Leading Through Growth: Building the Firm of the Future
Episode overview
What gets a business to one stage of growth rarely carries it to the next. That was the brief for Peter Antonius when he became the inaugural Group CEO of Liston Newton Advisory, a 50-year-old accounting firm. He joins Tommy Sim to share how he is building what comes next without breaking the family-run culture that made the firm successful.
Listen on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts. Episode runs about 22 minutes.
What you’ll learn
- How to lead an established business without trampling what already works
- Why your first 90 days should be mostly listening
- How a competency framework clarifies careers and wins the war for talent
- Why capability should beat tenure when people progress
- How to keep a growing team united with disagree, then commit
What gets you here won’t get you there
It started in 1976. A sole trader by the name of Kieran Liston, running an accounting firm in a small country Victorian town called Donald.
Fifty years on, it is a top 100 accounting firm, boutique on its way to mid-tier. And in 2022, the firm did something most practices its size never do. It appointed its inaugural full-time CEO.
His name is Peter Antonius. His job: to build what comes next.
“Those that will be successful as advisers and accountants into the future will be those that are really advisory focused, who can take the complex, break that down and communicate that in a simple and effective way to clients.”
Listen before you change anything
Investing in a full-time CEO was a brave decision by the shareholders, and Peter felt the weight of it from day one. A lot of firms much bigger than Liston Newton still do not have one.
His response was not to charge in with change. It was to listen.
“I had to be mindful of not looking to re-engineer what was already working quite well. So a lot of listening and learning.”
Ninety days in, once he had a feel for the business, he brought the shareholders and board together to set a new five-year plan.
The lesson for any incoming leader: resist the urge to be seen doing things. Earn the right to change them first.
People are the backbone
Four years on, Tommy asked what breaks first at the next level of growth. Peter did not hesitate.
“We are a people business. At the end of the day, we deliver outcomes to clients through people. People are still the backbone of our business, so ensuring that we’ve got the right people in the right seats is critical.”
Technology matters. You have to be technology enabled in this day and age. But it does not replace the need to get the right people into the right seats, and that becomes more important as you scale, not less.
Capability over tenure
A lot of companies talk about developing people. Many never make clear what good actually looks like.
Liston Newton’s team had been asking a direct question: what does my career here look like? So the firm built a competency framework across its biggest division, business services and tax. It spells out what people need to be proficient at now, both technical and soft skills, and what the next step requires.
“Often in organisations, tenure equals reward. But our view is that it’s capability first. So regardless of whether you’ve been here 12 months or 12 years, if you can meet the requirements of the role that you’re in, that will determine how you progress.”
It is paying off in recruitment too. When ambitious candidates ask about career growth, Peter points to something real rather than a promise. A training hub now sits on top, so an identified gap triggers targeted support rather than a generic course.
One firm, not separate pockets
As teams, service lines and locations multiply, how do you keep everyone feeling like one business? For Peter, the answer is collaboration, and it is a stated value for a reason.
“The more that we can get people connected in the business, talking through problems and solutions that affect our clients, the better our clients will be.”
The firm offers flexible working on Mondays and Fridays. But Thursday is mandatory in the office, because the best conversations, and the best support for someone’s growth, happen in shared space.
As Tommy noted, you cannot legislate collaboration. If it is not a genuine value, no policy will force it. Leaders set the tone, and the team learns from it and replicates it.
Disagree, then commit
On balancing a strong point of view with genuine buy-in, Peter pointed to a principle Tommy named directly: disagree, then commit.
The firm cascades decisions from board to executive to a manager-level group, giving people room to question before anything is implemented. Once a decision is made, everyone owns it.
“We can disagree at the board level. We can have those robust, open, honest conversations. But at the end of the day, when a decision is made, that is the decision that we all agree to and we move forward. And as one.”
Fragmentation at the top trickles down fast and breeds division. A united board, even one that argued hard to get there, is what lets a growing firm move as one.
About Peter Antonius
Peter Antonius is the inaugural Group CEO of Liston Newton Advisory, appointed in May 2022. With more than 20 years across small, medium and large professional services practices, he is the architect of what he calls the firm of the future model: the view that the advisers who win from here are those who can take the complex, break it down, and communicate it simply to clients.
About Liston Newton Advisory
Liston Newton Advisory began in 1976 as a sole trader, Kieran Liston, running an accounting practice in the small country Victorian town of Donald. Fifty years on it is a top 100 Australian accounting firm, boutique on its way to mid-tier, anchored by a new South Melbourne head office. The firm serves SMEs turning over 1 to 50 million dollars and the owners behind them, with a holistic offering that guides clients from get set, to get moving, to get free.
Key takeaways
- Lead an established business by listening first. Earn the right to change things before you do.
- Set the strategy after you understand the business, not before. Ninety days is a useful marker.
- People are the backbone of a professional services firm, and that only matters more as you scale.
- Reward capability over tenure. A clear competency framework clarifies careers and wins talent.
- Build collaboration into the culture and environment. Set the value and model it from the top.
- Disagree, then commit keeps a board and leadership team united once a decision is made.
Mentioned in this episode
- Liston Newton Advisory, the 50-year-old accounting firm where Peter Antonius is Group CEO
- The firm of the future model
- Liston Newton Advisory’s competency framework and training hub
- The South Melbourne head office
- The disagree, then commit principle
About Lead to Grow
Lead to Grow is the podcast for leaders building better businesses, hosted by Tommy Sim of Inject. Each episode unpacks the real decisions behind growth, leadership and culture, with operators who have done the work. Subscribe and listen on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.
