This series is produced on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. Pemba respectfully acknowledges traditional custodians throughout Australia. We recognise their continuing connections to country and culture and we pay our respects to elders and leaders past and present.
Welcome to View to the Summit. I’m Mark Bryan, a Managing Director at Pemba Capital and I’m delighted to be your host. At Pemba we partner with high growth entrepreneurial businesses across sectors like tech, healthcare, education, financial services and business services.
We see ourselves as the Sherpas, supporting founders and management teams on their journey to the top. On View to the Summit we speak with founders, CEOs, industry leaders who have scaled businesses, navigated change and built enduring cultures. Today’s guest is a brilliant example of all three.
We’re absolutely thrilled today to welcome Emily Pritchard, CEO of Acis Group to the podcast. Acis is a legal tech platform that provides structuring and compliance services to thousands of accounting and legal firms across Australia. Under Emily’s leadership it’s grown rapidly while maintaining the highest standards of customer care.
Emily’s journey is a fascinating one. She’s transitioned from Chief Legal Officer to COO and now CEO, taking over from the founder of a 35-year-old business. She’s not only upheld the legacy of Acis, but she’s also reimagined its future.
Emily, welcome to View to the Summit, it’s great to have you with us.
[Emily Pritchard] (1:30 – 1:32)
Thanks Mark, it’s great to be here chatting with you today.
[Mark Bryan] (1:33 – 1:42)
So Emily, let’s start at the beginning. Can you tell us about your career journey, how you ended up leading a proprietary tech and services business and what’s driven you along the way?
[Emily Pritchard] (1:43 – 3:32)
Sure, I think it’s safe to say Mark, that it wasn’t an intentional planned career journey to end up in a proprietary tech and services business. So I guess it’s true what they say about it being just as much about the journey as the destination. I guess I was one of those somewhat cliched high school graduates.
I was good at debating and public speaking. I enjoyed humanities and English and so I naturally chose to study law. After graduating university, I started work at a commercial law firm and gained experience across probably quite a broad range of practice areas, but ultimately decided to travel and so headed to Tokyo where I worked initially as an English speaking kindergarten teacher and then once I’d settled in and kind of gained some confidence in a foreign country, I landed working for Goldman Sachs as part of their middle office interest rate swaps documentation team, which when I look back now is probably remarkably similar to some of the documentation and processes that we engage with at Acis.
After some time abroad though, I ultimately landed back in Brisbane, my hometown, looking for the next challenge and probably more accurately, I guess, looking for an entry point back into the Brisbane market, which didn’t really cater, I guess, for Asian interest rate swaps experience. And so I landed at Acis late 2015, almost 10 years ago now. I started as a member of the legal team before leading the legal team and then the operations of the business and ultimately becoming CEO, which is how I’ve landed here chatting with you today.
In terms of what’s driven me along the way, it’s probably always been about having the next goal in sight, never about the ultimate destination as such. That was probably always a bit too far away for the way my mind works, but more about having that next accomplishment or that next box to tick, having that identified and then working through the challenges to achieve it and tick it off.
[Mark Bryan] (3:33 – 3:37)
And you’ve lived in quite a few different countries as well through your travels, I think.
[Emily Pritchard] (3:37 – 3:49)
Yeah. So I lived in Australia, obviously where I was born and bred, spent about a decade in Asia, in both Tokyo and Hong Kong, small stint at home for the GFC and then back to Hong Kong for a few more years before ultimately settling back down in Brisbane.
[Mark Bryan] (3:49 – 4:05)
Settling back into Queenstown. So Emily, you’ve transitioned from chief legal officer to COO and now CEO. That’s a big shift in mindset and responsibility.
What have you learned at each stage and how has that shaped your leadership style today?
[Emily Pritchard] (4:07 – 7:17)
Yeah, it certainly has been a journey, transitioning through those roles and not without its challenges, but my leadership style today has very much been shaped by those transitions and that path that I took, I guess, if you like, to get there. As chief legal officer, as you would imagine, it’s all about the technical detail, the risk and the nuance piece. And of course, underpinning that with old school customer service and service to the business.
