The Accounting Talent Equation Is Shifting. Succentrix is Rewriting the Playbook.
Under NFL coaching legend Tom Landry, the Dallas Cowboys’ offensive line employed a tactic known as The Landry Shift.
In this coordinated pre-snap movement, the Dallas offensive line (and often the tight ends and running backs) would assume a squatting two-point stance, then collectively stand, shift, and/or slide into a three-point stance just before the snap.
This shift served several strategic purposes and gave the Cowboys at least three distinct advantages:
- Deception: it obscured the offense’s exact formation and snap count, and it kept defenses off-balance, since the Cowboys could run plays from both stances.
- Discipline & timing: it showcased Landry’s emphasis on precision; the offense had to move in perfect unison to execute plays and avoid penalties.
- Psychological advantage: it projected control and preparedness, and it reinforced Dallas’ reputation as a methodical, well-drilled team.
Landry used this scheme to counter several challenges faced by the Cowboys before they became known as America’s Team during the 1970s.
- Roster Woes
When the Dallas entered the NFL in 1960, they began with no draft class, no expansion draft, and a roster of castoffs and free agents, which forced Landry and General Manager Tex Schramm to build one of football’s first computer-assisted scouting systems to find and develop overlooked talent.
- A Popularity Gap
In a football-crazy state, the Cowboys initially struggled for recognition and fan support while competing for attention with several national-powerhouse college football teams and rabid high school football fan bases statewide.
- Draft Doldrums
Accumulated success became a double-edged sword, since consistent winning meant the Cowboys rarely drafted high, leaving them with less access to elite prospects. Counteractively, Landry created a culture of system-based player development that was disciplined, data-driven, and draft-agnostic.
A Mirrored Cycle
Like Landry and the Cowboys, corporations have long faced several problems that talent levels alone couldn’t solve: too few accountants, a lack of financial acumen throughout their workforces, and increasingly complex business systems.
Also like Landry’s offense, smart companies and managers are creating a shift.
Automation, AI, and new models of financial leadership are easing shortages and bridging gaps, but more importantly, they are redefining what financial work really means.
According to CFO Dive, U.S. accounting employment climbed to roughly 1.448 million professionals in mid-2024, up from 1.435 million a year earlier.
Surveys cited by CFO Dive show that most controllers now report stable staffing levels or minor gaps, a vast improvement from the severe shortages of recent years.
Dr. Jack Castonguay, an associate professor of accounting at Hofstra University, noted, “We started to see easing within the last 12 months,” as he credited AI’s rapid adoption for reducing routine accounting and bookkeeping work in U.S. accounting employment.
However, that easing is somewhat of a mirage. Nearly half of accounts-payable professionals now fear layoffs, up from just 27 percent last year, and major firms such as Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) are scaling back entry-level hiring.
The message for finance leaders is clear: automation is not replacing people: it’s redistributing that value to where human value lives.
In September, Challenger, Gray, & Christmas, Inc., a Chicago-based global outplacement and executive coaching firm, reported 7,000 job cuts directly tied to AI, bringing the year’s total to more than 17,000. Technology firms led the reductions, but finance and administrative operations are also feeling the ripple.
“AI is changing the nature of work,” said Andy Challenger, senior vice president, chief spokesperson, and labor market analyst at Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
As generative AI takes over account reconciliations, journal entries, and data classification, CFOs are scrambling to re-evaluate financial division structures.
Judgment, strategy, and interpretation are emerging as the new competitive edges, because human ledger-keeping and balance-sheet monitoring are quickly becoming extinct.
Thus, the question is no longer if firms should shift such technology, but how to lead with it.
Three Shifts Every CFO Should Make
- Rebalance the portfolio of work.
As automation absorbs transactional tasks like reconciliations and journal entries, CFOs must redeploy team members toward strategic areas such as forecasting, policy enforcement, and performance analysis. True competitive edges now lie not in output volume but in the efficiency of how a finance team converts data into actionable business decisions for the company.
- Invest in AI fluency.
AI is now a core financial competency that defines tomorrow’s leadership tier, not just an ancillary technical specialty. CFOs who train their teams to prompt, supervise, and interpret AI-generated outputs will accelerate close-cycles, improve accuracy, and elevate their entire organization’s strategic capacity.
- Treat tax automation as transformation
Automating tax workflows should go beyond achieving compliance and create structural changes in how financial data flows across enterprises. When clean data, mapped taxability, and transparent exception-handling align, automation evolves from a back-office tool into a foundation for sustainable growth and cross-border scalability.
A recent Avalara webinar entitled “Reinventing Finance and Tax: The AI Boom” describe the evolution as finance teams moving “from AI curiosity to necessity,” with e-invoicing mandates and cross-border compliance accelerating the push toward automation.
The productivity upside is already quantifiable. CFO Dive found that AI-enabled finance teams reduce monthly close time by an average of 7.5 days and expand reporting depth by more than 12 percent.
Those gains multiply greatly when finance, tax, and business strategy are integrated, which is precisely the philosophy behind the new franchise model built by Succentrix Business Advisors, the nation’s leading Fractional CFO provider.
But What About Small-Businesses & Entrepreneurs?
Though they exist as the backbone of the American economy, small-business owners and entrepreneurs obviously don’t employ entire financial departments and are often their own CFOs.
That’s why Succentrix Business Advisors created its new three-pronged Fractional CFO business model: to lead small-business owners and entrepreneurs through this transition and beyond.
Essentially, our franchisees become coaches who help clients with the shift.
Our gold-standard advisors combine technology, insight, and human judgment to deliver control, not just compliance. They translate financial data into decisions, manage business valuation and cash flow, oversee tax planning and resolution, and guide entrepreneurs toward growth, stability, and exit-readiness.
Through our business advisory services, we organize and reconcile monthly balance sheets and profit-and-loss statements, process payroll and payroll taxes, and strengthen cash flow management.
With our tax advisory services, we prepare and file returns, minimize tax liability, resolve IRS issues, and manage foreign tax obligations.
Through our financial advisory services, we deliver investment management solutions, monitor portfolios, and apply real-time market knowledge to rebalance assets strategically.
By redefining what a Fractional CFO can do, and by adding proprietary AI elements to our already-powerful fintech stack, Succentrix allows financial professionals to become difference-makers and game-changers for their clients.
Succentrix Fractional CFOs think like entrepreneurs because they’re entrepreneurs, too, empowered with advanced tools, unified systems, and a brand built on integrity, excellence, and service.
The Landry Shift became a trademark of the Cowboys’ offense in the 1960s and 1970s, symbolizing innovation, timing, and adaptability, qualities that align closely with the leadership and system-building provided by Succentrix’s Fractional CFOs.
In Landry’s 28 years of leadership, the Cowboys won 13 division championships, appeared in 10 conference championships, won five conference championships, and won two Super Bowls.
If you’re ready to join a nationwide team that’s shifting the financial leadership landscape for small businesses and entrepreneurs by becoming a Succentrix Fractional CFO, contact us today.
#accounting #advisory #AI #bookkeeping #business #career #careerchange #CFO #college #consultant #consulting #entrepreneur #finance #fintech #fractional #fractionalcfo #franchise #smallbiz #smallbusiness #solopreneur #strategy #succentrix #taxprep #football #sportsbiz #dallas #cowboys #nfl #dfw #dallascowboys #bigd #texas
