What I Learned from Being Part of 7 Different Billion Dollar Acquisitions
Summary
In this conversation, Jon Stoddard interviews Jack Stack, an experienced leader in mergers and acquisitions. Jack shares insights on the complexities of acquisition integration, the importance of due diligence, and the challenges faced during the assimilation process. He discusses the significance of cultural fit, managing red flags, and the evolving landscape of buyer behavior in the wake of recent changes in the workplace. Jack emphasizes the need for strategic thinking in acquisitions and the importance of understanding market dynamics to ensure successful outcomes.
Takeaways
Due diligence is critical for successful acquisitions.
Understanding the target organization's capabilities is essential.
Managing change effectively can mitigate employee uncertainty.
Cultural fit can determine the success or failure of an acquisition.
Identifying improvement opportunities is key to maximizing value.
Market sizing is crucial for making informed investment decisions.
Employee retention strategies are vital during transitions.
Buyer behavior is evolving due to changes in the workplace.
Creative solutions are emerging to address labor shortages.
Every business presents an opportunity for growth and improvement.
Watch the Interview:
Transcript:
Jon Stoddard (00:00.482)
Got it. Well, thanks for joining us top &A entrepreneurs. Today I have a guest, John Jack Stack. So the curious thing is I met John Stack on LinkedIn. He goes by the name of Jack, which is my son's name, Stack, his last name, which is what I call my company Stack Acquisitions. And he went to NAU, Northern Arizona University, where I did. So there's some connection there that
I wanted to reach out to him. So welcome John Jackstack. Thank you for having me. Yeah. So you were, and we talked about this before you were involved in seven or acquisitions and one you actually led, right? Yes. Yeah. And how did you get into this role? Now do tell me about this. It was more about the integration of these companies to other companies. How did you get in this role? Well, I
So I've always been kind of a technical leader and then I transitioned to management. And then as part of that transition, you end up looking at the technology and fit and therefore started getting more involved on teams to do that kind of thing. then, I guess my...
one of my largest roles for doing assimilation turned out being more or less a roll up of all my past experience in IT. And because of that and because of my degree and running businesses, I tend to have a blended background that was well suited for all the touch points for an assimilation.
Yeah. So let me ask you about this integration. Now, the CEO is leading the acquisitions. He acquired the company. Did I just curious, did he have input on your side? Is this a good fit? Not a good fit? Kind of like a James T. Kirk asking everybody in his. Yeah. So, I, you know, let's, let's start back a little bit before that. You know, when you're looking at an organization to buy them,
Jon Stoddard (02:21.335)
You're looking for fit and finish. You're looking at synergies, if it's a merger, and you're looking for opportunities. And those opportunities typically are defined as synergies, well-stated with some degree of analysis on what are the go-gets to achieve those synergies. And that then drives what due diligence,
the due diligence part. And so I've been involved in the due diligence from the outside, ran due diligence projects, not only from a technological point of view, but from a business point of view as well. And so those synergies are the key drivers for assimilation, as well as you identifying how you're gonna make money out of the deal.
So how did you say, come up with some kind of template and say, this is in the synergy level, this is outside or, and there's a gray area that, you know, we can, we can work with. How do you decide that? So, so that's the tough part, right? I mean, you really have to go, okay, how are we going to accomplish this or, or what is the synergy, you know, whether or not it's a new market, whether or not there's, customers, that
you want to have that that target company actually is already doing business with. So it really depends on the key drivers, you know, on, on that, that end up driving the due diligence. Once again, you know, it's, it's like, why are you getting this company? Why are you even looking at them? Well, is it a market? it, customers is there,
industry movement, you know, as an example that, that this, you know, the company you're looking at is hoping or moving into. And, you know, so it's kind of very similar, I guess, to a buy versus lease model, right? When, when, you know, you're looking at, you know, do I buy this or do I lease it? You know, a lease would probably be, you know, something that
Jon Stoddard (04:48.109)
you're going to, you've seen an opportunity and you're going to just move into it. Whereas a buy would be an acquisition. So it, it's very, it's got a very similar ring to it in terms of how it happens and how you look at it. At least that's my point of view. Once you get there, then you know, you've, you start identifying, well, you know, can we make 15, 20 % in sales and what's it, how is that?
