From Legacy to Leadership: Peter Angelini on Evolving Stannards

"We're in the relationship business—we just happen to do accounting."

In a competitive market, true differentiation comes from people, culture, and long-term thinking.

We’re joined by Peter Angelini, Managing Director of Stannards, a Melbourne-based accounting and business advisory firm. With deep sector experience across hospitality, automotive, and construction, Peter shares how he’s helped scale a legacy firm while building a standout culture.

In this episode, Peter shares:

• Differentiating in a crowded market 
• Sustaining a strong team culture.
• Leadership and succession planning.
• Embedding wellness into business 
• Industry advice with impact 

Guest: Peter Angelini, Managing Director, Stannards
Host: Mark Bryan, Partner, Pemba Capital Partners
Podcast Producer: Martine McMahon

Ask Our Guests: Have a question for a previous or upcoming guest? Email viewtothesummit@pemba.com.au

Upcoming Guest: We’ll be speaking with Gavin Steinberg, Founder of Satori, a leading data and AI technology company helping organisations detect and prevent errors in their Procure-to-Pay processes.

Thanks for listening—and keep striving for your next summit!

Transcript

Mark Bryan: [00:00:00] This series is produced on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. Pemba respectfully acknowledges traditional custodians throughout Australia. We recognize their continuing connections to country and culture, and we pay our respects to elders and leaders past and present. A very warm welcome to View to the summit, the Pemba podcast.

Mark Bryan: For founders looking to scale to their next summit for our many regular followers, we hope you enjoy this episode, and for our new listeners, it's great to have you on the journey with us. We've now had almost 2000 listeners tune to view to the summit. If you like the show, please help us and spend a few seconds by hitting the follow button.

Mark Bryan: I'm Mark Bryan, one of the managing directors here at Pemba, and today we are delighted to have Peter Angelini, managing Director of Stannards join us. Stannards is an accounting and business advisory firm based in Melbourne. Offering comprehensive audit, tax and consulting services across various sectors, including hospitality, automotive, and [00:01:00] construction.

Mark Bryan: We are very proud of Pemba to have standards as a Pemba partner company. Pete has a wealth of experience and deep accounting knowledge honed over the last two decades. Pete's a fellow of the Tax Institute and Chartered Accountants Association of Australia, having qualified with Deloitte. Peter then joined the Family Accounting Business Standards and became an equity partner.

Mark Bryan: In 2012, Pete, great to have you with us today. Thanks for joining us. 

Peter Angelini: Great to be here, Mark, and thanks for hosting me. 

Mark Bryan: So today we'll explore how to differentiate in a competitive market building an enduring team culture, succession planning, and health and wellness. So Pete, in your own words, can you tell us please about your business and career journey to date and what it is that inspires you and drives you at standards?

Peter Angelini: Uh, thanks, mark. My career actually started out in hospitality. My father was very adamant that I had to go to work at a very young age, being, uh, a good Italian boy. [00:02:00] So, uh, I started working when I was 13 in restaurants, and I say that that was the start of my career because working in hospitality, as many people have done.

Peter Angelini: It teaches you customer service and a, a number of skills that are relevant in business. So I worked in hospitality as a teenager and qualified to go to Melbourne Uni and, and, and study commerce, and during that time I worked. In the family business being standards. And I worked part-time and studied and got to the end of that journey and thought, I definitely don't wanna be an accountant.

Peter Angelini: There's more to life than, uh, crunching numbers. And I, I traveled and I went to the UK and all around Europe and reflected and had a change of heart after speaking to some people over there and decided I did want to give it a crack, but I wanted to do it my way. Accountants and the accounting industry.

Peter Angelini: Have long had a stigma that it's just a bunch of people crunching spreadsheets and, and doing a lot of boring stuff when in actual fact it's a lot more than that, and I'll talk about that later on. But I ended up being lucky enough to land a position at [00:03:00] Deloitte in their private team, and I did that for five years.

