Quality. Independence. Stability.
How Praxity moves forward for its members
In a shifting world, understanding your environment and responding appropriately is crucial.
Praxity remains the largest professional services alliance in the world with over 85,000 people in over 120 countries. As such, the Alliance leverages its global reach to gain a top-down look at the industry, responding to change and predicting it before it happens.
As Praxity comes of age in its 18th year, CEO Samantha Louis outlines how the Alliance is uniquely well placed to meet the challenges head on, and is planning far into the future for its members.
Reach
Praxity is a leading global Alliance, with member firms in all 5 global regions. With their combined expertise and experience, their clients have access to cross-border solutions, a wide network of world-class professionals and excellent service at every pressure point.
This tapestry is to be extended outward throughout the next few years, with a focus on improving reach in emerging regions, as well as deepening capabilities in regions where the Alliance is already well represented, such as Western Europe and North America. The world remains in a volatile state, but our members remain focused on smoothing cross-border work and on working with a global mindset.
In line with wider industry themes, Praxity has a renewed focus on its membership, seeking to identify growth areas across the industry and firms that excel in them. We are also deepening our existing relationships within the Alliance, just as our members are among themselves. Through our “Independent and United” service model, our members are free to make their own business and governance decisions, while utilising the many benefits of such interconnectivity.
Reputation
Praxity’s young adulthood will see the Alliance pass from 18 to 21 years old over the next few years. These are the years of maturity, and after so much growth over Praxity’s lifespan, we remain committed to our members.
We continue to publicise the incredible work our member firms are doing, both for their clients and in leading the industry’s responses to global changes. Ultimately, Praxity exists to facilitate our members’ needs; we respond to trends, create tools for powerful networking and always aim to be leaders in our field.
Our member firms are bound together by a focus on Client Delivery Excellence, hosting some of the most forward-thinking, creative growth-oriented professionals in the world. Collaboration between members is a key benefit of Praxity membership, facilitating rather than dictating how they must work. Communication is also a key tenet, both with our members and with the industry outside the Alliance.
The Praxity conferences remain core to our mission, driving innovation and deepening business relationships. Publishing work externally, whether through our social channels, Thought Leadership pieces or our HUB magazine, highlight the incredible work our members do globally. We are also putting many hours of work into our presence on LinkedIn, to present ourselves as head cheerleaders for our members and as a leading presence in Accounting.
The Praxity Charter, the first of its kind for an alliance, unites our member firms under core principles. Furthermore, customer experience is measured across the whole Praxity Alliance, with individual Net Promoter Scores by firm. This serves to give clients and professionals the utmost confidence in the standard of care before work even begins, especially when dealing with cross-border work or in unfamiliar jurisdictions.
Relationships
Unity is at our core. It is only by nurturing and connecting our best talent that the industry can move forward, and across the Alliance, our member firms are innovating. Whether it’s a response to incoming legislation, a new way of working cross-border, or simply the ability to pick up the phone to one another, Alliance experts can rely on each other.
Praxity’s specialist working groups have received a new focus as Alliance professionals leverage each other’s expertise. They allow firms to share best practice, case studies and experiences, devising collaborative approaches to new industry headwinds. Clearly this is only set to become more relevant in the next few years, as territories converge and diverge in their approaches.
With regional and global conferences delivering crucial face-to-face opportunities, our members meet regularly and have the chance to tailor their responses as things arise. The Praxity Alliance offers its members an invaluable toolkit for their clients, and will continue to do so.
The next few years will bring a focus on Learning & Development, as recruitment and retention of top talent within the industry becomes more and more relevant. Praxity’s executive team is producing an onboarding pack for new member firms, as well as making our recruitment process more transparent for prospective members. Finally, to help facilitate a regular two-way feedback process, we will be producing an evaluation survey, designed to help member firms report their successes and to give their views on how Praxity can improve going forward.
Regions
Praxity’s scope is global by design. While the largest economies and wealthiest regions are well served by Alliance members, we have also focused on our outstanding firms in emerging economies. While Praxity member firms tend to think globally, they are also equipped with a deep, on-the-ground understanding of how their jurisdiction does business. This meeting of local knowledge and a global mindset puts our member firms on an excellent footing.
The next few years will see a recruitment drive in the Praxity Alliance as it edges towards its 20th year. Through strategic targets based on geographic and service line needs, we hope to add up to 100 new firms over the next few years, each a firm of exceptional quality that typifies the values of all other members.
Through work secondments, regional working groups and inter-firm collaboration on client projects, our members consistently demonstrate how to use the Alliance to their advantage. Their clients feel it too!
For the next few years, it is likely to remain the case that old certainties are out and agility is in. Our members are sure to respond to this in innovative ways, and we as an Alliance intend to support that in every way we can.
Our Vision
Every client matters to every member firm and is connected with care to the solutions they need. Accordingly, every member firm and their professionals matters to Praxity; run on relationships, we put people first, underpinned by seamless collaboration, communication and processes, and truly global capabilities with local knowledge.
As Praxity comes of age, it cements itself as the pre-eminent Alliance of accountancy firms, delivering value to its members through collaboration and trust. We offer our members stability, independence and quality, and help them offer their clients the same. Members collaborate to find the right solutions for their clients, with the freedom to choose the right partner and work in the way that’s best for their firms and their clients.
By extending our global reach, integrating tools for digital collaboration, and making sure all firms have access to continuous professional development, our members continue to excel. Seeing the quality of their work and their growth, and amplifying their achievements, it is by their success that we as an Alliance can measure our own.
