unusual had already taken shape. The firm was no longer discussing whether to separate its consulting business. It had already done the structural work required to make that separation real. Registration documents filed with regulators described a fully constructed corporate entity, with defined governance, ownership structures, and a legal
Case Study 23: The Fragmentation of a Global Firm – How Private Equity Is Reshaping Grant Thornton
23. March 2026
Originally published March 2026, updated May 2026. For most of its history, Grant Thornton operated through the standard global professional-services model: a network of legally separate member firms sharing a brand, methodologies, and network infrastructure, but not functioning as a single worldwide partnership. Grant Thornton International itself states that its member firms are separate legal
Case Study 22: The $600 Million Failed EY Split (“Project Everest”)
19. March 2026
In 2022 and 2023, Ernst & Young pursued the most ambitious restructuring attempt in modern Big Four history: a plan, code-named Project Everest, to separate most of its consulting business from its audit and assurance business. The logic was straightforward. Audit independence rules constrained cross-selling and limited growth in advisory. A split promised to unlock
Case Study 21: The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) $250 Million CHESS Blunder
6. January 2025
The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) embarked on an ambitious journey to replace its 25-year-old Clearing House Electronic Subregister System (CHESS) with a state-of-the-art, blockchain-based platform. Initially envisioned as a groundbreaking project to enhance efficiency, security, and scalability, the CHESS replacement project quickly turned into a cautionary tale. The initiative faced repeated delays and escalating costs