Peter Angelini: In 2008, uh, when the GFC happened, Stannards was a seven partner firm and a few other partners wanted to split and go their own way. And I got approached by the audit partner of Stannards, Michael Schulman, who's my fellow board member here with, with Pemba. And he said, do you wanna have breakfast? And I said, sure.

Peter Angelini: And he said, do you wanna come back to STAs? And I said, no. Um, I don't wanna work with my father and I don't wanna work at a smaller business. I want to. Stayed the journey at Deloitte. And um, after a bit of arm twisting, I decided to join standards in 2008. And it was a difficult time for me because I was the boss's son, Marino my father, who was the m MD at the time.

Peter Angelini: And in fact, I had a, a client on day one. I. Say to me, point blank, uh, you are clearly here for a free ride. I thought, oh geez, this is what I'm up against. So I, I, I worked very hard to dispel that stigma that I was there for a free ride. I, I clearly wasn't, and I, I worked very hard for a number of years and, and then bought into the [00:04:00] practice in 2012, as you mentioned, and been a equity partner since.

Peter Angelini: And look, I've loved the journey. In terms of what inspires me and, and drives me, it, it's really helping clients and servicing clients. I mean, that that's what we do, that's what we get paid to do. But working with some amazing clients who, who've achieved so much in their own industries, I. You know, I say to a lot of my young guys, when a client who might be in their fifties or sixties who's very successful and has got a great business, rings you for counsel, and they listen to your advice and they implement it successfully, like that's pretty rewarding.

Peter Angelini: And so that's what I, that's what I enjoy, you know, working with a lot of smart people at the caliber of our, our people just continues to grow. So coming to work, being surrounded by really intelligent people. 

Mark Bryan: Brilliant. Thanks, Pete. Well, let's, let's dig into that then. So Stannards has been delivering consistently strong growth for a number of years, and indeed this growth looks set to accelerate even more strongly over the next few years.

Mark Bryan: We've been working with you now since the middle of last year, and what struck us about the group [00:05:00] is the length of some of the customer engagements. That you have. Can you please talk about how you differentiate your strategy to stand out in a competitive market? And I think what's noticeable is that you and your partners don't fit the typical mode of a traditional accountant.

Mark Bryan: Is that a key part of your differentiation? 

Peter Angelini: I. Yeah, look, I think it is one of the reasons I think we are different is we challenge complacency, you know, a lot of accounting firms and, and there's tens of thousands of accounting firms around, around the country. And we're governed by the same set of rules, same accounting principles, same standards, same tax rules.

Peter Angelini: So you really do have to differentiate. We try and do the basics extremely well. And by the basics, I mean things are simple as. Returning phone calls in a timely manner, responding to an email in a timely manner. It's amazing how many clients we have who have come from firms and they pay really good money and they say, Hey, I don't get a response to my email for a week or two, or I don't get a phone call [00:06:00] back.

Peter Angelini: I mean, that's just 1 0 1 of client service. So in terms of how we approach the market and our clients, we we're very high touch. We say, Hey, look, we're we're owner operators, we're. We're here for the long term. A lot of us have been at the firm for, for 20 plus years, and so we're not going anywhere. We have deep relationships with our clients.

Peter Angelini: We remind them that we're approachable at all times, you know, and sometimes their needs don't fit into Monday to Friday, nine to five, and they might ring on a weekend or after hours, or they might have a stressful event. You know, some of these relationships we've had with, with clients over 10, 15, 20 years.

Peter Angelini: Our, one of our longest clients is over 30 years. There's that comfort factor that they know they can ring us, and we're, we're a safe pair of hands and we'll listen to them. 

Mark Bryan: Now thinking about team culture, it's evident that Stella's place a significant emphasis on building a strong culture within the business.

Mark Bryan: What steps have you taken to nurture and sustain this culture? It'd be great to hear about any of the challenges you've had to overcome from a cultural [00:07:00] standpoint. 

Peter Angelini: We're in the people business. One of my father's quotes, which I like and we use in the firm, is we're in the relationship business. We just happen to do accounting work.