tart out to what's that tart out to in a GCF, right? You know, you know, so you end up discounting your cash flows back to see whether or not you're, going to pay for that acquisition. everything needs to be paid for, right? And, and then, you know, once you, you have a sales price, you know, you know, I, I listened to one of the podcasts that you had where, you know, typically there's,
you know, you're doing it as a gross multiplier of sales, or you're looking at net income and some kind of multiplier there. And then you kind of figure out in your DCF whether or not you can take advantage of all those synergies, right? In order to build up to make it worthwhile in terms of what your capital investment is. Yeah. So when when you guys was
Trying to understand, was it a lot of different CEOs that you're working for or was it one CEO with six acquisitions? How did that look? I called one acquisition. It actually was nine separate operating facilities and they each had a different line of business. That was one I did from 2015 through 18 with Magit.
engineering in the UK and they had purchased nine plants from Cobham, which was a direct competitor. You may note in the news that Megat's being purchased by Parker Hanifin for billions of dollars. The Megat folks really ended up, they got a nice little, or they're getting a nice little bump in their.
Jon Stoddard (07:13.737)
stock price from that. And I think a lot of that driver was around the Cobham acquisitions as well as them hiring former president of Rolls-Royce. So with that particular acquisition, I was over the technology portion of it and the assimilation team basically reported to the board of directors. So the lead of that project
reported directly to the board of directors. And then he had a team of multidisciplinary folks beneath them. I was responsible for all the technology, the entire technology footprint in all of the plants that was from CNC machines all the way to email and all the applications and
and the blending and the integration of those into Maggots system. It took three years to do nine plants. yeah, and a lot of travel everywhere. I had a core team there that worked for me that was familiar with the process. There was limited due diligence in that in terms of
integration due diligence. me ask you about that. Why was there a limited due diligence? Especially with something with such a large acquisition price and nine. Yeah. So the due diligence was done on the business side, you know, in terms of market and, Meg, it was good at acquiring companies, to, as a growth strategy. And so they would,
go into new markets or do product line infill with a player or two when they acquired. Cobham, at the time, was concerned on whether or not the deal would go through whatsoever. And so there was very limited information coming their way until the ink had been placed on paper.
Jon Stoddard (09:37.431)
So it was kind of like waiting, waiting, waiting for the attorneys. And that took about four months. And the first plants that we ended up getting happened the day before Thanksgiving. We did the mail integration on that on Thanksgiving day. So we were waiting. We had done all the due diligence we could. We had moved some data.
that they allowed once the lawyers were confident that the deal was going to close. But then they stopped. We never visited one of the plants until the deal was consummated. At that point, then, there was a service level agreement from Cobham on the backside because systems were being migrated and they were
having to maintain those systems before they were transferred over to make its control. Hold on one second, let me pause you one second. This meeting is being recorded. All right, so tell me, how did you get involved in that and you're the DD guy? So what does that look like? Well, so when you're doing any deal, you have the synergies of
You know, I'm backing up just a little bit. You've got the synergies, you've got the business objectives, great. Okay, but you still have to understand whether or not the organization you're buying has the capability of delivering on those synergies. And that's where the due diligence comes in. You want to look at systems, you want to go, you know, what's their HR look like? What's their sales process look like? What's their marketing like? How do they actually market?
you know, are their customers happy with them? You know that, you know, when you're buying a company, there's no difference whether or not you're merging or just simply buying a company. If you don't know all everything you can, A to Z, every single business aspect that you can think of. If you don't know that going in, you might be in for some surprises. Surprises are bad because typically they cost money, right? And they cost time.
Jon Stoddard (12:02.989)
because it's a price to fix the problem. It takes a little bit of time and it pushes your dates back on your synergies or whatever you're looking at as the key drivers on buying that company. So due diligence to me is one of the most important components and not just from an assimilation point of view, from, you have perfect
the perfect right to be a, just a pain in the ass, hopefully not a pain in the ass, but, just a pain in the ass to get the answers. You need to be comfortable that you're going to that purchase is going to be the way you intended to be and whether or not it, you know, and whether or not it accomplishes the goals that you have and the drivers for you buying it. So due diligence is critical, you know, cash on hand.
you know, accounts receivable, all the business basics, all of it has to be in place, or at least you have to understand it, identify the things that you can improve, identify, you know, what kind of waste you can get rid of. All of those kinds of things are what make acquisitions and mergers. And if you identify those early on,
and then start getting into the details, then you can start building a project around them for those various things that you know are going to either make you money or cost you money. How did you remove the emotion? Because you want to buy a company, it's a couple hundred million dollars, nine plants, and it goes, this is going to add life changing wealth and stature to my record. But
you know, if you look at every area, okay, email is pretty easy. We'll just get everybody changed over email. Also marketing, it's not, you know, it's, it's, it's not bad. you know, cost of acquisition of this. So it's neutral and maybe, you know, in the accounting department, there's duplication. We're just bringing our people. How do you, like, if there's a red flag, it's a deal killer or kind of examples like that. Okay.
