Podcast: Jack Henry’s incoming CEO talks 4 tenets of leadership

Whitney McDonald 0:02
This episode of The buzz is brought to you by bank automation summit us 2024. This annual event is tailored to resonate with financial services professionals focused on business optimization through technology and automation. Learn how to overcome implementation challenges by hearing firsthand from C level executives from institutions, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo city and more. There is no better place to get a read on the competition than at Bank automation summit us 2024 Register now at Bank automation summit.com. My name is Whitney McDonald and I’m the editor of bank automation News. Today is February 26 2024. The bus welcomes Greg Adelson. He is the chief operating officer at Tech provider Jack Henry, he will take on a new role in July as chief executive of Jack Henry as Dave FOSS retires and moves into his new role as executive board chair. Greg is here to discuss how the transition is going and how he will continue to support Jack Henry’s ongoing tech modernization strategy.

Greg Adelson 0:57
Yeah, I appreciate it. And thank you for having me today. Whitney. So so just to be clear, I don’t officially start till July the first. So Mr. Dave Foss will be in that chair until July the first. But I’m super excited about the opportunity to take over this great company and, and kind of lead us to the to the next phase of our growth. But as far as my background, you know, I have an accounting degree. So I started in financial services. Actually out of school, I started outside of financial services. But I got into financial services in 1996, and had several different roles in both the credit card acquiring and issuing side of the business. I’ve also had some of the executive roles along the way, President titles and COO titles at several different companies before I landed at Jack Henry in 2011. When I came into, to Jack Henry, I, we had just acquired our billpay business called iPay. And that was acquired in 2010. I started in 2011, when the founders had left. And so I read ran that business for three years, got promoted to run all of our payment businesses, which included our card business bill pay, and our remote deposit capture business. And I did that until 2019 When I was asked to become the Chief Operating Officer. So I was in that role for for for the last four and a half years. And I picked up the president title right around two years ago. And and now I’m honored to take that next step.

Whitney McDonald 2:36
Great. Well, thank you so much for for kind of setting the scene there a little bit on your on your journey, and where you’ve taken, or what you’ve been doing at Jack Henry as well. Before we get into some some future lugs, it would be great. If you could talk us through your role today what you’ve been doing at Jack Henry as of late that’s preparing you for CEO.

Greg Adelson 2:58
Yeah, I think it really goes more into my experience as the Chief Operating Officer and again, most recently as president. So you know, I’ve had responsibilities, you know, we have about 7200 employees. And right now about 6800 of those report into my organization. So I have total responsibility for all of our product lines, all of our technology, infrastructure. Net, and our sales organization as well. So really, the only things that don’t report to me today are legal risks, finance and HR. And so, you know, as part of that preparation, you spent a ton of time with clients and spent a ton of time with the folks that are really kind of making the sausage, as we like to say. And so it’s been, it’s been a great experience to, you know, be a part of the strategic decisions that we have been building over time. And so I think that’s one of the things that should be a comfort level for, for our customers and partners, and really even our associates is that I’ve been a very integral part of building out the strategies that we’re executing on now. As well as other strategies along my way of being here, especially our car platform migration, and a couple of acquisitions that I was, was key in so I think, you know, everything that I’ve done not only in my current job, but even in past roles in other companies, you know, they all help prepare you for whatever that next step is going to be and I I definitely take time to learn from those I work for those I work with, and try to kind of blend those those learnings into what will continue to be the philosophy that I I use today.

Whitney McDonald 4:51
Now speaking of some of those strategies, and I know that you talk through a couple of those that you’ve been a part of, I’ve been following along Jack Henry’s cloud You’d have strategies, tech modernization, maybe you could talk us through how you’ll continue to approach this ongoing effort.

Greg Adelson 5:08
Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, most people need to, I guess, maybe understand our tech modernization strategy. So it’s really, really rebuilding the traditional core and non core functions into a flexible cloud native portfolio of services and solutions. And I think that’s important for people to understand. Because we’re doing we’re taking an approach that’s much different than those that are in the market today, especially our largest competitors, where we’re taking the components of the core. And we’re actually breaking them out into discrete you know, kind of what we call kind of components, and building each of one of those in a cloud native API first technology set. And then we’re taking some of the some of our newer products that we’ve rolled out most recently bandeau business, Financial Crimes defender, pay center, other things like that, that have been out on the market for a little while, which all have been built with the same type of of mindset. And we’re putting them onto a single platform, which we call JH platform or Jackanory platform. And so that is really going to enable our clients to have access to everything, they need to run their financial institution in a in a single platform. But it gives them all the advantages that the cloud offers. So you know, things like high system availability, real time processing, streamlined, you know, kind of operational, or what we call DevOps, you know, your ability to bring products to fruition, you know, much more quickly or make changes and feature enhancements much more quickly as well. So that’s been a big part of really driving that that part of our, our mindset. And so I think when you look at really what our competitors have done, where there’s been less focused on really trying to break the core in and really trying to just build some level of cloud nativeness, or public cloud nativeness, to their solution sets, it’s taking a little bit longer, it’s much more of a bigger lift, than what we’re able to do as part of our our strategy.

