What does BDO's Employee Stock Ownership Plan do?

In 2023, BDO became the first major accounting and advisory firm to establish an ESOP, giving every employee a beneficial ownership stake in the firm at no cost to them and an opportunity to enhance their personal financial well-being. The CEO notes this shifted employee mindset from asking "how does this affect my job?" to "how does this affect the value I own?", turning compliance into commitment.

How is BDO using AI differently from other firms?

Rather than viewing AI solely as an efficiency tool to do the same work faster, BDO built purpose-designed AI agents through its Agent Builder program, enabling employees to create hundreds of custom tools. The firm paired this with training via AI Ambassadors and customized learning paths, freeing professionals to focus on critical thinking and client advisory skills that technology cannot replace.

Back to articles

BDO grew to $3.4B by making culture central to AI adoption

Fortune AI20h ago5 min read

Key takeaway

BDO USA's CEO attributes the firm's sixfold revenue growth to three interconnected pillars: fostering a culture of belonging (over 90% of employees report feeling valued), deploying AI to enhance rather than replace human expertise, and giving every employee financial ownership through an ESOP. The CEO argues that organizations treating AI merely as a cost-cutting tool risk losing top talent, and that lasting transformation requires both cultural trust and structural incentives for employees to embrace change.

Summaries like this, in your inbox every morning.

3 Key Points

What happened
BDO USA CEO Aditya Mittal describes how the firm grew revenue nearly sixfold from $600 million（約960億円） to more than $3.4 billion（約5400億円） over 14 years, driven by three strategies: building a strong culture where over 90% of employees report a sense of belonging, deploying AI to augment rather than replace expertise, and establishing an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) in 2023 that gave every employee a beneficial ownership stake.
Why it matters
For professional services firms and other organizations navigating AI adoption, the CEO argues that treating AI solely as an efficiency tool risks losing high performers who want to apply their skills to more complex work. Instead, pairing culture-first leadership with purpose-built technology and genuine employee ownership creates the buy-in needed for sustainable transformation. Nearly two-thirds of BDO's growth came from organic expansion, not acquisition, suggesting these practices translate to business results.
What to watch
BDO's Agent Builder program has enabled employees to create hundreds of custom AI agents, showing one path to scaling AI adoption across an organization. The firm's approach—combining training via AI Ambassadors and peer-led workshops with a structure that gives employees financial stake in the outcome—offers a model other large organizations may study as they weigh how to deploy agentic AI (self-directed tools) without triggering talent departures.

FAQ

What does BDO's Employee Stock Ownership Plan do?: In 2023, BDO became the first major accounting and advisory firm to establish an ESOP, giving every employee a beneficial ownership stake in the firm at no cost to them and an opportunity to enhance their personal financial well-being. The CEO notes this shifted employee mindset from asking "how does this affect my job?" to "how does this affect the value I own?", turning compliance into commitment.
How is BDO using AI differently from other firms?: Rather than viewing AI solely as an efficiency tool to do the same work faster, BDO built purpose-designed AI agents through its Agent Builder program, enabling employees to create hundreds of custom tools. The firm paired this with training via AI Ambassadors and customized learning paths, freeing professionals to focus on critical thinking and client advisory skills that technology cannot replace.

Discussion

No discussion yet for this article

Stay ahead with AI news

Get curated AI news from 200+ sources delivered daily to your inbox. Free to use.

Get Started Free

Free · takes 30 seconds · unsubscribe anytime

1 minute a day. The AI essentials.

200+ sources · Email / LINE / Slack

Get it free →