And that’s a really important learning, I think, for a chief legal officer, that rarely the law is black and white. So it’s important to be practical and deliver those legal outcomes, but do it in a simplified manner. And I guess the caveat to that is not overly simplified.
You still need to sufficiently address the issues that you are addressing. And so that’s an art form in itself. I think the other thing that I probably learned or was really highlighted for me when I was chief legal officer was the importance of asking the right questions.
And that has absolutely stayed with me through to the role that I hold today at Acis. I’m constantly kind of saying to myself, am I asking the right questions that give me sufficient detail to make the right decisions for this business? So in terms of learnings from my stage as chief legal officer, be technically thorough and, you know, know your stuff, but be clear and concise and proactive, ask the right questions.
And then I moved into COO and that really shifted my focus from advising to executing. And whilst I’d already had kind of somewhat experience being involved in operationalizing initiatives in my role as chief legal officer, that transition to CEO really focused me in on how strategy translates to systems, processes, and people. That kind of zoom out, if you like, that happened in this role was really critical.
So kind of pulling myself right back and looking at these things across the entire business, rather than just within the legal function and really driving that cross-functional collaboration and the people leadership that kind of allows this to happen. So my learnings from that stage were probably more about taking in the whole picture, that zoom out and embracing the people leadership and leading through others that came about through that time. And now as CEO, it’s more about the vision and the strategy and alignment and culture.
It’s about setting direction, but also crucially really creating the conditions where others can strive. So the biggest mindset shift has probably unsurprisingly been moving from being a problem solver myself to being a builder of teams who solve problems and creating that culture that allows them to best do that. I don’t have all the right answers and nor should I, but I have to ask the right questions, hire the right people and create the clarity to allow them to do their jobs.
So my leadership style today is probably very much shaped by that transition I’ve taken and progression I’ve taken through from chief legal officer to COO to CEO. And I guess my leadership style today, when I really think about it, brings together the most key learnings from each stage of that journey, asking the right questions, fostering that cross-functional collaboration, providing clarity that’s so important for teams in terms of vision and strategy, and then creating that culture for them to succeed.
[Mark Bryan] (7:18 – 7:39)
Emily, that was great. Thanks a lot for those insights. Now, it’s interesting taking over from a founder, especially one that’s been at the helm for almost 35 years, is never easy, I would imagine.
Matt Kneebling, the founder, is a very hard act to follow. Matt was both immensely successful, but also a great guy from a cultural standpoint. How did you approach the transition?
[Emily Pritchard] (7:40 – 7:50)
Great question. Let’s be clear from the outset here, Mark, to say that Matt was immensely successful and a great guy from a cultural standpoint is a huge understatement.
[Mark Bryan] (7:50 – 7:50)
Yeah.
[Emily Pritchard] (7:51 – 10:36)
What he built at Acis and the respect that he has across the industry as a result are truly remarkable. So I think it’s fair to say that being conscious of the huge shoes that I was stepping into underpinned a lot of my approach to the transition. But Matt and I were both very practical about it.
Whilst we had talked about it for some time, it was incredibly important to me that it happened on his terms, in line with his preferred timing, subject obviously to the board’s agreement and approval. But that side of things was completely with him. Beyond that though, he gave me the space to plan what the transition needed to practically look like and what changes, I guess, I wanted to and needed to make to the team as a result.
And that allowed me to identify the things, firstly, that I really wanted to protect about the business. So it’s culture, it’s deeply embedded commitment to client service, but also to identify the things that I might like to do differently or the things that I might need to be more conscious of. For example, Matt and I had always joked that I was the bad cop to his good cop.
Spoiler alert is probably we were both good cops, but I was just a firmer version, but we’d always, always joked about that. And so that’s something that I wanted to be really conscious about as I transitioned into the role and whether that was something I wanted to retain or vary. And I think the other key thing for the transition being successful was Matt and I always had a laugh together and we’re both really committed to maintaining that underlying personal relationship and respect.
And that continued on throughout the transition. And that’s something probably that’s very key to his and my relationship, but also the relationship that I have with my fellow executives today. And one that I really try to continue within the entire Acis business.
