Global Growth, Integration and AI: Lessons from Grant Thornton’s CEO

Melissa Howitzen: M. Welcome to the CFO Show. I'm your host, Melissa Howitzen, CFO of AH Vena. Growth often looks impressive from the outside. New markets, new capabilities, new headlines. But anyone who has led a, um, major transformation knows that growth is the visible part. Execution is the real work, and it's where value is either created or quietly destroyed. Effective integration isn't easy, and the conversation today is all about getting it right. Grant Thornton Advisors is a 100-year-old US firm that is now transforming into, into a unified multinational platform. Stretching from the Americas, across Europe and the Middle east to the Asia Pacific region, the platform has brought together 25,000 professionals from almost 20 firms worldwide to deliver aligned accounting, advisory and tax services along with acquisitions. A shift like this requires governance, clarity, operating model alignment, and cultural discipline at scale. Joining me today is Jim Pico, CEO of Grant Thornton Advisors and the leader of its new multinational platform. Jim has spent more than 20 years inside the firm and is now leading this transformation with a focus on integration, quality and long term durability. Today we're going to explore what it takes to scale globally and do it right, and what enterprise leaders, especially CFOs, can learn from that journey. Jim, welcome to the show.

Jim Pico: Thank you, Melissa. It's great to be here today.

Melissa Howitzen: Grant Thornton, it's a company that so many people know and, uh, you've been around for, I think it's 100 years or so and you're undergoing a pretty big transformation. Can you tell us a bit about what's happening today at Grand Thornton and how does it look different from maybe how things looked a couple years ago?

Jim Pico: That's a great question. I'm so excited to tell the story. Um, we are 100-year-old firm. That's true. Um, there's been a lot of evolution over that 100 years. And you know, if, if I go back, you know, just even five years ago, what we were experiencing were actually all positive things. Um, the firm was growing, um, our partners were happy, our people were happy. But you know, as I kind of sat back, I just kept asking myself the same question, which is, there's something not right here. What, what is not right? And you know, upon reflection, when the leadership team looked at the governance model, what we found that as an old line partnership, we were slow in decision making, we were a very risk averse firm. And that really, um, started to come into fold as some of our competitors were becoming more active in the M and A market. And prior to our transaction in mid 24, when we took on PE money from New Mountain Capital. In the previous six years, we had done just one acquisition. And while our organic growth was top quartile, our overall growth wasn't because we didn't have that inorganic engine. And there were a number of reasons for it. Our partnership model was 100% pass through model. So there was a focus on short term earnings and there was a risk aversion to not do deals that could be dilutive to earnings. And that held us back. And so we really looked at all the positives and said, how could we be even better, um, and what are the things that we need to do? And it became very apparent that we needed to change the governance structure in the firm and get away from the old style partnership and move into a new corporate structure that enabled us to make decisions quicker, have a better use of capital. And that's when we went through a process and brought in New Mountain Capital. And it has, you know, paid off immensely. We have engaged in a very significant transformation and we've experienced a tremendous amount of growth. In 2025 alone, we did 15 acquisitions. We took our top line revenue from just north of 2 billion, 2.1 billion, 2.2 billion, um, to 4 billion. And this year, with what we're experiencing from an organic growth perspective, as well as what we have on tap inorganically, um, we expect that on a pro forma basis we'll be north of 5 billion by the time we get to the end of 26. It's not just about Grant Thornton firms, but the acquisition strategy is really twofold. It's to go broader and deeper with the services that we provide and then go wider with our solution set where we have tangential brand permission. So a couple of examples. Last year we acquired a firm called Saks, which provide commercial due diligence. Um, we didn't provide that service, but it fits really nicely into our transactions vertical. And it's a business of scale, so we're not interested in buying revenue just to buy revenue, but we're interested in scaling our business. And though it's based in the US those services can be driven throughout the entire platform on a global basis. And same thing with a company called Oxus, which is a managed services business. And we were not in that business, but that ties in really nicely to our brand. Um, and that's allowed us to expand services. And again, it's, even though that firm is based actually in South Florida, they have nearshore, um, delivery capability in Costa Rica and Colombia. And, and we can drive that through the platform as well. And I think it's important to note you may hear me speak of the network and the platform. The network is the affiliation of all the Grant Thornton firms around the world. And if you think of it as a franchise, um, each of the country Grant Thorntons, if you will, own the country. So when we say own the country, they own the rights to that territory. So before we owned Grant Thorne in Ireland, for instance, only Grant Thorne Ireland could do business in Ireland. Now there's collaboration agreements, but the US firm or the German firm couldn't decide. I just want to go into Ireland and do work there. So you had territory rights. And There are about 140 firms in the Grant Thornton network. You'll hear me. Ah, and just think about it as a McDonald's franchise, if you will, that that's probably not giving it, uh, you know, the, the, the appropriate characterization. Um, but when you hear me refer to the platform, these are all the firms that are commonly owned by Grant Thorton Advisors, which, you know, we're up to about 20 territories. We have no desire to acquire every firm within the GT network, but we're certainly focused on those firms where we have client alignment. So where we've got cross border clients and they're operating in those territories where we have industry alignment and where we see outsized growth. Um, and those are really the characteristics of all the acquisitions that we've done, both domestically as well as internationally.

