John Bly, Southeast Managing Partner, Aprio
In an interview with Invest:, John Bly, Southeast managing partner at business advisory and accounting firm Aprio, talked about the challenges that the U.S. presidential elections and higher costs of capital entail for businesses in Charlotte. He underlined how the firm is leveraging innovation to improve its services and make work easier for its associates, and the importance of company culture to differentiate from other CPA firms.
What have been some of the major successes and milestones for Aprio in Greater Charlotte in the past year?
We have continued to grow our dental CPA presence and our real estate tax group in the Charlotte office. That has been an amazing success. Aprio’s Charlotte office is only 5 years old, but we have continued to penetrate the market and grow our footprint in terms of human capital and client base. We are excited for What’s Next in Charlotte over the next few years.
What are some of the most important challenges that Aprio has encountered in Greater Charlotte?
From a business perspective, the unease in the economy combined with presidential elections have been a challenge. We are in a client-service business, and those two factors make clients feel uneasy about making long-term decisions whether that means growth investments or capital requirements. That makes it harder for us to help clients think about their growth strategy for the next few years.
The cost of capital and cost of lending have been high for about two years, which remains a challenge. Between 2020 and 2022, the federal and state governments pumped a lot of dollars into the economy for some industries. Some clients became used to that lifestyle and to putting those dollars to use in their businesses. Nevertheless, now that those funds are not there, they need to get capital that is comparatively more expensive than it was in the past 13 years. Additionally, many business owners did not experience the higher, pre-2008 interest rates.
Which sectors have been the most affected by high interest rates in Charlotte?
Technology is one of them, as raising capital as a tech startup in the software business has seen the biggest change. Large companies such as Google have had major layoffs over the past year and a half, and the tech industry in general has felt some pain. The other one is real estate development and specifically the development of high-rises. People are just not building as much. There are cranes in the sky, but many of them were committed years ago. Additionally, in the case of office space, many people are not returning to the office.
What are the key differentiators that set Aprio apart from other CPA advisory firms in Charlotte?
It is pretty much hand-to-hand combat in a good way. Competition is great, and we have fantastic competitors. We focus on the 31 fundamentals that define our culture. For instance, the fundamental of this week is “Be fantastic about response time.” Our team rallies around those fundamentals and believes in them. Even though we are a large organization, those fundamentals help us feel smaller because they are a common language.
Secondly, though we are the 25th largest firm in the United States, we remain very entrepreneurial under the leadership of our CEO, Richard Kopelman, and our board members. We believe that it is okay to fail in small buckets. Failing fast and failing often is one of our regular discussion points. We believe in trying a bunch of things to ensure that we get the right one.
How do Aprio’s 31 fundamentals impact the firm’s corporate culture and its everyday operations?
We live by those 31 fundamentals and practice them every week. They are at the core of our philosophy. For instance, people will say, “I want to speak straight with you,” which is one of our fundamentals, and discuss whatever topic. Additionally, our culture believes in doing teamwork in a way that is not common in the accounting profession. Whereas in many firms, people go hunt and find the work, do it, and make sure that they get credit for it, that is not how Aprio works. We aim to have an open environment where we help people be successful by sharing and caring.
How do you think innovation in the CPA advisory sector will look like soon and how is Aprio leveraging new technologies to streamline operations?
Our idea of failing fast means constantly trying things that may or may not work. One of the things that we tried last year and that points to great gains is refining our data analysis of where clients are in their life cycle. That means, for instance, checking if they are a startup, a third-generation company, or if the owners are thinking about exiting. That allows us to serve clients where they are and to better help them to get where they want to be.
We are also focused on making the jobs of our team members easier and more rewarding. On the tax side, we are rolling out a piece of software that automates the general ledger entry into our tax software. We built some AI tools around that process that are learning all the time. That software is not perfect, but it gets it around 90% done, and it is getting better as it learns. We need to continue implementing these innovations because young people in this profession do not want to do things the way I did, just I did not want to do things the way people older than me did.
What are your main priorities and concerns for the future of the business advisory sector?
I am constantly concerned about developing talent and leaders. We want 22-year-olds to continue advancing and gaining experience. Nevertheless, we want to speed up that learning curve without asking them to work 100 hours a week. The challenge is in speeding up potential learning opportunities for them and ensuring that they are growing at the pace that we want. Additionally, sometimes people do notlearn at the same pace with a hybrid or remote environment, which is another concern for not just our firm but for the accounting profession and consulting advisory sector.
Another concern is the fact that we are only four years and five months into the world of hybrid and remote work. We need to pay attention to how that evolves and how we can continue to train and get better. It is not the fault of our 22-year-old employees that we are working remotely, but as leaders, we must find ways to do better.
What is your outlook for Aprio and the business advisory sector in Greater Charlotte?
I am very bullish on the Southeast, including Charlotte, Nashville, and Tampa. Growth in college applications is up 18% in the Southeast, which showcases that people want to move to these amazing cities. That is good for construction, for housing, for the business community, and for everybody from the 22-year-old to the 62-year-old. We have our challenges as a city, but I would much rather be in a growing city than in one that has been declining over the past few decades.