I mean, the reality is we have to have hard conversations. We won’t always agree and I don’t think we should, but if we can build into those moments of us being together in our professional relationships, you know, genuine social interaction, having a laugh, being respectful of each other and everything we bring personally to the roles, then I think that creates a really strong foundation for healthy professional tension. And so when those tensions do arise, you can progress them without ego in the room and get to the best outcomes for the business as quickly as possible.
So that’s been really key and something I learned from Matt, but I’m proud to continue on. But to get back to the question, I guess, if I was in a position to give advice to anyone taking on a similar transition, it’d be two key things. One is to respect and protect what you’re being trusted to take over.
And two is have confidence in also your own ability to walk your own path as you take that over. And that’s a real balancing act. One that I think you have to be kind to yourself about, you have to be fluid with and adjust it day by day as appropriate and in the best interest of the business.
[Mark Bryan] (10:37 – 10:58)
That’s great. Yeah, I love those real sage words of advice there. Be kind to yourself.
That’s a really important one. Yeah, that was excellent. Thanks, Emily.
And maybe as an extension of that, building culture is not easy. Let’s talk about culture. How have you created a culture that balances the rigour of legal compliance with the pace and ambition of a growth business?
[Emily Pritchard] (10:59 – 13:18)
Great question. Ultimately, ACIS is a tech-led services business. We pride ourselves on delivering quality, innovative products through the perfect blend of tech and humans.
And it’s the real intersection of those things, which are all kind of clearly articulated, I guess, if you like, in our corporate values. But it’s the living of them and the sweet spot of balancing them that actually creates that balance, if you like, that you talk about between legal compliance and the pace and ambition of a growth business. The rigour of legal compliance, as you mentioned, that’s our quality products, that is not negotiable.
The ACIS business’s reputation and credibility hinges on this. This is an absolute must. And our team live and breed that culture of we are the leading innovative provider of these quality products in the market, and we cannot in any way jeopardize that.
But then you overlay the pace of a growth business that you mentioned, and that’s our people and our processes. So it’s our innovation, it’s our perfect blend of tech and humans, and that’s constantly evolving to make sure we maintain what that perfect blend looks like. ACIS started as a purely paper-based company in the late 80s, servicing at the time only the Queensland company and corporation market.
So it’s been through a lot of tech iterations, if you like, already. And we appreciate as a team that we are trusted to continue to innovate as we do that, but without ever jeopardizing those quality products that we deliver. And so that kind of means that we remind ourselves constantly of our corporate values around innovation and being client-centric, so always having that client service.
But the third thing that you mentioned, and that’s the ambition of a growth business, that’s more about balancing in the people and the culture and the teamwork. And I am fiercely protective of the ACIS culture. I’m really proud of our diversity and the varying attributes and qualities that every demographic across our team brings.
And our culture is really the core foundation from which everything else can naturally be achieved. A committed team who are aligned with the clarity of strategy, that genuine sense of value, they can achieve incredible things. And I think when we talk about the things that I was conscious of respecting and protecting when that transitioned out, the culture of the ACIS business is absolutely one of them.
[Mark Bryan] (13:18 – 13:29)
Brilliant. Very good. And the business obviously does a lot of community work and giving back.
You’ve just come off the back of a challenge, a three-day challenge around the Sudsy challenge. Tell us about that one.
[Emily Pritchard] (13:29 – 14:29)
Yeah, absolutely. ACIS is really proud to have a corporate partnership in alignment with Orange Sky, who do incredible work in terms of raising both funds and awareness and services for our homeless friends on the street doing it tough. We all know through the cost of living crisis that that obviously has increased the demand for the amazing work that Orange Sky do.
They’re Brisbane-based, not far from ACIS headquarters. They do great work. They align with a lot of the corporate values that we at ACIS have.
And so they’re kind of a natural partnership for us to have. Their Sudsy challenge runs every year. The whole idea behind it is that those participating wear the same outfit for three days and they raise funds and awareness while they’re doing it to contribute to Orange Sky’s efforts.