Melissa Howitzen: Many of our listeners would be very familiar with how the firms operate, but some may not. And so previously you were operating more as a network of firms. You talk about a platform now, what's really changed from how it used to be to how you're operating today? Obviously you have more parts of the business, there's more organizations, more territories. But at the core of how you're operating, what has fundamentally shifted there?

Jim Pico: I'll give you a couple of great examples, you know, uh, and I'll take a step back and say, I think professional services firms, whether they're accounting firms, consulting firms, law firms, are actually not very good at differentiating in the market. And much of that is, you know, we're victims at times of our own circumstance. Much of our work is driven from the compliance nature of our work. In fact, more than 50% of the work at Grant Thornton is compliance related. Um, but I'm a big believer in differentiation. And one of the things that can really differentiate us is by bringing us together on a single platform, it allows us to move with speed and agility that frankly, other firms just can't do. I can give you a recent example. Um, we were competing for a very significant engagement. It was Grant Thornton and four of our larger competitors. And the client came back to us when they selected us, and they said Grant Thorn was the most aligned. And you were able to respond to us faster than anyone else, and that's why we selected you. And that's really what it is all about. Because what clients never really saw behind the scenes, if we were doing a engagement, uh, with company or country A, B and C, there was always this behind the, uh, backroom negotiation of who's going to do the work, how are we going to price the work? And that takes time. We get to the right answer, but it takes time, and time is a differentiator. Clearly, in this situation, it was by having the firms together, we have complete alignment operationally, and there is actually complete financial alignment because all the partners in the various territories own equity at the same level in the firm. And in fact, one thing that I'm very, very proud of and I think is a huge differentiator from a talent perspective is we're driving equity opportunity down to our staff level, people who are our most outstanding performers. So it's not just partners who have equity exposure now. Our highest performing managers, senior managers, directors, also have equity in the firm. And I think that's great. From one, a talent attraction perspective, it kind of puts our people in the right mindset. It gives them a taste of what it is to be an equity owner as they accumulate more shares over their career and then ultimately, you know, become partners in the firm. I think that's just a huge talent attractor, and we're seeing that. And really, a testament to all that is, if you look at our recent attrition numbers, our recent attrition numbers are down quite a bit over the last 24 months. People really like working at Granthorne. They're not leaving.

Melissa Howitzen: I can tell that you're excited. Your employees must be excited. And I'm guessing your clients are, too. What does this mean for your clients?

Jim Pico: Well, scale matters. Scale, um, matters because, you know, two things as we grow larger, you know, you may have heard or seen, we made an announcement. We're investing a billion dollars in AI and technology over the next few years. That creates, um, again, another point of differentiation, because now we can go to clients with broader insights, more value add. When we marry up the AI and the data, I think the. The one misconception out in the market is that, you know, AI in and of itself is going to change everything. And I would proffer that it's not about the AI and the tech, it's about the marriage of AI and the tech to your data set. The data is what truly is going to be the differentiator. And with 100 years of history, and by no means am I suggesting that we have data that's 100 years old. We probably do somewhere. Um, but we have a very rich, broad data set that allow us to drive insights that we wouldn't be able to drive in the past and bring more value add to our client. And so the client experience is better, the people experience, and this is a people business, our people's experience is better because now some of the lower level work, um, that maybe was outsourced is now being taken over by tech. And it allows our people to really focus on what matters to our clients, which are, uh, outcomes. And so it's a very outcome based client delivery model that allows our people to focus on more areas where they can help our clients with predictive analytics and things like that. So we're able to identify some things before they even happen. And that's the true value add for our clients.

Melissa Howitzen: And what would be uh, a tangible example of that? Obviously you can't name a client, but what would be just an example of how that would show up for the client?

