The Key Trait Shared by Executives of Larger, “Marquee” Companies
Paul revisits his interview with Darren Tucker of Peak Physical Therapy, now part of Confluent, on the curiosity, data-driven decisions, and preparation that marquee business owners share.
Full transcript
Generated from the episode audio and lightly edited for readability.
Good afternoon and welcome to another episode of the Martin Rehab M&A advisory. Today we are going to take a look back one week ago at an interview that we did with Darren Tucker and we're going to discuss some opportunities that you can put into action today. As you recall, Darren is the CEO of Peak Physical Therapy and Peak was acquired by Confluent back in December of 2021. We're in the middle of a series where we are examining how the larger marquee companies think as it relates to their own companies as well as what they're seeking from a partnership.
You know, Darren from the very beginning described that he always knew he wanted to be a large multicl clinic and even multi-state practice, but he also described that initially they struggled. And this is where Darren revealed a trait that we believe is common among all marquee business owners. And that is an extremely high level of curiosity. And his curiosity led him and s to seek and sought after people that would make him better. So again, he looked out into the world of consultants, out into the world of companies that were larger to him to try to understand how he could p take this road on his own.
And this was one of the big advice, big pieces of advice that Darren had, which was treat your practice like you treat your patients. What he meant by that was to objectify everything. And that was one of the first steps he took in helping to grow his practice was to objectify everything. We have seen over and over and over again when business owners try to make subjective decisions in their practice, that's where they make mistakes. And Darren's advice was to try to objectify everything. When a business owner uses that real data to drive small and large decisions, the probability of success goes up.
Significantly and what we heard from Darren was very common from what we hear from marquee business owners which is that a partner so what they're looking for in a partner really is simply the answer to how they will get to the next level. So they're looking for a catalyst and the precision of who that is huge. It will never just be any old acquirer or the first one that comes along. And Darren, like many marquee business owners, began to explore this on his own. He talked to many large company CEOs and large companies out there.
But he was humble enough to realize that while he is one of the best at building a physical therapy company, he was outmatched by the acquirers and trying to execute his own deal. And that's when he called us. And so he was also aware that when the market is ready, you also need to be ready. He talked a lot with us about how he could best prepare for this market. And we spent some time with him working with him on preparing for the market. People ask us this all the time.
When is the best time to sell your business? And the answer is when there are multiple interest interested acquirers and Darren took full advantage of those market conditions because he was ready. And where we see the best deals is when the acquirer can bring, as Darren put it, valuable resources, but compatibility. And that compatibility being the most important. That's that cultural match that we all talk about. And what Darren wanted and what he received was a winwin. So for any of you out there who are at this point in time in your evolution of your business potentially thinking that it's time to seek a larger partner to find that win-win. Give me a call. Let's talk. Thank you.
Want to talk about your own business?
Marlton, NJ 08053