Professional-services firms derive their value from people, whom they cannot own, unlike firms whose physical or intangible assets accrue over time and pay dividends to shareholders.

“So, like, it's not like, you know, us or, like, a software engineering firm or, like, a manufacturer or whatever. You ha- you have physical assets or, like, some sort of intangible assets that, that you accrue over time, and, and they pay dividends to the shareholders.”

“But if you work in an industry like professional services, and it's the same for, like, uh, consultancies and, and whatever else, all of your value is in your people, and you can't really own human capital.”