What does it take to scale one of the world’s largest professional services firms — and still lead with heart?
In this episode, we sit down with Jill Smart, former CHRO and one of the original leaders who helped transform Arthur Andersen into Accenture, now a 700,000+ employee global powerhouse.
We dive into:
✨ Growing up blue-collar — and building a work ethic that never left
🚀 The early days of Accenture and taking the company public
📉 Mistakes, sweaty-hand moments, and the leadership lessons that came from them
👥 Why “treat others how they want to be treated” is the key to managing people
🌍 Going global: offshoring, outsourcing, and building culture across borders
❤️ How she built a team that produced over 40 CHROs at major companies
This is a masterclass in building organizations and taking care of the people inside them.
👇 Watch the full episode and hit subscribe for more interviews with the builders behind the world’s most iconic companies.
#Accenture #HRLeadership #Startups #EarlyEmployees #WomenInBusiness #TheEarlyPodcast #EarlyPod
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🎙️ ABOUT THE SHOW:
The Early Podcast is where host Max Crowley, Uber’s #25 employee, sits down with the earliest builders behind today’s most iconic companies. No fluff, just the raw stories of what it’s like in the trenches when your startup could still fail tomorrow.
✅ Subscribe for more untold startup stories every week
✅ Like, comment & share if you know someone interested!
✅ Listen on Spotify, Apple, or anywhere you get your podcasts
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Let’s go. 💥
🎧 Listen to the full episode:
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🚀 New episodes drop every Tuesday. Let’s build this together.
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📩 Thoughts or guest ideas? Email me: max@earlypod.com
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