And so the ACIS team’s just participated for our third year in a row. And we’re also very proud that in lieu of Christmas gifts to our clients, we now also donate Orange Sky at the end of each year. And we’re really appreciative of our client base who are so supportive of us taking that action.
[Mark Bryan] (14:29 – 14:32)
Yeah, it’s a great cause. Well done to you and the team for doing that.
[Emily Pritchard] (14:32 – 14:33)
Thank you.
[Mark Bryan] (14:33 – 14:58)
So thinking about the markets that you service, and we understand the accounting market. Well, we were lucky to have Peter Angelini, the CEO of Stanards on recently, our accounting partner company. You work obviously with over a thousand accounting firms.
They’re a group that are known for being cautious and sometimes hard to win over. So what’s your approach to building trust in such a conservative and detail-orientated market?
[Emily Pritchard] (14:59 – 16:37)
Yeah, I think it’s fair given we’re in a B2B market to say that I can understand why they’re hard to win over. They’re cautious. They’re delivering a service and a product to their clients.
So they need to, first and foremost, make sure that’s fit for purpose. And so they hold that high standard to us in being one of their trusted providers. And we don’t, we don’t take that lightly.
But I think there’s probably a twofold approach and access to being the trusted providers for accountants. One is that quality product piece. It’s easy to sell something when you’ve got a good product.
And so we invest heavily in making sure that our products are quality. They’re fit for purpose. We innovate them.
We invest in a legal team internally to make sure we are across everything in terms of legislative change, case law, government policy, for example. We take that burden off our accounting clients so that they don’t need to worry about it and they can trust in us in delivering it. So that, that quality product piece is key.
Our client-centric approach is probably another key pillar to being trusted by accountants. We pride ourselves on that perfect blend of tech and humans, but ultimately that does involve human contact. And so our legal team, for example, who stay across all those things, they don’t just have the knowledge, but they’re accessible to our client base to engage with, um, uh, you know, other into the phone, on the email, whatever our clients need.
And to put it bluntly, you know, we, we don’t spruik. We just don’t, we are, we are just good at what we do. And, you know, that’s something I won’t be humble about.
And that’s not just my doing. That is an entire team’s doing. Um, but we create quality products.
We are available to our clients to assist them. And we come together as a team to do that and make sure that we’re really strongly aligned on that approach.
[Mark Bryan] (16:37 – 17:02)
Brilliant. Delivering quality products time and time again, that builds trust. Yeah.
I fully understand that. That’s great. Thanks, Emily.
Now let’s talk about growth and delivering growth. So Acis has been delivering significant growth rates in recent years, and that reflects both the quality of the service that you talked about, but also investment in the business development function at Acis. Can you talk about how the business is invested in the growth function and what’s working well at Acis?
[Emily Pritchard] (17:03 – 20:10)
Absolutely. So I think, you know, just to repeat myself without harping on, before you can invest in a growth function, you’ve got to have that quality product for them to sell. And that does make their job easier.
So I think first and foremost, you have to make sure that everything’s aligned in that sense from a quality product point of view. But then when you turn, turn your mind post that to growing, you know, a sales and marketing function so that you can scale the business. It’s about making sure you look at everything from a technical sales and marketing point of view.
And I’ll talk, talk a little bit about that, but it’s also then making sure you have the people and processes and everything ready to go as you scale to back up what’s being sold. Because the worst thing you can do when you’ve got a 35 year old business that’s got quality products and is based on, you know, its credible reputation is jeopardize that by scaling too quickly or not being ready with processes and people to scale it. In terms of the growth function specifically, we have invested in both our sales and marketing teams.
Within our sales team, we try and really simplify down what we’re focusing on to three key pillars. That’s about having a really strong and healthy pipeline for our sales team. That’s about making sure that they’re delivering on the quotas and KPIs that are set for them.
And it’s then about actually converting those clients that are one, two, fully onboarded, healthy, happy Acis clients who are going to stay with us for many years to come. So in terms of pipeline, that’s really important to make sure that the pipeline is, is healthy and strong and is maintained. So we spend a lot of regular time within the growth team about revisiting our pipeline, making sure we’re not only undertaking campaigns and events to fill it, but making sure we revisit it.