Jon Stoddard (14:27.423)
You first of all, if it's a red flag, let's say what you know, determine whether or not there's emotion. OK, so you started with emotion and a red flag to me is an emotional thing. You know, it's really kind of cut and dried. What are we going to do about this? It's not about this is a showstopper unless until it is a showstopper, right? Meaning meaning you're not.
You know, just because there's a deficiency, just because there's, you know, something doesn't work at the target. It doesn't mean that it's a deal killer. It means that, you know, if you're still interested in them and the red flag is not cost prohibitive to the deal, then, you you start getting an idea on how to work it out. And the best thing I can say culturally is, you know,
bringing that up with the target and saying, you know, have you, have you thought about this? This has been a problem for you. or this is a problem. What, what are you doing about it? What, what do you intend on doing about it? You know, it depends on the nature of the deal. I mean, if you're leaving management in place, you're going to go, you know, you know that this problem exists. What have you tried? And it might take some different thinking and you coming in and saying, no,
I disagree with what you've have tried. You're going to have to do it this way. Okay. So removing emotion is a key component, you know, and that's, that's not only with, with and a, but that's just getting things done in general. You, you you remove all the fear and certainty and doubt whenever you can, you know, and change management is a key component.
during purchases and assimilations. How do you deal with the change management? Those red flags should feed into the change management process when you're buying it, when you're buying a company, because there are going to be changes. You try very hard to remove as much FUD as possible because FUD affects profitability, it affects productivity because
Jon Stoddard (16:53.281)
people are uncertain. And, you know, when you buy a company, you don't want everybody to leave, you know, the second you buy them, you you don't want, you want to retain employees for as long as you can until you know whether or not they're, you know, suited for the position. And so you remove as much FUD as possible and, and you go, we're going to have to figure that out, you know, state what you don't know. We're going to have to figure that out. We don't know yet. How do you make that?
those connections synopsis, you know, because if you don't want to lose the people, you kind of have to bring them in sooner or later to let them know what's going on. Not a shock that, Gus, we're just, we've got some new overlords for the United States. I'm out. You know, our cultures are a lot too much different. Well, first thing is, you know, on the smaller ones,
you try to pull everyone in as quickly as possible. When I joined IBM years ago, I had a methodology and it worked pretty well. I'd bring everybody in. I brought everybody in right away and we went for a walk. Every single employee that worked for me, we went for a walk. And we just, I'd ask them very basic things like, why do you?
Why do you stay at IBM? What do you like about it? I'll tell you a short story, which is pretty funny. One of the guys that, you know, automatically put a target on his back. What came out of his mouth when he, when I asked him that was he told me that it was safe. And I'm like, safe, what do you mean? He goes, well, I've had seven managers and, and no matter, you know, if I screw up or something, you know,
I could care less because I know there's not going to be another manager behind him. It's like, okay. Well, have to keep an eye on you. And I told him that I said, you know, well, I'm not sure. I don't know how to take that, but you and I are going to discuss this later because I don't want people feeling safe. want people feeling happy and I want them enjoying their jobs.
Jon Stoddard (19:21.195)
and safety isn't part of it. but conversely, I mean, that whole safe thing, you want to kind of let people know, you know, we don't know what the future will bring. We're, you know, there's some unanswered questions. We're, you know, we're here to leverage, you know, the best aspects of this organization. We want you to be one of those best aspects.
And please stay and see how you like it. And we're not the thought police. Therefore, if you have some good ideas about how things should happen or if you have questions, let us know what they are so we can address them. you get them to extended contracts with them or do they, they can quit at any time? So that depends on the situation.
With an acquisition, typically you've got a retention contract with the executives. And then that goes down to a certain level, as an example. You want all your key execs identified in the deal, of course. part and parcel to that typically is they have retention contracts or retention bonuses to keep them on board.
Then we go down one level, you know, to not key employees, not those, the ones that are not identified in the contract. And then you have to take it on a case by case basis. And sometimes you go, you know, for an entire department that's determined to be critical, you know, if you stay on for six months, you're going to get X number of dollars. And that, by the way,
should factor into your assimilation budget or your purchase deal, you know, because there's cost after the fact, once the, once the deal is signed. Yeah. Is there any, I know you handled the IT kind of technical part of integration and simulation. Was there any red flags that just like shenanigans that you ever saw that somebody was trying to do? Well, obviously, or what? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What did those look like?