Jim Pico: We can look at it from an audit perspective, we can look at it from an advisory or a tax perspective. We can identify without getting into too much detail, we can see trends in the business based on the data set that maybe the clients aren't actually looking at just yet because they're not going deep enough. And then we can marry that up to uh, you know, on an anonymized basis what's going on in the industry based on clients and make suggestion to clients on things they ought to have. Top of mind from a strategic perspective, potentially.

Melissa Howitzen: So you've invested a lot in M and A technology and people. How are those things now showing up in the business and how is it making the business look different when you're out, uh, there tendering for, for new business or delivering your services to your clients?

Jim Pico: You know, if we take a step back, what it's really done is it's driven two things. One, it enables our delivery, so it's a delivery enabler to increase quality. And quality is foundational to everything that we do at Grant Thornton. After all, we're a trust based business and that's never going to go away. So it's helping us improve our quality. It's, you know, helping us Be faster. It's helping us be more efficient, more accurate. Those are all great things. On the client side. Also on the client side, but not from a delivery perspective. It's allowed us to create new products. So we just built out a whole new AI and data vertical in the fourth quarter of 2025 to be client serving. So the technology is not just about internal delivery, but it's about how we serve our clients. So we are advising clients on AI governance, AI strategy, AI assessments, and we're also working now with partners to do AI implementation. Um, that piece of the puzzle is not quite commercialized and out there yet. So it's really focused on governance assessments and strategy. And that business, as you could imagine, is booming right now. Um, we can't keep up with the demand there. We're hiring more and more people in that vertical. So when I look at AI and tech, um, contrary to what the market might suggest, that somehow accounting firms are going to go away and everything's going to be mechanized, uh, I don't believe that's going to happen one bit. I actually look at AI and tech as a net positive opportunity for our firm because we can drive more on the client side and we can drive through our delivery side with the use of our rich data set, drive more insights that will actually lead to additional revenue. And so net net. I think it's a positive, um, there's no question that it is going to drive efficiency. And I also think it's very positive for our, uh, people because now it really allows them to use business judgment and really focus on outcomes for clients. So I think that AI is absolutely going to change the industry. I think it is expensive to invest in, so scale matters. If you don't have scale and can't make the investment, that's going to be tough. Um, and I think that you'll probably see some consolidation in the lower levels of the market. Um, but I think it uniquely positions Grant Thornton with what we're doing on a global basis with M and A and the sort of growth that we're driving.

Melissa Howitzen: You had been part of a company that's been around for 100 years, and there's something that made you decide just about two years ago that it was time to change and be, uh, and be very brave and bold and look at a new model for the business. What is it about that moment that helped make you make this decision?

Jim Pico: Well, um, although I've been at the firm for 20 years now, and I've had various leadership roles, uh, I'm not a Core accountant. Uh, my background is actually in investment banking. And then I made a switch mid career into consulting and I joined Grant Thornton in 2006 in the consulting practice. And I'm actually the first non CPA to lead our firm, which I'm, I'm very proud of. But with that comes a little bit of different thinking. And you know, some might suggest, you know, we're a regulated business, um, and because that we're a regulated business, we're protected from competition. But I would say I, I think that's actually wrong. I mean sure there's, there's some protection, but you have to be willing to change. And you know, as I said, if our old governance structure was risk averse, I think it was not focused on long term value creation. And you know, every role and responsibility I've had throughout my career has been about value creation. And I saw opportunity for us to create greater value by creating a sharp focus and really putting the client at the center. The client was always at the center, but it was, what more can we do for our clients and how do we do it? And although the new journey with the investment started almost two years ago, this has been five or six years in the making, um, because we were already moving away from um, sort of the old lifestyle type partnership to a more performance driven organization prior to the investment. And we were also creating focus around what we wanted to do. We divested a business back in um, 2022, which was our government advisory practice that wasn't core to our business. It was a nice business to have, but strategically it didn't fit. And so we started to really think about long term value creation and focus so that we would be in a better position to make investment in technology, in our people and M, M and A, to really drive things forward. Because the reality was we were slipping in the rankings. It's not like we were slipping so far and we're not managing the firm for rankings, but it does tell you something when there's a lot of M and A going on with our competitors and they're creating scale and moving ahead of us when we were ahead of them in the past. So that was really the issue. And it was back to the original question was are we really protecting the last hundred or are we looking forward to, to actually blaze a new trail? And I, um, don't think protection mode was the right way to go. And so we are about blazing a new trail, creating differentiation for our clients and people, having quality and trust at the foundation because that's never going to change and really drive growth that way. And with the world becoming more global, we felt that by having more control where our clients do business on a global basis and create that operational and financial alignment, that that would put us in a much better position to actually begin to take more market share on a global basis. And, you know, here we are, 21 months in. I can say all those things are happening. We see it, our win rates are up. Um, I give you a great example. You know, I was with a client a month ago, and we had a large engagement that was pending with them in the US and, you know, that was the purpose of the meeting. And sometimes I even fall into the trap on focusing on, you know, the engagement at hand. We were going in there to try to close that deal, and, you know, we started the conversations, great conversation, we talked about the engagement. Um, I think that they're still pending a decision. I think we're going to get it. But really what came out of that conversation was the real opportunity for us was in Switzerland and Belfast. And we had closed the purchase of Switzerland in, uh, the fourth quarter of 2025, and we had Belfast as part of our acquisition of Ireland. And so that conversation never happens four years ago. Now it's happening. And not only are we able to serve the client here in the US but we're able to satisfy them with our global footprint. And in that case, and it's not every case, we happen to be in both of those markets aligned to our platform.