We review it, we’re realistic about what’s in it so that it genuinely does paint a picture of future opportunities for the business. And then we overlay on top of that, the conversion of that quota into Acis clients. The B2B accounting market for the products that we deliver is relatively sticky.
So you have to be able to present something to the market that is better than what an accountant is currently doing. And we make sure that we do that. But what’s important then, once they’ve made that critical decision that we don’t take lightly to move across to Acis is that they are supported and their teams are supported in onboarding into completely transitioned Acis clients, understanding everything we offer to them, understanding where our teams are to help them, understanding what other products we might be able to provide to them to help their businesses and making sure that we do that in a timeline and at a pace that is suitable for their business and we’re proud to have clients ranging from sole practitioner accountants all the way through to network enterprise national firms. And so it’s important that we tailor that onboarding process to our clients specifically. And then, like I said, it’s making sure that once they’re onboarded, they stay really happy Acis clients and making sure our team continues to stay across all the things they need to stay across, delivers quality products, delivers industry intel to our clients and make sure that we are resourced to scale appropriately.
[Mark Bryan] (20:11 – 20:28)
Makes a lot of sense. Thanks, Emily. Delivering that product obviously requires talent and a team, so you’ve built a really strong leadership team at Acis.
What do you look for when hiring senior talent and how do you ensure that new leaders align with the culture and the mission of the business?
[Emily Pritchard] (20:30 – 22:14)
I think there’s probably a really simple answer first and foremost, and that is there’s two things you need to look for when you’re hiring talent. It’s technical ability and then it’s the emotional intelligence or the cultural piece. Historically, I probably always positioned them equally when I was hiring.
And in recent years, I’ve made a very clear decision to move the priority of those two things so that the cultural alignment is first and foremost, the number one box that needs to be ticked. And if that can’t be ticked, we don’t move on in the recruitment process. The reality is that if you have the underlying, I guess, cultural alignment and emotional intelligence that you need, anything can be taught or transitioned.
And if I take for an example, someone who’s got perfect results at university and a great resume historically, but can’t work in a team environment, then they’re not going to work at Acis. And so we have to move that cultural alignment to be the number one thing we look for when we’re hiring. And I think it’s important to make sure too, in maintaining that, that you acknowledge where issues might arise quickly.
They’re not always pleasant conversations to have, but I think it’s important to understand that where there isn’t a cultural alignment, that you need to have a conversation pretty quickly to make sure that you can develop to a place where you need it to be. And so specifically in the leadership team at Acis, that looks like we check in regularly with each other. We’re talking through the issues that are existing within every business unit across the business to understand where we need to focus our attention, where we’re getting things right, but also where we can improve and do better.
And then we accept that responsibility as a leadership team. And we then empower each other to go and do what each of us need to do to bring things back to where they should be.
[Mark Bryan] (22:15 – 22:29)
So cultural alignment and then empowerment. Love it. That’s great.
Thanks, Emily. Now, Emily, we ask all our guests this, what are the three most important values or principles that guide you? And they could be either in your business life or in your personal life.
[Emily Pritchard] (22:30 – 22:37)
I think it’s being genuine, being a lifelong learner, and checking your ego at the door.
[Mark Bryan] (22:37 – 22:50)
Yeah. Yeah. I love it.
As you’re a lifelong learner in that respect, what are some of your favourite life hacks, apps or routines that help you stay sharp and balanced? Or is there a podcast or book you’d recommend to our listeners?
[Emily Pritchard] (22:51 – 23:27)
Well, I’m probably not your typical CEO in that sense, Mark. I look at those amazing CEOs who are up at 4am reading books, you know, till five, reading the papers till six and then starting their day. That’s not me.
I love reading, but ultimately I’m a bit of an annual leave binge reader. So I, you know, I need to be honest here and say I’m currently reading The Chairman’s Lounge by Joe Astin, but I was gifted that for Christmas. So I’m a slow reader when I’m not on annual leave.
In terms of life hacks though, many years ago, someone that I respected and admired deeply said to me something very simple and that was, you’ve got to want it.
[Mark Bryan] (23:27 – 23:27)
Right.