Whitney McDonald 7:29
Maybe I’d ask you to take that just a step further about that, that need and the demand for a one platform approach, and maybe even talk through what a siloed approach looks like, and why there’s a need for this single platform.

Greg Adelson 7:44
Well, the single platform will enable a lot of things. So we’re able to take both Jack Henry products and third party products and integrate them into the platform. Also, when you think about the historical view of how core processing has worked in, you know, even at Jack Henry for 40 plus years, is that there’s multiple cores that a customer could be presented. And so Jack Henry, you know, fortunately, we only have three banking cores in one credit union core, but a lot of our competitors have 15 to 20 different course. So the the opportunity for us and for our clients is to have all of our develop development going in, eventually. And again, this isn’t going to totally happen for many, many years, because we’re continuing to invest in our existing course, but to allow the investment, the flexibility, the Creed, the innovation to all happen on a single platform. And when that is, you know, when that is part of the process, you truly will have banks and credit unions operating on on the same platform with their own idiosyncrasies that that apply. But it again, speed, the development, the ability to have those fintechs all integrated into only one platform. So they’re all going to be very interested in working with Jack Henry, because they only have to do that one time instead of you know what they have to do with a lot of our competitors today. So it’s really part of what we view as the the long term view of this industry. And again, making it simpler to do business with Jack Henry. But more importantly, being able to be innovative faster than than we have today are really what the industry is seeing today. Thank

Whitney McDonald 9:32
you, and thank you for breaking that down. Now I know that you’ve talked a little bit more long term and bigger picture, but maybe we could talk a little short term to on what really is top priority when it comes to this tech modernization strategy. What are those more short term short term investments that you’re making?

Greg Adelson 9:51
So we’ve made we’ve made several so some to date that we’re still kind of finalizing the others that are Part of the rollout of the various components, but, you know, short term, what we we really wanted to do was build out what we call the Shared Services mindset. And that is ensuring that we build things one time, and are utilized in multiple, multiple places. And so in the, in the past, you know, each of our individual product groups, and we basically operate about nine different product groups, they may have the same need for a particular feature or functionality that each of them would build individually into their own their own product sets. So we may have something that is built, you know, four or five different times, and potentially different ways. So from a cost standpoint, you know, you’re using those resources to build something that you could have just done one time. And so now we are only building things one time and using it in multiple areas. So that shared services man mindset provides a couple of things. So obviously a cost structure that’s improved. But more importantly, like I said, for, excuse me, for our our clients is our ability to innovate much more quickly. So when something needs to change, or things are changing, regulatory wise, or, or anything, we’re able to make that change one time, and then the API’s will be utilized in each of those products set. So a huge advantage. And that’s been a big focal point for us. And we have several examples of things that we’ve already done to make that happen. And then I think the we’ve been focused on getting our wires platform out. So that’s been the very first component that’s come out of the out of the GH platform tech modernization story. And then I did mention things like bandeau business and pay center, and defender, which are all components that will sit on top. But the big focus for 2024 is around a couple of things. So one is what we call data broker. And it’s basically a single repository where all of the jack Henry products data sits, that gives the institution the ability to utilize that data in a lot of different ways, in a very simplistic way. And also, over time, we’ll have some generative AI type capabilities in there as well. And then we’re adding to that data broker solution, a product called executive dashboard. And that’s really being built for the C suite, executives at the bank or credit union, that will allow them to do deep dive insights truly, in real time. You know, I sit in meetings all the time, where some of our CEOs are in there and literally have their on their computer, you know, hit refresh, refresh, refresh, to try to get the latest data on their institution. And so not all that data is in real time for them today, you know, based on, you know, either using us or somebody else. And so this will be a really big opportunity for our institutions. So we’re super excited about getting focused on that. So those I think, are the most near term things that we’ve either done, or working on right now.

Whitney McDonald 13:22
Now, speaking of that 2024 roadmap, this would be a good pivot to talking about some new technology that’s going on in the industry. Right now, I know that you mentioned generative AI, I know that you mentioned more access to real time data. Maybe you could share a little bit more about what new technology you’re excited about this year, there’s just so much going on in the space, and even beyond our industry, but maybe you could share a little bit what you’re excited about for the opportunity with this new type of technology.

