Nestor, the chairman, senior managing partner and CEO of Kirtland Capital Partners, a 20-employee private equity firm, has built an emphasis on successful partnerships into the firm’s culture. Without partnerships, acquisitions don’t happen and the business doesn’t grow.
Nestor and his associates perform due diligence on each acquisition candidate, but they also try to build a long-lasting relationship with each by truly getting to know the business and the people.
Smart Business spoke with Nestor about how you can find – and capitalize on – the right growth opportunities.
Q. What are some keys to developing a relationship with the management teams of other companies?
When we’re talking to a management team in the early process, before we’ve bought the business, we say, ‘You don’t know if you have a good partner until you hit a bump in the road.’ So you start the relationship usually after you’ve closed on a deal. We’ll start with meeting with the senior management team from our group, and talk about what we found during our due diligence process, both positives and minuses, and then agree from the standpoint of getting everyone on the same page of what their goals and objectives are and what ours are, and be sure those mesh.
That establishes trust and that kind of thing, and if you develop that relationship right, that management team will call you with not only good news but bad news, not only with opportunities but with challenges. That trust factor only develops over a period of time, once they realize that if they call you with a problem, you’re not jumping through the phone at them. Once they see that you’re willing to help with an issue, that opens up the lines of communication so that they’re coming to you.
It’s getting to know people one on one and having a lot of exposure to them, particularly if you’re working through an issue or an opportunity. That’s how you begin to develop that working relationship, that kind of rhythm. Over a period of time, that really builds.