Peter Angelini: I think that really sums up things up in terms of how we operate. But look, culture for me is something that is hard to define, but for me, it's about helping out your fellow workmate, whether it's someone who's, and we have some current live examples where it's someone who's got a. A family member who's unwell and who needs a bit of extra flexibility or, or needs to take some time off for family reasons, and then seeing the team rally around that person and or someone's getting, you know, absolutely overloaded with certain work because of the way it's fallen into their lap.

Peter Angelini: And they're, you know, they're, they're trying to do 120% and, and someone else is a bit quiet. Seeing that person step up and saying, Hey, I'm a little bit quiet. You're a little bit overloaded. How about we share the load? Those [00:08:00] little things for me is what emphasizes culture. And there's other things, you know, we do, you know, morning teas and functions and social events, and I think they're all important.

Peter Angelini: We undertook a merger a couple of years ago during Covid, actually, so quite challenging of a firm called TGS that I, um, knew a lot of the people at, and, and they came across and, and that was our first, I guess, merger that we'd done as a firm. TGS had a lot of great, talented people and we had a lot of similar clients, a lot of similar approaches to, to I guess the way we worked.

Peter Angelini: So we thought we had similar systems, but. Integrating the cultures was probably took longer or has taken longer than what we initially thought. You know, I'm pleased to say that I, I, I think it's probably the best it's been since the merger and, and it's trending in the right way. And, but like I mentioned before, challenging complacency.

Peter Angelini: We don't say, oh, okay, things are pretty good and we'll leave it at [00:09:00] that. We're constantly driving for better outcomes. I guess just to touch on that, I remember one of my first partners meetings where I, I saw the results of the business and I thought, oh, this business is pretty good. Like, the numbers are great and everything looks pretty good.

Peter Angelini: And I remember Marino, my MD at the time, basically just saying how disappointed he wasn't in the numbers and wasn't good enough and we can do so much better. And I, I kind of thought, wow, like the numbers are pretty good. Like, how much better do you want? But his point was that. As soon as you think that you're at the, at the summit and you think that everything's great and you've won the title, well, you'll go backwards and your competitors will overtake.

Peter Angelini: And I think that's why we've been a successful business. 'cause we have that mindset. 

Mark Bryan: Yeah, we certainly, certainly have been. That's great Pete. Thanks for that. So, building on culture, obviously around hiring this, the team at standards has grown consistently, is now over 80 strong. What are the qualities that you look for when hiring new team members to ensure you're constantly building on the company culture?[00:10:00] 

Peter Angelini: For me, it's attitude first. Scoring well on tests and having good uni marks or having good experience is almost a ticket to play. It's a given. If your attitude stinks, we're not interested. So because that can really impact on the culture, people who are honest, who understand loyalty, empathy, just those great human qualities because a lot of other things can be taught.

Peter Angelini: When I came across from Deloitte. I was told that my technical skills were, were pretty good, but my commercial skills were essentially non-existent. So I had to learn a lot of that and, and I, and I, I think I have. And so we back ourselves that we'll fill the gaps in of those people and we'll teach them things that they might not have learned before.

Peter Angelini: You know, now that we're at this stage where, what are we looking for? A mix of people who can obviously do the job and the requirement that we need, but also people who can bring in additional skills. Obviously data and AI and tech is really [00:11:00] big and we're starting to actually grow that area. So now we're looking at not just accountants, we're looking at people who have maybe a data and yes, tech background.

Peter Angelini: But as I said at the start, it all stems from. Having a good attitude. 

Mark Bryan: Yeah. Important word. So thinking about your leadership style, Pete, how would you describe your leadership style and how has this had to develop as the business has grown? 

Peter Angelini: I like to think that I'm empowering, I like to delegate. You know, I often get told by people that they appreciate the autonomy I give them in my job.

Peter Angelini: I've had some people have constantly said to me, look, I like working with you because yeah, you, you are. You allow me to. Do my job. You're there if I need you, but you're not micromanaging me on a daily basis. I, I like to communicate. I like to be transparent. I like to be approachable. We have a very flat structure at standard, so we treat each other the same.

