Doing what you say
DeBenedictis says once a company is able to make a purchase, the main factor that will determine its success is action.
A well-honed and persistently placed purchase pitch is hollow without subsequent action. If a company doesn’t do what its leaders said it was going to do prior to the purchase, not only will the acquisition suffer, but the acquiring company’s long-term reputation can suffer, as well.
DeBenedictis says investing money to perform necessary upgrades to an acquisition is paramount.
In Aqua America’s case, the first task is usually to spend money on a municipality’s water infrastructure. It creates an initial impression that the company is concerned about not just distributing water and collecting payments, but also about the quality of the system it is managing.
“People say ‘Yeah, that pipe should have been replaced years ago, they’re replacing a 100-year-old pipe, this company is responsible,’” he says. “It’s not sexy in the sense that, ‘Oh, a pipe just got replaced,’ but it is subliminal in the sense that, ‘This never happened before until these guys came in.’”
Aqua America’s extensive history of acquisitions — more than 200 since 1995 — has taught DeBenedictis that the key to making good on your promises is to not get too far ahead of yourself as a company. Once an acquisition or purchase is secured, focus on that acquisition and get it up and running before moving on to the next opportunity.
“Following through is very important,” he says. “Don’t get on to the next thing ahead of time. Make sure you are delivering what you said you would deliver. If you promise the world, [and] then drop everything and move on to the next opportunity, it leaves a bad taste in people’s mouths.”
DeBenedictis says he and his regional leaders make sure that Aqua America doesn’t buy a city’s water system, lay some new pipe and then vanish behind the curtain. An extensive network of executives helps to make the company more visible on the local level, something that plays back into DeBenedictis’ mantra of remaining accessible to customers.
Each of the 13 states in Aqua America’s network — as far north as Maine and as far south as Texas and Florida — is governed by its own president.
DeBenedictis says allowing ideas to start at the state level and work their way up to corporate is a key component of how Aqua America is run. He believes that those further down the ladder can better see what is happening in the field and will give the company’s corporate leaders a better view of the details below.
“My theory is that the small stuff is the stuff that needs to be taken care of,” he says. “If you don’t take care of the small stuff, it can hurt you in big ways.”