Breakthrough Work Podcast
Breakthrough Work Podcast
Podcast Description
Potential is all around us. But breaking through is rare.It requires vision, courage, tapping insights and expertise, overcoming challenging obstacles, and even a little luck. Breakthrough Work lets leaders and companies who shattered the status quo tell their stories about getting to the other side. We talk with senior leaders from companies you know well and reveal what it took to make them the household name they are today.We also feature companies emerging quickly, the ones breaking through as we speak. They talk about what it’s like to be in the moments defining their future.The podcast shares personal stories about leadership and performance, unveiling the myriad pathways to reach our full potential. One size definitely does not fit all.Sponsored by Connor Group, a professional services firm focused on the most critical opportunities and challenges facing ambitious companies.As a leader in accounting, compliance, M&A, IPOs, and digital solutions, including strategy, system implementation, automation, analytics, and AI, Connor Group is built for breakthroughs.They serve the offices of the CFO, CIO/CTO, and CHRO, and are trusted by over 2,000 of the most exciting brands on earth to deliver results that last.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast centers on themes of leadership, innovation, and business transformation, with episodes exploring various topics such as navigating corporate mergers, effective team building, and the impact of technology on industries. Examples of episodes include discussions on transitioning from CFO to CEO and the role of innovation in pharma and energy sectors.
Potential is all around us. But breaking through is rare.
It requires vision, courage, tapping insights and expertise, overcoming big obstacles, and even a little luck.
Breakthrough Work lets leaders and companies who shattered the status quo tell their stories about getting to the other side. We talk with senior leaders from companies you know well and reveal what it took to make them the household names they are today.
We also feature companies emerging quickly, the ones breaking through as we speak. They talk about what it’s like to be in the moments defining their future.
The podcast shares personal stories about leadership and performance, unveiling the myriad pathways to reach our full potential. One size definitely does not fit all.
Sponsored by Connor Group, a professional services firm focused on the most critical opportunities and challenges facing ambitious companies.
As a leader in accounting, compliance, M&A, IPOs, and digital solutions, including strategy, system implementation, automation, analytics, and AI, Connor Group is built for breakthroughs.
They serve the offices of the CFO, CIO/CTO, and CHRO, and are trusted by over 2,000 of the most exciting brands on earth to deliver results that last.
Join us as Will Billings, CAO and Treasurer at Chewy, walks through a finance career built across six industries, two public company boards, and one of the most-cited pandemic RIFs in tech history.
Topics covered:
- The three foundational lessons from Big Four audit that still govern how he leads (2:22)
- Why he left audit for industry, and the shift from validating to building (8:47)
- Joining GE and the move from leading teams to influencing leaders without formal authority (11:18)
- The 90-day listening rule he runs every time he enters a new finance seat (15:46)
- Elevation, not elimination: his blueprint for AI in finance, clean data architecture, and the future of the record-to-report function (18:17)
- What the Big Four’s campus hiring cuts mean for your 2030 Senior Accountant bench, and the internal rotation program he’s building at Chewy in response (19:33)
- Pursuing public company board service during an active operator career, and how to get recruited onto your first board (28:32)
- The operator-to-director mindset shift, and what board service taught him about running his finance team (35:56)
- Going back for his MBA mid-career, and the family essay that got him in (39:11)
- Leading Airbnb’s 25% RIF in April 2020, the public pitch book that helped impacted employees land, and why clarity and empathy coexist (47:04)
- The back injury that rewrote his view of resilience, and the workout routine that kept him steady (50:46)
- The one equation Will wishes he’d learned a decade earlier (57:29)
Will’s career spans EY, oilfield services in Houston, GE’s industrial portfolio, Airbnb, Global Foundries, Chewy, and public board seats at Sucro and an autonomous security robotics company. For CFOs, Controllers, finance VPs, and aspiring accounting executives, this conversation is a working manual for scaling finance teams across industries, cycles, and the AI transition.
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