Peter Angelini: No one's above anyone else. We make that known so that, yeah, interns and grads don't feel intimidated or [00:12:00] scared to walk straight into, you know, my office or an another director's office. We're one big team. I think that dovetails back into the culture. I've been reading a lot of books in particular as I was undertaking the merger and steep learning curve.

Peter Angelini: For me, being MD can sometimes be a bit of a lonely job, even though people know that you don't know everything. You feel like you kind of need to know everything and. You know, you don't wanna ask a dumb question or, or be seen, you ask a dumb question. So, yeah, look, I've been doing a lot of reading, just trying to obtain little, little nuggets of information then to then try and infuse into the business to, as I say, make it a, a better place.

Mark Bryan: Brilliant. Thanks for that, Pete. I. Many of our founder listeners are likely considering how they create an effective succession plan for their business as a trusted business advisor, you've supported a number of businesses on building succession plans, and of course, you've been part of a succession plan.

Mark Bryan: Yourself taking the MD role from your successful Father Marino, who we've mentioned, can you weave in some personal experiences of how you collectively [00:13:00] manage a seamless succession plan? 

Peter Angelini: Thanks, mark. Well, look, succession is a really big part of what we advise on, and we have a lot of families that we advise to and who've had successful businesses or are sitting on a, a lot of wealth and succession to the next generation is a very big focus for us and a very big part of where we see our advisory work, uh, leaning toward in in the future because a lot of these.

Peter Angelini: Successful people, the baby boomers, post-war migrants, et cetera, had a very different upbringing to the kids. And, you know, I'm, I'm 43 and I'm, I guess in that cohort of adult kids and they, they haven't had to do, you know, the hard yards and, and the really brutal things that a lot of that generation had to do.

Peter Angelini: You know, my father grew up, son of migrants, my grandparents came here from Italy post-war. Had no money, didn't know how to speak English, worked three [00:14:00] jobs, all that type of stuff, and gave my father a start. And then he seized that opportunity and worked really hard and worked multiple jobs. He was at KPMG working as an auditor.

Peter Angelini: He's also doing security work. He was a boxer partly for, you know, well, for money, for survival. The management of money and, and all the rest is such a delicate issue and, and something that. We see a lot of family struggle with a lot of the time it's, it's in relation to communication or lack thereof. I might just share a little, I guess a little personal story.

Peter Angelini: It's something that people in family businesses might resonate with. Like when I started from Deloitte at ST's, I thought, I don't wanna be the boss's son, so the only way I'm gonna survive here is, is that I treat him. Like my boss at Deloitte. So I call him Moreno and something goes bad and you know, I get yelled at or I get told off, well that's, that's the way it is and I'm not gonna run off and suck, you know, so to speak.

Peter Angelini: So that's how I kind of [00:15:00] started when it came time for me to, I guess, have the discussion with him about taking over his role as MD and, and moving him to more of a chairman role. And that was happening, that was around Covid time because I felt that I. I was doing a lot of the things in the business that I guess an MD would do, or I, I was almost operating like a COO type of role.

Peter Angelini: I had my hands in multiple pies. I knew almost every aspect of the business and how it was running. And when it came time, I guess, to run the succession piece, uh, I thought, how am I gonna approach it? And again, I reverted back to, well, if I was at Deloitte or if I was at another firm, how would I do it? So I wrote a, a position paper.

Peter Angelini: Well, it was essentially a business case. I handed it to. And I said, listen, I want you to read this and I want to, um, discuss a transition plan where I can take over your role and we can do it successfully. Anyway, I gave it to him. Um, initially didn't go too well. He, he didn't open it for probably two months [00:16:00] and, um, I.

Peter Angelini: And then my wife actually suggested to me, Hey, why don't you book a a luncheon and we can, and you can talk about it over lunch. He, uh, initially, um, thought that I was trying to stab him in the back and I said, well, uh, that's the opposite of what I'm trying to do. I actually handed it to you, to your face, and it's not about stabbing in the back.