Jon Stoddard (21:47.361)
I mean, how do you do that? Yeah. Yeah. You know, after the fact on one of the aerospace deals, not Meg, it's another one that I was involved in, found out that three of the engineers were selling
engineering secrets, engineering drawings to Holy cow, no way. They were, how did they get away with that? They didn't. They went to jail. Or I don't know, they, they, they went to jail. Did the let me, what do you were they doing it before the acquisition? Or did they do it because they thought they were
We don't know. Yeah, we don't know. There have been cases where
An individual at one of the organizations was purposefully crashing the system within a two-hour period midday. Yeah. And it was a key system for that location. Yeah, so there are some shenanigans. Definitely there are.
certain gray areas during due diligence where the company being acquired can't disclose due to legal issues or lingering legal issues. And typically they bond those as part of the deal or they say, this is a carve out, we can't talk about it. But we're gonna carve out this value and they give the attorneys as much information as they can and call it a day.
Jon Stoddard (23:53.101)
So there are a lot of moving pieces during the deal. Let me go back to those employees that were stealing. Now, was that accounted for somehow? Say, hey, they put a financial number on what was lost. they said, was the seller responsible for that in the price somehow? Or was that just absorbed in later? I can't talk.
to that specific deal. But I can talk in generalities. Yeah, go ahead. Sometimes there's, in some of the larger acquisitions, there is a contingency. OK, and those are put into a contingency and marked against the contingency post-deal. So that's.
that is that a tech like timeframe within 12 months or within? Yeah, I mean, every single legal agreement always has a sunset date on it. a sunset date on it. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. And did you ever involved with one where it was unwound? They unwinding it to an acquisition? I've been in two acquisitions where it it
It fell apart. Yeah. What were the reasons there?
The first one was just that the organization was moving into a market and it was viewed as an opportunity by the acquirer and the market didn't prove out. And so there wasn't money at the end of the rain bill bow for that acquisition. The second one was
Jon Stoddard (25:56.245)
Let me go to that. they were, don't know what the size was. Let's say it's a $10 million business and they're acquiring it. And you know, it's a profitable business, but you bought it because you thought it, you could put your products through that channel too or vice versa or what was it? No, it was a technology purchase and the organization was entering the market.
And it turned out that the driver behind the acquisition just really didn't have the cash flow that would give that yield. And so this company was making a pivot to a new market. And that new market was enticing. once the numbers were checked against
potential of that market. just didn't prove out to be true. There was a real market. So they were in some kind of mature market that was probably going away at some point, losing its probability, trying to get into a new market and saying, hey, this is fantastic. We're going to hit a new market. It's going to be three times as large. But that didn't turn out to be true. Yeah. And then I experienced the same thing as well.
I was going to buy a technology and a couple of engineers that had some technology in the 3D printing business. I was, this was 2013, 14, right in there. So it was early. And I felt that they were going in the right direction. And I ended up
up sizing the market and you know what they had was enticing and ended up sizing the market and it just didn't make financial sense to get there and I had spent a lot of time I mean and I think that happens more often than not you know especially when you're looking at a company or you're looking at somebody very small and just you know even making a VC investment you know where you go
Jon Stoddard (28:24.137)
Okay. Or an angel investment in this case. And, and that, that company kind of was the different was me coming in as an angel and running it kind of like one of your recent podcasts where you're the, you're the money and the experience and they, they've got something. but market sizing, my, my, my calculation on the market sizing wasn't worth it.
That's a tough call to make because you could have a great business, $10, $25 million and it's moving along, but it only growing at five to 8 % a year. there's nothing you could do if you bought it. It's like, if I came in and I get this to it and this to it, organically it's just not going to grow because of the market. There's no market need for. Actually, I think I,
there are a lot of PE guys that look for five to 8 % and understand that they're going to get to, they're hoping for 10 or they're hoping for 15. And as a backstop to that, they're looking to either roll it into other companies that they've got or go in and cut costs.
or load it up with debt, you know, like a typical, a frequent PE move and go on down the road, right? Yeah. So I mean, I get that. mean, you can say, Hey, I got this $25 million company. It's growing 5 % per year. And organically, I'm just not going to see any, any more. Maybe it's a regional thing. Maybe it's whatever it is. It's the limitations.
