Why the smartest career move is to hire your own replacement

Although her first years in accounting were a key apprenticeship field, said Mastantuono, she quickly recognized that being limited to this field would limit her career ambitions. She deliberately won roles that extended her skills through finance, going from Ernst & Young to Iac, then to Revlon during a turnaround when the action was negotiated with a single dollar. It then went to Ingram Micro, a technology distributor generating $ 40 billion in income but operating on thin razor margins. Each movement has expanded its expertise in finance, operation and strategy, preparing it for a role of high-level business leadership, she said now.

Now, president and financial director of ServiceNow, the choices of Mastanuono seem to have borne fruit. Since its arrival in 2020, the market capitalization of the corporate software company has increased from around 50 billion dollars to more than $ 200 billion, and it made its debut on the Fortune list 500 in 2023. Last year, Mastuono obtained a coveted place on Fortuneis inaugural alongside the list of leads, highlighting the leaders likely to go up to the President of the CEO.

Despite her financial chops, she insists that the construction of large teams is as critical as mastering the figures. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who was CFO at IAC when he hired her, offered advice she always follows: “Hiring people (who) can do your job in two to three years, so that you can continue to grow and learn and develop more.” This mandate pushes her to recruit ambitious and potential artists and offer them growth opportunities. As such, Mastantuono says that it prices curiosity, emotional intelligence and the ability to connect points in a business – what it calls “new power skills” – in particular in the context of AI’s economy.

Now approaching his sixth year in ServiceNow, Mastanuono is frank on the next step. Although she specifies that she is not in a hurry to reach the local office, it is a role that she can imagine for herself. “I would love to direct a business to new heights,” she admits. “For me, it’s all about impact.”

This interview starts the fortune next to the series of videos in mind, with C-Suite frames to go up on the way who already think like CEOs while they share their career ascent, hard-won leadership lessons and ideas on what it really takes to reach the top of American companies. Look at the complete conversation here.

Ruth umoh
ruth.umoh@fortune.com

Smarter in a few seconds

Launch the lessons. Aha moments, the “first ten hours” and other professional advice from business leaders creating ready workforce

Real allies. The Nyu professor says that traditional networking is “absurd” – instead, real friendships are essential to success

Piper. Jamie Dimon says that his successor at JPMorgan does not need to be the smartest person in the room

Leadership lesson

Mastantuono on the transition from depth to the extent during the construction of a career: “While you are starting to get out of this career at the start of your career, the extent becomes more and more important (than depth), and it is really important that people realize that what has led you here today is not necessarily what will bring you to the next scale.”

News to know

US and Chinese officials met in Madrid on Sunday for a fourth round of talks to extend the truce of the trade war and attack the imminent prohibition of Tiktok. NOW

Companies discipline employees on public comments on the death of Charlie Kirk. BI

The Fed governor, Lisa Cook, whom Trump tries to dismiss for having allegedly distorted a primary residence, listed the property twice as a vacation or a second home. Wsj

Wall Street is waiting for this week’s Fed’s Fed meeting, where political decision -makers should reduce rates for the first time this year in the middle of the White House pressure and low job data. Fortune

US companies have reached Trump’s rates as hard slows down the hiring. FT