Greg Adelson 13:51
Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, really, it starts with AI, right? I mean, that is that is something that is going to revolutionize many industries, and will definitely have an impact on the financial service industries in a variety of ways. I mean, things that, that, you know, have been mundane in the past tasks, that you’re you’re able to eliminate the ability to improve developers, you know, output and accuracy, the ability to do some automation, specifically. And in some of the tasks like you know, we have a call center, there’s opportunities for us to improve the ability to handle some of those tasks and improve our customer service for our clients. We have some products that we built out that are specifically built to assist the institution with their customers, product that we call bando conversations and we actually have done a demo of how generative AI can be utilized in that particular product. So like I said, everything kind of starts there. You know, we’ve talked about the Public Cloud and the public cloud will have some timing challenges, there’s still some regulatory things that need to get worked out. And, you know, not all of our institutions are interested in moving to the public cloud. At least from a core perspective, we have a lot of our products already in the public cloud. But But again, there isn’t anybody on a core perspective. So there’s some things that people have to get comfortable with. Before that will, you know, that will be the mainstream kind of kind of thing. But, you know, the other stuff that we’ve been we’ve been highly focused on is really our ability to enhance our fraud products. So we believe that, you know, when you talk to the institutions today, most of the CEOs continue to be very concerned about fraud, you know, real time fraud that comes from Zell, the real time payments network that the Clearinghouse runs, and of course, now the Fed now network. So those are, those are things that people want to make sure, because Faster Payments, equals faster fraud. So we’ve been highly focused on using some solutions that we have, again, financial crime, its defender, I brought up a couple of times, which is a product that we’ve rolled out to help combat that it does have real time processing capabilities, something that we have not seen from any of our competitors, today that that are truly real time. So we believe we’re going to have an opportunity to help the institutions and some of these, these rails fight fraud a little bit better. check fraud is another big concern that’s been out in the marketplace. And again, this product, as well as other things that we built, internally, are focused on on check fraud. You know, you can’t do anything today, when you think about the financial services, banking industry, without having a really good digital platform. And so we’re pretty proud of our bandel platform, and a lot of the feature functionality that we have in there that allows you know, that particular platform to be the front door for the institution, so that technology and advancements have all been part of, of really how Jack Henry is, I think kind of turned the corner, we’ve always been known as a a very high level service excellence organization. But I think people are now recognizing us as a truly innovative technology company as well. So when you put innovative technology with superior customer service, you know, we’re starting to see the results of that with our, with our sales wins and pipeline growth over the last couple of years. So

Whitney McDonald 17:48
shifting a little bit here, I know that we’ve talked about the technology, the roadmap for 2024, a little bit about your background, but we can kind of do a little bit more of a forward look. Now, I’d love to hear a little bit more about your transition into your new role, how David fosse has helped you prepare what that has looked like and what the next couple of months will look like as you guys make this transition?

Greg Adelson 18:11
Yeah, great question. And so one of the things that Jackanory we pride ourselves on are are very succinct and consistent succession planning. So we actually do this, every, every single individual all the way down to truly the lowest manager level we have, is responsible for creating a succession plan. And so that succession plan gets submitted, gets reviewed, actually, Dave and I, over the last four years have gone through everyone’s succession plans that at a variety of levels to make sure that we’re comfortable. You know, we asked a lot of questions, the teams ask a lot of questions. So the short version of that is, is that, you know, this discussion for my upcoming role has been going on for a while. And so as part of that preparation, obviously, you know, getting into the CEO role and kind of living the daily routine of have a lot of involvement with customers and our team and things along that line as part of the preparations. But the other part is, is that I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve been at Jack Henry almost 13 years and Dave is the only boss I’ve ever had and that’s important because he you know, he and I are are very much aligned on kind of philosophical approach to running the business, we have different backgrounds, I have an accounting degree and he has a you know, more of a is degree Information Services degree, but, but we have a lot of commonality and and again, how we view the company. So, you know, part of that preparation is is really understanding some of the The things that you don’t you don’t see in your co chair that you’re going to see in your co chair. So Dave is given a lot of his time and helping me prepare for that. But honestly, you know, a lot of it is just through, like I said earlier, kind of working through other roles and positions and an understanding that you can’t change your philosophical leadership approach. Regardless of what role you’re in. That’s something I’ve been very consistent in. And so the work that Dave has helped me with, but also just my own background, and, and trying to be consistent, and how I lead is really what I think has helped prepare me for the role.