But the only really way to go is to buy another company doing $25 million at 8%. Now I have a $50 million company. Yeah. I, you know, and I think the other thing to look at is, you know,
Jon Stoddard (30:34.165)
looking at looking at companies, you know, they're limping along and you identify that there's just, they're, they're ripe for a change in management. Okay. You know, they're just getting too comfortable. It's like the old sales guys, you know, that have been someplace for too long and they're just taking their paycheck home and they're not swinging for the fences. Right. Yeah. They some
somewhere along the line that get comfortable and they're not swinging for the fences. That's more companies than, if those companies could be easily identified, there'd be more companies for sale. There'd be more companies being acquired and assimilated. Well, I guess that's the key is to find somebody that's stagnant.
or exhausted and just keep asking them. And it's a numbers game. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I, you know, I know that there are a few folks down here in San Diego that, that market primarily to organizations that have had family management. I I know that an attractive business for them. look for family owned businesses where, know, it's questionable on whether or not the kids stay with the business.
And they're not really expensive businesses, but they're just cash earners and no real big changes as a result of coming with that. there's all sorts of opportunities out there. Have you ever been involved with an acquisition that was in a distress situation and the person acquiring it was kind of a turnaround artist?
I think the lot, so I've done due diligence for some PE guys and that's their principle thinking usually. I think there are a lot of PE guys that look for distress businesses. I can't say whether or not the ones I've worked with thought that they were distressed. That word typically doesn't.
Jon Stoddard (32:57.229)
Well, let's say it's not profitable. Yeah, there are a lot of businesses. because of, you know, and the employer goes, well, I can fix that. Yeah, there are a lot of, there are a lot of unprofitable or stagnant businesses out there. I just don't think the term distressed is one that's thrown around a lot except by, except by
MBAs. Okay, people that write business articles, right? I don't look at any businesses as being distressed. I look at every business as an opportunity. And I think that's, that's, that's where you have to keep your head. Yeah. Well, do you have, let's say a rule book?
operating procedures when you come in and say that this is the first thing I do. Like if you were Captain Sully and you lose two engines, you pull out the operating manual and this is what you do. Well, so quite certainly on the assimilation side, I've got a run book and I, there's not a lot of those books out there. There's a, there's a tome by some former
Price Waterhouse Cooper employees. That's an old name, right? But they wrote a tome years ago on the role between, well, assimilation and due diligence and checklists and processes and stuff like that. I tend to look at the sales side first and what the market is. I've been
I'd say marginally successful. I got involved in one a little while ago that I ended up just turning them on to some VCs that I knew. And I helped them through getting funding. They weren't a company, I liked them a lot. They just weren't a company I wanted to work with as an employee or as a leader.
Jon Stoddard (35:19.789)
and ended up just saying, listen, I, this is not for me, but I want to help you. And I like you guys a lot. And I like where you're going. I like your market. You need to, you need money. Let's get you some money. Yeah. And, in that regard, it was just cleaning up some things and, and you know, that their VC pitch, was successful and the VCs.
that they got in front of ended up really, I don't know how they did this, but they really targeted the organization's deficiencies quite well. And out of the blue, they targeted the deficiencies. I don't know how they And you didn't see this or you just didn't? No, I knew what they were, but typically you don't disclose everything. You kind of go, we're working on this area and
know, some of the, or these areas and, and these VCs came in and they're, they're, it's like they had an insider and we know they didn't. It was amazing. And it just turned out to be for their board. One of the, one of the update questions that they ended up having every quarter.
make sure the company was overcoming the deficiency. So. Yeah. I mean, we'll look at you. You picked the right VC. There's thousand out there and you picked the right one that saw that. So good for you. Yeah. Yeah. I was stunned. was, and I pulled them aside after it's like, like, are you reading people's minds? Jesus. Where'd that come from? And they're like, you know, it's just kind of random. I just, it was kind of a natural follow on question. It's like, wow. Okay.
What was the question that they asked that they got to the real... Accounting controls. was really... they had somebody working in a senior position that had taken some money from them. Well, that never helps, does it?
Jon Stoddard (37:43.597)
and they identified that early on or how deep did they go and time go by before they go, yeah, this is, can fix this by taking that guy out. They asked a fairly pointed question on, because it was, they had a lot of cash moving through the business and they asked, well, how do you do, what kind of controls do you have in place? And then they said,
Within the last three years, have you had any instances where somebody's taken money? And yeah, that's when they disclosed. Wow. Wow. And they hadn't really, in my opinion, corrected the situation fully. I had made some recommendations. And they hadn't taken them on yet.
