Ben Hollowell was a psychology major before he realized he didn’t want the graduate degree he’d need to be employable in that field. The next best fit was business and accounting.
Hollowell, president and CFO of drafting and design software firm Applied Technology Group USA in North Little Rock, said he doesn’t regret that choice. He was fascinated by automated processes and attracted to the scalability and accuracy that technology promised.
Hollowell was also a finalist for CFO of the Year in 2015.
He said ATG USA’s revenue, as of Aug. 31, had quadrupled during his tenure, and its growth rate for the past year was above average for the industry. The company has 35 employees.
Hollowell is also the firm’s legal counsel. After more than three years of night classes at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Bowen School of Law, Hollowell was admitted to the bar last year.
He recalled having to make tough decisions on management compensation and strategic investments during the recession when the firm’s customers were cutting back. Hollowell added that his firm is making the same “forward-looking” decisions now, as the oil and gas industry it sells to has been “turbulent.”
He also said he leads by example and has learned to not approach every part of a business from an accounting perspective because some factors aren’t quantifiable. “At the end of the day, it’s all about people.” His pro bono work for the Center for Arkansas Legal Services reinforces the lesson that not everything can be answered by a spreadsheet, he said.
Hollowell also tells employees “never let yourself be someone else’s excuse” for not finishing a project, and he gives them the “why” about a project so they have a sense of “personal buy-in.”
Sign up for Daily E-news
