In a wide-ranging interview conducted at the developer’s Xerocon 2024 conference, Singh Cassidy discussed the company’s plans for the future, recent changes to Xero’s strategy, where she sees the AI landscape, and the success and failures in her career. You can listen to the full conversation by clicking on the podcast player below or searching for ‘AccountingWEB’ on your podcast app of choice.
Singh Cassidy is somewhat of a Silicon Valley doyen, holding senior positions at Google and StubHub and co-founding successful start-ups Yodlee and Boardlist, before joining Xero as CEO last year after Steve Vamos stepped down.
She explained that Xero is honing in on three core areas: core accounting, payments, and payroll, targeting its largest markets of Australia, the UK, and the US. Last year, this shift led to the layoff of 700 employees, the divestment from finance platform Waddle and project management tool WorkflowMax, and the discontinuation of Xero Go. These moves are aimed at streamlining operations and ensuring resources are allocated to the most impactful areas.
“We were over-invested as a company, so we pared back in order to give ourselves room,” said Singh Cassidy. “The things we’re exiting are just trying to bring focus. Because if you think about those three jobs we talk about – core accounting, payments and payroll – they’re massive at Xero. We call them super jobs because inside of them there are so many other jobs. [for example, core accounting might contain tax, analytics, pre-accounting etc].
“If we don’t buckle down, and at least deliver the core, we risk losing focus,” she added. “And we already run a complex business.”
Addressing recent pricing changes to Xero, Singh Cassidy explained that Xero has simplified its pricing plans to bundle more value and streamline customer choices. While recognising customer frustrations, she emphasised the importance of aligning prices with the value provided, ensuring that users see tangible benefits from the adjustments.
“We announced a price increase on the current plans,” she said. “We always look to where we are situated relative to competitors, relative to the value we provide. We feel really good about the value we provide at Xero. Having said all of that, I understand that price is a trigger for people, and I think our job is to understand it, to feel like we are always being conscious of the value we provide relative to our prices.”
She also flagged artificial intelligence’s significant impact on Xero’s products, with machine learning powering OCR scanning, bank reconciliation and cashflow predictions. However, she feels that developing and integrating generative AI products, as demonstrated at Xerocon by Xero’s AI agent JAX, could enhance user interactions and simplify tasks, reflecting the broader trend towards conversational interfaces in technology.
Singh Cassidy also shared insights from her early experience with bookkeeping, ploughing through the books for her parents’ medical practice. For her, this hands-on experience, involving manual ledgers and late-night tax filings, underscored the transformative potential of technology such as Xero for small businesses.
{Categories} _Category: Takes{/Categories}
{URL}https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tech/accounting-software/xero-ceo-sukhinder-singh-cassidy-talks-strategy-risk-and-pricing{/URL}
{Author}TomHerbert{/Author}
{Image}https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/sites/default/files/ssc.jpg{/Image}
{Keywords}{/Keywords}
{Source}POV{/Source}
{Thumb}{/Thumb}