How CFOs Lead Through Risk and Constraint: Adam Kozak on Running Toward the Burning Building

The organization you’re building today won’t look the same 12 months from now — and that’s exactly why leaders need to hire for the future, not just the present.

In this episode of @TheNextMovesPodcast Joe sits down with Adam Kozak (CFO at PRT Growing Services) to break down how strong operators think about risk, talent, decision-making, and transformation across wildly different environments — from Loblaws (retail + supply chain at scale) to the cannabis industry (high ambiguity, high volatility) to private equity-backed business transformation.

We cover what separates leaders who protect the business from those who run toward burning buildings, and how to build teams when you don’t have unlimited budget, time, or perfect conditions.

🔥 In this conversation, we cover:

✅ How to make talent decisions when the business will change fast

✅ The “utopia → reality” method for hiring under constraints

✅ Why finance leaders must start with the business (not spreadsheets)

✅ How to avoid analysis paralysis and course-correct quickly

✅ Navigating ambiguity across industries and operating models

✅ Loneliness in senior leadership (and how to fix it)

✅ What Adam learned from one role that wasn’t what he signed up for

✅ The one low-cost move that creates massive value: communication

If you're a leader, founder, CFO, COO, or hiring manager trying to build the right team in an uncertain market - this one will hit.

🎧 Listen, subscribe, and share this with someone building through change.

Connect with guest Adam Kozak on LinkedIn ➡️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamkozak1/

Connect with Host Joe Diubaldo on LinkedIn ➡️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/joediubaldo/

Joe Diubaldo, host of The Next Moves and Founder of Clarity Recruitment, has made it his life to help people build better careers and better companies. Along the way, there's been one lesson that always stands out... We all get stuck. The Next Moves podcast has been curated to help you get unstuck; to help you plan the next move and then the move after that.

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 Hiring for the future (not today)

00:24 Adam’s background: CFO + COO operator mindset

01:12 From Deloitte to Loblaws to cannabis + PE transformation

05:03 Start with the business, then work backwards (finance leadership)

06:57 Best-in-class thinking + solving the “Rubik’s cube”

09:15 When the role isn’t what you expected

11:46 Turning failure into learning

13:09 Staying 11 years at Loblaws

16:40 Breaking silos + earning trust cross-functionally

19:12 Loneliness at senior levels

25:29 Building teams under constraints

28:30 Why every org looks different in 12 months

30:20 Macro uncertainty + looking inward to improve

32:43 Rapid fire leadership questions35:54 The scrappiest value creator: communication