[Emily Pritchard] (23:27 – 24:05)
And that stuck with me because it doesn’t just mean you stop at nothing to get there, but it’s a really great way of re-evaluating where you’re at, what the issues might be, what you might need to change, whether you’re prepared to do it and then take the next steps to get there. And so I revisit that one fairly frequently still many years on to guide kind of what it is I need to do, how I need to prioritize, even down to things like work-life balance. You know, what is it I want?
What have I got to want bad enough today? What’s the priority got to look like? And then I think in terms of advice that I’ve had more recently that I think will stick with me just as long as that, it is check your ego at the door.
[Mark Bryan] (24:05 – 24:06)
Yeah. Yeah.
[Emily Pritchard] (24:06 – 24:07)
That’s a big one for me.
[Mark Bryan] (24:07 – 25:01)
No, that’s a really good one. Thank you very much, Emily, for joining us today. Your journey from the legal profession through to a tech CEO is inspiring.
I know our listeners will take a lot away from your insights on leadership, trust and transformation. I love listening to some of your points. The zoom out one really resonated with me.
We meet a lot of our leaders and founders who struggle actually with that zoom out. So trying to take that big picture, I think is really important. The commentary you provided around the founder transition, I think was really interesting and basing it around a personal relationship and respect.
And then, of course, your values around no ego, being genuine and being a lifelong learner. So again, Emily, congratulations on all your success in the business. Congratulations on your career journey.
Thanks very much with a busy schedule for finding time to spend with us today. So thanks again, Emily. Appreciate your time.
[Emily Pritchard] (25:02 – 25:03)
Thanks, Mark. It’s been my pleasure.
[Mark Bryan] (25:04 – 25:43)
Finally, we offer our listeners the chance to ask any questions of our guests or the PEMBA team. And so for those listening, if you have a question for an upcoming pod, please email it to view to the summit at PEMBA.com.au and we’ll aim to have your question covered. This month, we have a question from a listener that asks, how does PEMBA help support founders in driving improved growth in their business?
Pleased to say we have Tom Matthews, Managing Director of PEMBA, to join us in the studio now to provide some insights into how we help our partner companies scale for growth. Also relevant, given that Tom has spent a lot of time working with Emily and the Acis team. So Tom, over to you.
[Tom Matthews] (25:44 – 28:21)
Thank you, Mark. So there’s many ways that PEMBA helps accelerate the growth of its partner companies. As many of you will know, PEMBA typically invests in founder-owned, often founder-run companies.
And many of these organizations seek to partner with PEMBA, not just access to our capital, but also to access our expertise to help them on the next stage of their growth journey. Obviously, growing a business usually requires access to capital. So we have big funds that we can help fund future growth initiatives.
In addition, we have our Accelerate team internally at PEMBA, which is supplemented by a number of value addition partners. Having invested in founder-owned, founder-run businesses over the course of 25 plus years, whilst no two businesses are the same, what we find is many founders have very similar challenges. These typically center around sales, go-to-market and sales excellence, technology, people and culture, talent, M&A, integration, and many other capabilities.
By being able to draw on specialists in our value addition partner bench, we can work with our founders to really turbocharge the growth of their organizations. So a good example would be within the Acis business, we work very closely with Emily and the team. We introduced them to our chief growth officer who did a diagnostic exercise and came up with a number of recommendations.
These were things such as really investing in a dedicated chief revenue officer for the business, investing in additional business development executives, splitting state-by-state territories for those hunters, and also splitting the role of hunter and farmer. The hunters focus predominantly on new logos and the farmers on existing accounts and increasing share of wallet. We also put in place a new incentive structure to really drive sales outcomes across both the hunters and farmers, and also better KPI reporting and CRM usage within the business.
The results were really quite transformational in terms of output. Sales very quickly increased in terms of both new logo wins and also increasing share of wallet of existing accounts. The business is now tracking over 20% per annum growth in terms of top line.
[Mark Bryan] (28:22 – 28:36)
Thank you very much for those insights, Tom. And to our listeners, thanks for tuning in to View to the Summit. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow the podcast and share it with a founder or leader who might benefit from it.