Peter Angelini: It's about making this succession journey a success and showing other people that not only do we advise families on how to do it. We actually know how to do it ourselves. 'cause if we can't do it ourselves properly, how are we gonna advise with authenticity? After that lunch, he gave me a few, uh, home truths and some feedback, and we agreed on a, on a path forward.

Peter Angelini: And it was really, um, around the time that the merger happened that I then became md and he has allowed that transition to be a successful one. We acknowledge it can be difficult. You know, Marino is in, in, in the MD position [00:17:00] for, I don't know, over 30 years. A lot of our family business owners are in the same boat.

Peter Angelini: You know, their business is their baby. That's all they know. They built it from scratch. They're the big dog. They're the boss. No one else can do as good a job as they can, and so we get it. And so. I think now that we've been successful in transitioning, it's something that we've got in our toolkit that I really wanna roll out and help other families because a lot of the time it does, it blows up, you know, like they try this stubbornness.

Peter Angelini: There's egos, there's emotion, letting them know that. It requires a lot of work, good communication, some independent non-bias input. If you're willing to go down the journey, it can absolutely be done. 

Mark Bryan: There was some, yeah, some great personal insights there. Thanks very much for that, Pete. So building a successful business is demanding requires long-term dedication.

Mark Bryan: [00:18:00] That often leads to obviously rewarding outcomes. But at the same times, leaders must prioritize health and wellbeing, not only for themselves, but of course with their families and teams. I know you're someone who values health and wellbeing. Could you share why it matters to you, how you promote it within the Stannards team, and also share please, some of the routines that you help to maintain balance.

Peter Angelini: Thanks, mark. Well, this is my favorite topic. Yes. Um, look, I've grown up with health and fitness and wellness since I was a kid, I guess. Yeah. I think it's important when you're in business Oh, and when you work to have some outlets. I love my running, I love my sprinting. We just got a new puppy dog, so Excellent.

Peter Angelini: Walking the dog and picking up poo has become, uh, has been added into the, uh. Into the routine. Look, I think Covid was really important and mind shift changed to a lot of people as well. I think I used to always be a, have to do everything a hundred miles an hour. You know, at 45 and running and sprint, everything used to be go, go, go.

Peter Angelini: And the simplicity of walking [00:19:00] is just huge. And it's been great to see actually a lot of our staff, I see them walking around the park or around that building. And I encourage people, if you, if you've got a phone call or whatever, don't do it at your desk. Go for a walk, especially if it's sunny. But yeah, uh, I think promoting it and letting people know it's okay.

Peter Angelini: You don't have to be at your desk. So I've started a, I've tried to start a bit of a, a wellness routine at work. A couple of us go on a little run club around the town in, in, in Melbourne. Brilliant. Some of the girls have started a women's walking group, which got great numbers on day one. When we launched that recently, we've had breath work sessions in the office.

Peter Angelini: And a lot of these things that I'm trying to promote, I'm doing it from a place where I've validated it and, and done it myself and, and, and do it as part of my weekly routine. And it's helped me be a better business person, a better father, hopefully a, you know, a better person overall. And again, dovetails into the culture of who we want to be, about.

Peter Angelini: We, we know that we have to go to work, but we can also come to work and. Have energy and be happy and [00:20:00] we don't have to be stressed. 

Mark Bryan: Absolutely. And you got through the finals with Sprint Race recently as well? 

Peter Angelini: Uh, yes, I did Mark, uh, actually last week again, two in a row. So I was very happy. Um, my number one goal with my sprinting's not to, uh.

Peter Angelini: Do a hammy or a, or a calf and, um, and stay intact. So part of my wellness regime is also getting a lot of, um, dry needling and massage and I, I spend more money on, uh, on my recovery these days as being in, in the masters, but showing the kids that even though dad's, you know, in his forties, he can still, can still run.

Mark Bryan: Yeah. No, that's good. Best of luck with that. Excellent. Thanks Pete. So, question we ask, uh, all of our guests is pleased to describe in a few words. What are the most important values to you? They can be values or principles you expect within team members or values that you live your life by. 

