Sprint scenario

For professional services firms, some of the greatest growth potential may already sit within existing client relationships. Yet the knowledge required to identify that potential is often fragmented—across account teams, previous assignments, commercial data and the people who know the client best.

Every Q4, the management team at a consultancy faces the same question: where will next year's growth come from? The firm has strong client relationships and ambitious growth targets.

But account planning still depends heavily on individual partners and teams. Commercial data sits in one place, previous assignments in another, while much of the most valuable client knowledge remains in presentations, conversations and people's heads.

As annual planning begins, the management team wants to explore a different approach.

Could the intelligence behind next year's growth start building in Q1 rather than being reconstructed in Q4?

Meet Sara

Sara is one of the fictional archetypes in the AI Business Council, representing a consultancy CEO navigating growth and transformation in professional services. Her challenge provides the starting point for this AIBC Lab sprint.

The challenge

Make Q1 your new Q4

Find the opportunity

What do we know—and what is changing?

Rather than looking across the entire client portfolio, we start with the firm's three largest accounts.

Revenue and relationship strength provide the first picture, while a rapid review of existing client knowledge reveals something else: the firm knows considerably more about these clients than it can easily bring together.

One account stands out. A long-standing European automotive client represents significant revenue, strong senior relationships and, in the partners' view, considerable untapped potential. We choose that relationship as the testing ground.

As we bring together commercial data, previous assignments, account plans and knowledge from the people closest to the client, the challenge begins to shift.

The problem isn't simply identifying another sales opportunity. Different parts of the firm hold different pieces of the same client story, but there is no shared view beyond a handful of commercial KPIs.

That raises a more interesting question: Could an Account Playbook turn fragmented client knowledge into a shared view of where the relationship could go next?

That becomes the idea to prototype.

Bring the opportunity to life

We use the automotive account to make the idea tangible.

It starts with the fundamentals: the commercial relationship, key KPIs, previous assignments, capabilities already used and the decision-makers the firm knows.

For someone outside the account team, the playbook should quickly answer a simple question: what is this client relationship actually about?

Then we turn the perspective forward. The European automotive industry is changing rapidly. New competitors, technologies and customer expectations are reshaping priorities across the business. AI-powered research and simulations help us explore what those changes could mean for the executives the firm already knows—and what may be moving up their agendas.

As the two views come together, connections appear. Expertise sitting elsewhere in the consultancy becomes relevant to emerging client needs. Teams outside the automotive account can see where they might contribute. And the relationship begins to look less like a history of assignments and more like a portfolio of possibilities.

The Account Playbook starts to take shape as a shared view of where we are, what is changing and where we could create value next.

Prepare the next move

Could one account change how the firm plans for growth?

We now take the prototype back to the wider business.

Could another partner understand the automotive relationship without sitting through a lengthy account briefing? Could teams recognize where their expertise might create value? Could management use the same structure to compare opportunities across priority accounts?

And could the intelligence be updated throughout the year rather than reconstructed during annual planning?

The playbook is refined around what proves genuinely useful—not as another reporting template, but as a common way of seeing and developing important client relationships.

Instead of waiting until Q4 to ask where next year's growth will come from, the firm can start building the answer from Q1.

Potential sprint outcome

Account Playbook
A working prototype connecting client knowledge, commercial performance and outside-in intelligence in one shared view.

Account Opportunity
One tangible example showing how potential client needs can connect with expertise beyond the existing account team.

Activation Plan
A practical direction for applying the playbook across priority accounts and throughout the planning year.

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