What Law, Accounting, And Other Professional Firms Can Learn From Startups (And F1)

If your firm still runs like a 1990s back office while your clients live on their phones, there's a gap – and competitors may already be taking advantage of it. The good news: you don't have to become a tech company. You just have to borrow a few habits from organisations that move faster.

Run "client squads", not silos

High-growth tech companies don't throw work over the wall between teams. They build small, cross-functional squads that own a customer outcome end to end. Imagine the same in a firm – a stable team with partners, associates, operations, and a "client PM" (the person who owns coordination and communication) responsible for clarity, timelines, and follow through.

Each squad keeps a three-point roadmap for each client over the next 90 days. For a tax client, that might mean fewer surprise emails, faster sign-off on drafts, and one clear owner for every deadline. Share the roadmap once a quarter. It's not just relationship management – it creates a predictable way of working together. Clients feel progress, not just hours billed.

Practise like an F1 team, not a solo practitioner

In Formula 1, the race is won long before race day. Teams rehearse pit stops hundreds of times, measure them to the millisecond, and adjust as a group. The driver is important, but the system wins.

Professional firms, by contrast, often "practise" only on live matters. That's like an F1 team attempting its first pit stop during the race.

Apply the same discipline Formula 1 teams use. Once a month, run a 45-minute simulation: a dawn raid, an unplanned tax audit, or a regulator's letter landing at 4 p.m. on Friday. Time the response, map who does what, then debrief: "What slowed us down? Where did handoffs break? Which templates or playbooks would have helped?"

Record one change to test the following week. One good simulation can remove weeks of friction later.

Design the client journey like a hotel stay

Great hotels obsess over the arrival, the first five minutes in the room, and the check-out. They script moments that feel effortless. Map your client journey the same way: first contact, onboarding call, first deliverable, difficult news, closing the matter.

For each moment, define a small signature move: a one-page "how we'll work together", a "plain English" summary above every document, and a short "here's what happens next" note after tough meetings. If you track one metric, make it "time to clarity" – how long until the client says "I know what happens next". Small rituals and simple metrics compound into a noticeably different experience.

None of this requires a massive transformation program. It starts with one squad, one simulation, one redesigned moment in the client journey. Every time a firm borrows a smart idea from another industry, it sends a different signal: we're not just experts in the law or the numbers; we're experts in how we work.

In a conservative sector, this mindset isn't cosmetic innovation. It's a competitive advantage.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.