Peter Angelini: For me, balance is probably number one.

Peter Angelini: The pie chart of, of your life and looking into how many hours you sleep and how many hours you spend with family, and how many hours you spend at work, and how many hours you spend on health and wellness. [00:21:00] If you don't get that balance right, you know you can blow up. I think being humble is very important and the key to me, and something that.

Peter Angelini: Talk to people about in job interviews we try and stress. I'm teaching my kids about now, you know, as you, as a father, as you know, you try and impart as much knowledge as you can to your kids and you want 'em to be great humans. And part of that for me is just being humble. And I know you said three, but I've got two more, but I'll, uh, um, go for it.

Peter Angelini: Consistency. People value consistency. You know, they wanna know that you're coming into work and your colleague or your, your boss is gonna have the sa, a similar demeanor that they had yesterday, not that one day they're really happy and the next day, you know, they're grumpy and yelling and, and people want consistency.

Peter Angelini: And I guess finally, transparency. Humans find it hard, I think sometimes to be fully transparent for the fear of not being liked or retribution or whatever it might be. I. So it can be difficult to be transparent, but again, I take a [00:22:00] approach that if you're honest and transparent and share the good and the bad, then people will hopefully understand.

Peter Angelini: And if and if they don't, well there's certain things you can't control and you just have, that's just life. I. 

Mark Bryan: Very good. Excellent. So balance, humility, consistency, and transparency. Very clear. Thank you, Pete. Now Pete, you've dedicated your career to driving business success, uh, and driving client outcomes is obviously a current purpose.

Mark Bryan: Do you have any favorite apps, hacks, business strategies, or it could be a great book you've read recently on business that you'd like to share? 

Peter Angelini: Yeah, look, as I said, I've been reading a lot of books of recent times and I kind of bounce between. I guess businessy books and health books and, and history books.

Peter Angelini: Yes, I do have some apps, but I try and go a bit old school. And as you can see, I bought in a few hard copies here, and one of them is actually a gift to give to your team members. Mark, that's, that's very kind. Thank you. You, you can take that. It's called timewise by Amantha Iba, and I guess [00:23:00] it's a productivity based book about creating great habits.

Peter Angelini: She breaks it down into really easy to read. Principles, or, or, or chapters. They're little kind of like two page nuggets, you know, around focusing and getting into a workflow and. Efficiency and working faster and smarter and how to structure your day. And so I found that to be a really great book. And when I find a book like this, I get excited and I usually buy 12 copies and I give them to people as I'm doing today to you.

Peter Angelini: And so I keep them in my office as well. And if, if a staff member or if, if a client says, oh, I'm really struggling in an area and it's something that I've read, and I, I give them the book, Ray Dalio Principles is another fantastic book who talks, you know, he talks a lot about. Culture and transparency in some of the things I've been talking about.

Peter Angelini: There was a, a fantastic book that I read when I became CEO, when I thought, what the hell do I do now that I'm CEO of this small to medium company? It's called The Hard Thing About Hard Things. It's [00:24:00] about building a business when there are no easy answers by Ben Horowitz, American billionaire and startup Came from nothing, uh, had a lot of failures and then ended up being successful, but.

Peter Angelini: Very straight shooter acknowledges that sometimes there's no easy answer there, there, there. The only way is the hard way and you know, you might get something right. It still not, might not be appreciated or supported and that's just part of the job that you have to make Some calls that sometimes are tough and not supported and.

Peter Angelini: The book I'm reading at the moment is not a business book. It's called Good Energy. Just about the importance of food and how we need to think of food as medicine. For me, all these things connect back into the workday. You eat healthy, you feel better. You're gonna come to work feeling better, you're gonna have more clarity.

Peter Angelini: You're gonna be a better advisor to your clients. 