Melissa Howitzen: So this had to be a huge change for you, because you said you'd done maybe one acquisition in a number of years, and all of a sudden you're doing this high volume of them in under two years. A lot of times acquisitions, you know, it's hard to get it done. But that's just the beginning, actually. Integrating it and having it work well for the business is really the tough stuff. Tell us a bit about what that journey has been like, and what have you learned about going through that integration process?

Jim Pico: Yeah, that's a fantastic question. And it's one that's near and dear to me because, uh, as a deal guy, and maybe that's a fair or unfair characterization of myself, I love doing the deals, but the value is not in doing the deals. The value is truly in the integration. And I would say, you know, when you do these transactions, what's most important is to create alignment. You have to have alignment with the management teams in order to have a successful integration. You also have to have cultural alignment. And cultural alignment can mean different things to different people that. But the way we look at culture is there's a global philosophy around culture. But what we're not trying to do is drive for instance, the US culture into every other country that joins our platform. We need to be respectful of the local culture and the local customs, but with a broad overlay around collaboration, around leadership, around accountability, around, around responsibility and excellence and again, quality at the foundation. But at the same time, be respectful. If there's certain places in Europe that take the last two weeks off in August, um, you're not going to drive change during that period of time. You're not going to try to say, well, you can't do that. No, you have to adapt. And there has to be a level of patience and that level of respect has to be frankly respected. For lack of a better way to describe it. It's about creating alignment right from the start, um, respecting the local cultures, but at the same time have a broad overlay, uh, of what it means. This does not mean, and I will emphasize this, this is not a billboard in the office that says collaboration, leadership, excellence, agility, respect and responsibility. I don't care for that. I'm not a pictures person up on the wall. Uh, I'm not a 50 page glossy book. I'm about outcomes. And the way you're really going to drive culture is by your behaviors every day. What are your behaviors? And if somebody's not behaving the right way, you would never embarrass them in the meeting, but you'd pull them over to the side and say, are you really living our culture? Is that what's really happening? And that is what creates successful integration. All the other stuff then comes because if you don't have the alignment and you don't have the, if you don't have the philosophical alignment with the leadership teams and you don't have the culture, the integrating the ERP and the systems, uh, that doesn't matter because at the end of the day what you really want is you want to drive a consistent go to market message. You want people collaborating, go to market, you want to operationalize it. The other stuff is just stuff. ERP and resource management systems. That's not what drives the business. It's core, it's foundational, of course, but uh, it's really about the behaviors you bring.

Melissa Howitzen: And let's talk a bit about that because you talked about needing to respect what the local and allowing there to be some flexibility. But you also need at certain points consistency across the organization. How do you think about the right way to strike that balance, balance between that, uh, flexibility but that need for consistency.