Asking the right questions. They already knew the answer to it. They just had to ask the right questions. I think they were exploring. Let me ask you, I don't have a lot of time left with you, but with the acquisitions that you were involved in when they acquired companies, how did each one of those, did it increase shareholder value for the investors and shareholders, all of them?
One was unwound, which you asked me about. It was all about cultural fit. And it was unwound after probably about six or eight months. that company, I was directly involved in that. And that company ended up vaporizing three, four months later. Just like bankrupt.
Just it's going away. Yeah, yeah. just, yeah. they had, there was something else going on that we didn't really know. and those, you know, it turned out that their employees were not happy with the company that we were acquiring. And, and. So it's like black rifle coffee trying to purchase Patagonia. It's not going to work. Right, right. And so that.
Jon Stoddard (40:10.349)
And I got to ask you, what was the question again? was about the acquisitions you're involved with and did increasing shareholder value. So already one of them was unwound and the company blew up. Yeah. I'd say the IBM acquisition of the company I put in front of them.
when you're dealing with a large technology company, I mean, they orphan products or they assimilate products into their own product suite. so, you know, in that regard, they just bought the technology and I think, you know, ended up integrating the other people into the global or, Yeah. I've seen that. Yeah. So that's a very, yeah. Well, that wasn't quite an aqua hire. It was actually a technology play.
it just turned out to be cheap money on all sides. So ROI there, yeah, the mega one, obviously, since they're being acquired by Parker Hanifin three years later, that's a pretty good one. Yeah, that's a good one. they spent a lot of money. I mean, we're not talking about trivial assimilations, know, it costs.
millions of dollars to integrate an assembly plant into an existing ecosystem of plants. When you see moves like that, it's a multi-year, multi-million dollar process that you just, personally, I enjoyed the hell out of that. Primarily because it is like, what,
possible experience could I have that would allow me to up my game plus leverage, you know, my 30 years of experience in business and IT. You you can't have a better experience than that. And if you still enjoy the business and still like doing that kind of thing, there was no better opportunity.
Jon Stoddard (42:34.241)
You were in their arena, as they say, in the arena. Yeah. Yeah. I enjoy the hell out of it. So what are you curious about now? I mean, what do you want to do? You want to work here and you buy your own businesses or be a part of that or? Yeah. I, I, I really love helping company, helping companies do due diligence, try to understand the market.
Try to understand another business, see whether or not it's a suitable target and kind of identify the life cycle. So what I like is, I've had this opportunity with a couple PEs, PE guys where they're going, we were looking at these guys. We want you to come in with us and gain your viewpoint on
whether or not it's a goodbye. And I've enjoyed doing that. And I don't wear an auditor's hat per se, it's just kind of like, well, tell me about this. And there's a new thing happening, workplaces are changing. And a lot of organizations are having to change their digital transformation process to accommodate
differences in the way people buy. that's a big thing. And there are people starting to work in that arena, large organizations and small are having to deal with different buyer mentalities where new buyers don't want to be lunched and dined once a month. They wanna be provided information.
enough information to make an affirmative purchase decision. So those kind of things are things I'm thinking about with acquisitions, you know, and that's kind of pulling in different experiences I've had and just going, buyer behavior change is happening right now. There's worker behavior changes right now.
Jon Stoddard (44:58.675)
Massive labor shortages everywhere. How are companies dealing with that? What are they doing to make their environment better? Are they pwning up more cash or are they doing creative things? I heard something interesting this week as a matter of fact, because of the increase in prices, they're looking at giving debit cards to employees that have
a longer than 20 mile commute to work. Okay. Where, where the company is paying, paying for the increase in gas prices in order to keep employed. know, if they don't do that, it's right out of their paycheck. Yeah, it's coming right out of their paycheck. And, some, some companies are, recognizing that. And I think that's a cool thing. So companies are getting creative and
Workplaces are changing and buyer behaviors are changing as a result. They're working from home. It's like, okay, my customer went from being in this corporate office to working from home. Well, I can't drive 40 miles to their house and take them out for lunch. So how am I going to tell them about the product?
what part of that is your digital strategy? And so I think there's some education for people that acquire companies to start thinking about, you it's not just we're buying this company, there's actually new business challenges coming as a result of these changes in COVID and even gas prices now. And so all of that's interesting to me.
Jack, I wanna thank you very much for the time. I really appreciate sharing your knowledge and wisdom and how you did it with these seven acquisitions and being a guest on Top &A Entrepreneurs. So thank you so much, Jack. My pleasure. I really enjoyed it. Great questions. Thank you. Thank you. Take care. Bye.