Mark Bryan: Brilliant. Some great tips in there. Thanks Pete. And thank you very much for time wise. We'll happily add that to the Pemba. Pemba Library 

Peter Angelini: should ask her for a royalty actually. Yeah, that's 

Mark Bryan: right. Yeah. Um, and [00:25:00] finally, we like to offer our listeners the chance to ask any questions of our guests.

Mark Bryan: For those listening, if you have a question for an upcoming pod, please email it to view to the summit@Pemba.com au and we'll aim to have your question covered. We've had someone email us through a question for you, Pete, when advising businesses in different industries, how do you adjust your approach?

Mark Bryan: Are there key strategies you apply across the board or do you tailor your advice to each specific industry? 

Peter Angelini: Yeah, great question mark. And something that we often get asked a lot whilst we try and have industry expertise and, and there's certain people in the office that might have a concentration of clients in a particular industry.

Peter Angelini: We really are generalists and, and we do have to navigate across a number of industries. Me personally and a lot of my fellow directors will, will have the same mix of clients. So, you know, medical practitioners, retailers, manufacturers, personal trainers, logistics [00:26:00] companies like you, you do have to. Touch a number of industries in what we do.

Peter Angelini: So everyone who's in business have a similar requirement of their advisors. They wanna know that they're structured appropriately and that the risk that they're taking in their business is supported by an appropriate structure that can support them in the event that things go bad. They're all in business to make a profit.

Peter Angelini: They all wanna hire good people and have good people around them, and good support. A lot of those principles obviously apply to any industry. So when we come in to talk to a manufacturer versus a retailer, we have that in mind to say, look, it doesn't matter that the nuance of their particular industry straight up, they wanna know, make sure that that their structures are appropriate.

Peter Angelini: They're legally minimizing tax to the extent of the law. Their advisors, everyone surrounding them are are solid and that they're best positioned to make. To make [00:27:00] profit and, and, and in, you know, in the case of family business, that they have the appropriate mechanisms to facilitate a great succession. So keeping that in mind is how we target and talk to our clients because yeah, you, you have to adapt.

Peter Angelini: You have to be able to talk to a tradie versus maybe a surgeon. Different levels of academic sophistication, but equally can be successful in their own right. So, and, and we'll have different priorities. So, and then look over time. Yeah. You, you can develop some industry specialization. So you mentioned a few at the start of the podcast, we have some people who developed a, a, a passion, a niche for hospitality.

Peter Angelini: So then they hone that craft and they specialize. And that's where you can di differentiate yourself a little bit more in terms of. Industry metrics. And if I, and you know, you, you are well across our hospitality segment, but being able to deep dive into some of their key metrics and pain points can then add another layer of [00:28:00] advice that is a, just is a differentiator to some of our competitors who maybe don't play as much in that space.

Peter Angelini: So hope that's answered the question mark. And, um, and, and I think we're, um. We're wrapping up. So I just wanna say thank you and I've, I've been listening to all the podcasts and you've had some amazing people tell very different stories. And I, um, I hope that there's a few points in there that you and, and the listeners have, um, found equally as insightful.

Peter Angelini: So thank you for giving me the time and for allowing us to talk about standards and, and also the, yeah, the Pemba journey. 

Mark Bryan: No, thank you Pete. Thanks for your time. There was definitely some great insights in there that the listeners will really enjoy. So thanks for sharing that. Um, congratulations on all of your successes.

Mark Bryan: All the best. To the team at Stan. It's been a real pleasure having you on the podcast. Your leadership at standards is inspiring, and I'm sure, as I say, our listeners would've gained some valuable takeaways from the conversation. In particular, I really enjoyed the differentiation strategy. I love Merino's, uh, quote of, we're in the relationship business.

Mark Bryan: We just happened to [00:29:00] do accounting, hiring attitude first, being key, and then advise with authenticity. So great content. Thank you so much for your time. To all of our listeners, thanks for tuning into this episode of View to the Summit. We hope you found it insightful and informative. Please join us next time as we continue to explore topics and help founders and management teams scale their businesses, and please share this episode with someone who you think would enjoy it.

Mark Bryan: Until then, keep striving for your next summit.