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O P I N I O N
A successful string of mergers
S alas O’Brien’s history could almost be summarized as a string of successful mergers. When I share our story with industry colleagues, they marvel at how we can keep it up. So friends, colleagues, and anyone else who’s interested, here’s how we do it. Find your ‘why’ and ‘how,’ make a plan, and – with the help of a few strong mergers – achieve astronomical growth.
Darin Anderson
❚ ❚ Why? If you’re looking to grow your firm and in- crease your people’s passion and focus, you need to answer this question first. At Salas O’Brien, we do mergers because growth is in our DNA. Our “ownership values,” which define what it means to be an employee-owner of Salas O’Brien, state that we “encourage the growth of our owners” and “provide positive energy, passion, and commitment to everything we do.” We could not be true to our identity without pursuing aggressive growth. Growth will look different for your organization than it will for Salas O’Brien. My advice is to take a hard look at your values and long-term plans, and design your growth around those. That said, we know that growth cannot simply be an artificial conglomeration of unrelated firms, which is why we strive for a balance of organic growth and
M&A growth. Growing organically through sharing clients and pursuing bigger clients is where you cre- ate opportunities that couldn’t come through more informal means of collaboration. “Growth brings new ideas, innovation, and best practices into your company, which in turn serves clients better and builds value for your firm.” Whatever the “why” behind your strategy, growth also brings new ideas, innovation, and best practices into your company, which in turn serves clients bet- ter and builds value for your firm.
See DARIN ANDERSON, page 10
THE ZWEIG LETTER May 6, 2019, ISSUE 1295
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