Jim Pico: At times it's difficult, um, because you do have to have balance and there will be decisions made and there have been decisions made that veer away from what might have been the case in a local market. But if you demonstrate what the upside is and you demonstrate the opportunity, people come along, you're going to be on this system in 90 days. And here's the roadmap, like that's a failing opportunity or it's just, it's not going to work. But if you kind of lay out why the change is necessary, what the upside is, how it's going to make life easier, how it's going to allow better collaboration, then you get people on board and that's part of the over communication. One of the things that we've done that I am, um, really, really proud of and it's, you know, frankly it's my own brand I think, is we have been extremely transparent with our people. And when I was appointed CEO, one of the first things that I did was to start what we call ask us anything sessions, not scripted. Um, we were in Houston actually two weeks ago, meeting with our teammates in Houston and we did two sessions. We did one with partners and then we did another one with partners and our staff. And we literally go into a room and you know, it's two hours. Ask us anything non scripted and we will give you the answer. Sometimes people ask silly questions, um, that might not, you know, fall along the lines of some of our cultural norms around respect. They might ask, you know, why did somebody leave the firm? We don't go down that road. But if they ask questions around strategy, around compensation, we're extremely transparent. And that really is what goes toward building trust. We have a trust based business with our clients, but we also need to build trust with our staff. One of the things that we did, which I think is unusual in our market, is we went to a fully transparent grid system for compensation for a staff last year. So if you're an associate, you can see what your compensation will look like over time as you move through the various levels. Now those grids will be adjusted every year for COLA adjustments, etc. But you can see what the difference is. You can see like this year, if I were a senior manager, this is the data point that I'd have. And we've done the same thing when it comes to bonuses, assuming we make budget. If you're rated a platinum, your bonus is X. If you're Rated A silver. Your bonus is Y. And that has gone a long way because it's very transparent. It's what our branding is about. It's what my personal branding is about. It's about straight talk and transparency. And our, uh, people really like it. Now for the first week or so, you know, folks, I think there was a little bit of consternation of, like, well, wait a minute. You know, nobody really told me what platinum meant in the past. Now you're saying platinum is this and gold is that. I'm a silver, and I really thought I was fantastic, so I should be a platinum. Because we all think we're better than we are. But once, once we got past that and took about a week or ten days, uh, you know, everybody really, really likes this approach.

Melissa Howitzen: A culture of transparency is really important, and I can tell that you're passionate about it. It's also something that's difficult to scale. How have you been able to maintain that transparency while you've been experiencing so much global growth?

Jim Pico: No doubt it's really core to who we are. Um, and that's important because, look, as we've transformed our business, I think the one thing it's fair to say is our platform is not for everyone. And we know that and we understand that. And, you know, there will be people who self select out and that's okay. And, you know, maybe we can help you. The best, uh, the best outcome for us is, you know, people decide they want to go to a client. We've had several people leave the firm, m go to clients and actually give us business and give us more business. So, you know what the goal really is? It's about developing our people to be the best that they can be. You know, fill their toolbox with the tools that they can be successful outside of Grant Thornton as well as inside of Grant Thornton. Because, look, there's always some level of attrition. People are always going to leave. Um, I'd love to think that every associate we hire from undergrad is going to be a partner, but the pyramid just doesn't work that way. And we know that. But what is great is that when I see somebody who left the firm five years ago and now they're the director of finance or the director of FP&A and a client, and they're giving us work, we've done something right.

Melissa Howitzen: And so, on that topic of culture, what do you do to sense when there's friction that's coming in the culture? Whether it's the culture broadly or whether it's the culture as you're trying to work through integrating one of these newly acquired firms within, uh, the organization. How do you know that? There's issues.

Jim Pico: We have, you know, periodic meetings with our integration management office, with our functional leaders. Um, and look, it's never perfect. Things come up. Um, you know, we're dealing with a couple of things actually today that came up around, you know, system selection. You know, we'll get through that. But that's why the communication is so important, because if those things linger, then that just pulls everyone down and you come to a grinding halt. We've created a platform where people's voices can be heard and we're driving it down to the lower levels of the firm. This is not about the C suite in an ivory tower calling shots. It's about creating alignment throughout the organization. And we're not always going to get it right. There are going to be sometimes when we get it wrong and we have to shift. And that's where the agility in one of our core behaviors comes in, the willingness to shift. And we've shown willingness to shift. Now we're not going to shift at every turn. There are some things that we're going to just have to work through it together, as painful as it may be. But there are other things where we'll shift. Uh, I'll give a great example related to an integration with Ireland. It was our very first acquisition and we were in the middle of a, uh, selection process for a global resource management tool. And we had picked a, ah, software vendor and we were starting to go down that road. And when we acquired Ireland, um, they actually had a different vendor. And as we worked through our differences and functionality and what we wanted for the future, what we realized, even though Ireland was a much smaller firm than the US Is that the system they had was superior to the system that we were going to, uh, implement. And so we were already down the road and we made the decision to pull the plug and adopt a system that they were using in Ireland. And that really is what it is about. It is about best practices. It's about best athlete. Know we have, you know, various people through the acquisitions that have taken on leadership roles within the organization from firms that we've acquired, whether they be in the Cayman Islands or in Ireland or in other areas around the world. So it is a best athlete, it is a best systems approach. And you have to be willing to have the, the ability to change and the agility to change on the fly. And we did that right out of the box. So we're certainly not trying, um, to colonize the world the way the US does things, but we're really looking at best practices and we're really about respecting people and cultures. But again, with that broader philosophical overlay.

