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July 2026

Learning From Global Firms, What Indian Firms Can Adopt And What They Can Avoid

By Ketan Dalal, Chartered Accountant
Reading Time 25 mins

Indian accounting firms struggle to compete with global giants due to deep fragmentation and lack of scale. To survive and grow, they must learn from the Big Four by prioritizing institutionalization over individual ownership, investing heavily in technology and AI, and developing deep industry and domain specializations. Furthermore, Indian practices need robust governance, talent management, and quality control systems. However, instead of mimicking the rigid silos of global networks, Indian firms can carve a competitive edge by offering highly integrated, personalized services and dedicated relationship management, particularly to mid-sized clients.

INTRODUCTION

The Indian accounting sector is highly fragmented, with over 72% of 1,00,000+ firms operating as sole proprietorships. With only 13 firms having more than 50 partners, these small firms lack the scale to invest in technology and talent and thus lose significant market share to large global giants.

GLOBAL FIRMS – A PERSPECTIVE

This article is about learning from global firms, and whilst there are many global firms other than the Big Four (such as BDO and Grant Thornton), for the purpose of this article, some statistics regarding the Big Four have been highlighted just as a reference point, especially to

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