Whitney McDonald 20:40
Great, and thanks so much for talking us through that, that timeline and more of the succession plan and what those conversations might look like. I know that you also mentioned that you’re aligned with the strategy with Jack Henry, but maybe you could leave us off here and tell us a little bit more about your unique leadership style, how you expect to lead as CEO and how you’ve led in the past. Yeah,

Greg Adelson 21:02
thank you. So a couple things. So back to the strategy, just so you, again, I kind of put a bow around that is, we have been building out our tech strategy for for many years. And again, being a part of that, when I took over it as Chief Operating Officer, I wanted to institute a program that we called one Jack Henry. And so that really was was positioned around creating the ability for our company to be a better partner with our clients to be a better partner with the consultants in our industry, and creating more opportunities for our associates. Because when you’re when you’re kind of built as a more siloed company, which kind of comes out of a multitude of acquisitions that we’ve done, we’ve done 57, I think and in our 47 year history, and you know, kind of a byproduct of that is you tend to get kind of siloed not not on purpose, but it just happens. And so I wanted to create more consistency and more opportunity. And so I’m kind of leading that up into my leadership style. So as a part of rolling that out and trying to get people behind the program, you know, I’m big about creating a vision, and then trying to communicate that vision in a variety of manners. So in keeping consistent with that, but I believe that the only way that this program was going to work was for us to adopt what I have, I’ve called the four tenets. And those four tenets are transparency, consistency, collaboration, and communication. And my belief was, is that if we let our teams using those four tenets, but also had those same principles apply with our customers, that we would be the company that we aspire to be using one Jack Henry as kind of the North Star. And so it started with transparency? Well, you know, you want to make sure that you’re having direct conversations with your associates, you want to make sure that you’re having direct conversations with your customers. And that doesn’t always mean that you’re going to tell them what they want to hear. You’re going to tell them what they need to hear. And so, one of my mantras was do what we say we’re going to do. And so, you know, let’s make sure that we’re we’re being very transparent on things that we’re able to go do, and things that we’re not, and let’s not tell people, oh, yeah, we’re gonna get to that if we never are. And so I started to create roadmaps that kind of applied to that and the execution of those. And so that was kind of the transparency mindset consistency was really like I said, you know, making it easier for our associates, to, to cross over into other groups. You know, lots of times in companies, people leave a company just because they don’t feel like they have an opportunity where they are, well, the more we kept created consistency in our company, the more that we were going to create career paths, because they wouldn’t feel like they were jumping to another company just because they were going to a different division. And, and we’ve seen that we’ve seen a lot more career advancement and opportunities for our associates, but also, again, back to our clients, creating that ability for us to look like one company through consistent processes and approaches and things like that. Collaboration really is all about making sure that you’re working together as a team in again towards that Northstar goal. So our our focus has been the more that we get not only diverse folks into our organization, but the more we collaborate across the groups where again, people would kind of go solve their problems to get it within their own little walls, and they wouldn’t share their their their advanced and some of those issues. So we would kind of recreate the same issue again, and another group. And now, teams are spending more time collaborating, and building products collaborating to solve customer service challenges, things along that line. And then communication is really what it is. It’s just making sure you’re talking to your team’s your customers in a variety of mediums to ensure that they’re, that they’re in the know, and the more people are in the know, the more they’re, they’re motivated to go solve whatever the next problem is. And so we’ve seen that that’s kind of been the leadership style that has worked for me, really, in all my my roles. And so I wanted to make sure that that was something that was a focal point for here.

Whitney McDonald 25:44
Great, and that that definitely comes through and thank you so much for breaking down those four areas of focus and, and it really stands out the the consistency and making sure that not everything changes at once. Right. And I think that goes back to what you were saying about just these long term conversations and, and having the succession plans in place. And it all kind of connects those dots, as you do have change in leadership. So thanks so much for breaking that down. Sure. Before we close out anything that we missed that we didn’t touch on that you wanted to be sure to

Greg Adelson 26:19
know I think one thing I’d like to do is I’d like to give a real shout out to Dave Fosse. You know, Dave has been our CEO for eight years he’s done a tremendous job. He’s been a tremendous leader mentor. And I’m like I said, I’m very humbled and excited about and you’re planning assuming the next role but your time and be sure to you know, he’s he’s moving into an executive board chair role, so he’s not going too far. But, but, and he’ll be there, you know, if I need him as our board chair, but it’s been a it’s been a real pleasure working with Dave and he has done a great job for Jack Henry and, and his legacy will be one that will be remembered for a long time.

Whitney McDonald 27:06
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