Melissa Howitzen: And so let's talk about leadership change. Making the decision to move away from a traditional partnership model that everybody understood, it's been happening for 100 years, towards this more unified platform that had to involve a lot of leadership changes. And you probably had to change your own leadership style somewhat as well. So tell me a bit about that.

Jim Pico: I would say my own style was I've become more patient. Some of my colleagues might differ, but, um, I have become more patient. I've always listened, but, you know, I've become more patient. I think you've got to take in a lot of, um, the feedback. You have to go and seek it. Because sometimes, you know, people aren't willing to provide feedback because of fear, um, especially when the feedback is not positive. That's the one thing I hate about this job. Nobody ever tells me I'm doing anything wrong. It's kind of tough to be in this seat. So you really do need to over communicate with people and really garner feedback. And that's one of the reasons why we decided to put in the ask us anything segments in our meetings. Because that gives us an opportunity to get feedback. Getting as much feedback as you can over communicating. And that's gotta be balanced with patience because some people are gonna act at a certain speed and others aren't. The other thing that I find is difficult is as a leadership team, we have access to a lot more information than other people have. And so when we make a decision, sometimes we can't fully explain why we're making that decision because confidentiality and other reasons, uh, and that's frustrating to me because I love being transparent. I'm an open book. But at the same time, right, you have to protect confidentiality and you can't share everything. So you know when, when people start complaining because you made X decision, but you know that it's the right decision because you have all the data that they may not, and you can't share that data. That's something that is very near and dear to me, um, in the sense that I'd love to do that, but I know I can't. And that's what makes leadership hard.

Melissa Howitzen: I totally identify with what you're saying. I think of some recent examples that we've had at Vena. We were in the middle of acquiring a company, but of course you have confidentiality, regulatory restrictions, and so you're starting to make decisions because you know a transaction might be coming. Employees may not quite understand why you're giving the answers you are or why some of the decisions are being made. And you can't let them know. But you would love to let them know because it would make it so much easier. It's a really fine line to be balancing because at the end of the day, you know it's going to be good for the organization. But you got to find a way to get there while balancing both sides of being as transparent as you can, but maintaining the confidentiality because you have to. One final question for you. If you could share just one piece of advice to other leaders who are considering making a major transformational move, what would it be?

Jim Pico: Don't hold back, because being incremental is not going to make you a market leader. You have to truly make decisions that are going to transform your business and understand that it's not going to be a straight lineup. It is difficult. Change management is difficult. And I think, you know, if you have the right plan in place, you over communicate, balance that with some patients, but stay true to the journey. Um, you'll be tremendously successful. Being incremental has not helped us the way true transformation has. So I would lean in hard and transform your business because the opportunity is out there and it's huge.

Melissa Howitzen: Amazing advice. Jim. Thank you so much for joining me today. Now, whenever we do have guests on the show, we do have two rapid fire questions that we like to ask. So are you ready?

Jim Pico: I'm ready.

Melissa Howitzen: All right, the first one, what is the hallmark of a mature finance organization in terms of how they operate?

Jim Pico: Um, standardization, standard processes and standardization.

Melissa Howitzen: Great advice. And my second question is, what is a book? It can be personal or professional that has had a lasting impact on you.

Jim Pico: That's easy. Um, Patrick, uh, Lancione, Uh, Five Temptations of a CEO. Um, I tell my own kids who range in age of 18 to 27. I have four children. Read the book. I know you're not a CEO yet, but the lessons there can be applied to any level within an organization. I love that book. I can read that book over and over. It's an easy read. It's an older book. It was probably published more than 20 years ago. Um, but the lessons in that book are excellent for leadership.

Melissa Howitzen: Excellent. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. And again, thank you for joining me today.

Jim Pico: Thank you so much. It was great to be here.

Melissa Howitzen: If you've enjoyed this episode. We'd love your support. Follow the show and leave us a rating or review or on Apple podcasts or Spotify. It's one of the best ways to help more finance professionals discover the show. For the CFO show, I'm Melissa Howitzen. Until next time,