The companies that help other companies reinvent

Across industries, leading companies create new opportunities by reinventing their business models and tapping into new domains of growth. One sector is now facilitating much of that convergence: business services. PwC’s Global Business Services Index 2025 looks at performance across key metrics for eight types of service providers, including legal, business process outsourcing, and logistics and distribution, among others. The latest analysis, our second in the series, shows strong growth and profitability from firms helping clients reinvent to better meet customer needs—even as firms reinvent themselves. 

Half of global business services CEOs say that they have begun competing in a new sector or industry over the past five years. And 36% say more than one-fifth of their revenues in the last five years came from competing in new sectors and industries. 

As technology adoption continues, those moves will only accelerate. For instance, logistics players can support smart manufacturing through digital twins that simulate and optimise supply chain operations (competing in a domain of growth that we designate as “how we make”), enable smart mobility via autonomous fleet management and urban delivery networks (“how we move”), and strengthen resilient food systems and public health through cold chain logistics and traceability (“how we feed” and “how we care”).

The analysis looks at four metrics of performance, and it includes recommendations for business services providers in each: 

Revenue growth. Expand the portfolio of digitally enabled service offerings, expand into adjacent markets with integrated solutions, and strike strategic M&A deals and partnerships. 

Profitability. Prioritise differentiated services where you can generate higher margins, maintain strict cost discipline to reduce overhead, and adopt global delivery models to reduce costs and access talent in emerging markets.   

Productivity. Continue to invest in digital tools (including GenAI) to streamline processes and improve efficiency, upskill your workforce with the capabilities they need to capitalise on these tools, and shift to asset-light models to enhance capital efficiency and operational agility. 

Cash flow. Strengthen invoicing and collection processes to reduce receivables and improve liquidity, pursue recurring revenue streams such as digital subscriptions to stabilise cash flows, and implement technologies to improve cash flow forecasting and visibility.