Keeping the personal touch in private equity

RCS Influencer Randy Chaffee says private equity is more approachable than many think. 

Editor's note: The following is a transcript of a conversation with Randy Chaffee of Source One Marketing. You can listen to the interview or read the transcript below.

Emma Richardson: Hi everyone, I'm Emma Richardson here with RoofersCoffeeShop.com, and I'm here with our influencer Randy Chaffee to talk about our August topic for RoofersCoffeeShop, which is private equity in the roofing industry. Randy, how are ya?

Randy Chaffee: Yeah, I'm doing great. How are you? .

Emma Richardson: I'm doing just fine, thanks. Well, what do you have to say about private equity in the roofing industry?

Randy Chaffee: Well, that's an interesting subject because it's so real today, right? There's private equities everywhere. I think the biggest thing we have to think about in the roofing world is quit being scared of it. I've been involved as a manufacturer's rep in companies that have gone through the private equity thing. And there's always that original fear of what that means, what's going to happen, how that's going to change things. Are there changes? Yeah, there's always changes. But there's changes whether it's private equity or whether it's a change of ownership or just you know, economies and markets change.

So I think the biggest key is that we get past the fear, learn to be adaptable and learn to accept that most changes always have the hidden concerns. And in private equity, the concern is going to be this big business, this big monster, takes us over. We think we're going to lose all that personal touch, and I think that's an area in our world that we have to guard against, because this industry is very personal touch oriented, right? But I think we can also manage that on our end because most of us, whether you're a contractor or working for a large contractor that's bought by private equity, or whether you're in the materials world that I operate in, and one of your manufacturers gets bought by private equity there's going to be changes, so expect them, but you have to learn to manage them too and learn to understand.

And I think this is probably the biggest key is that the upper management is going to be different. They're working on some different analytics than what they may have been, reporting to Wall Street or whoever they're reporting to, right? Reporting to stock brokers or stock holders and that kind of thing. But at the end of the day, they're still people, right? And we're still dealing with people at whatever level we're dealing with. And I think that's where we get haywired a little bit with the concern over private equity. I've just come back from a meeting I was at recently with one of my manufacturers that's been private equity for a few years now. At the end of the day we're all sitting in the same room, having the same conversations about how we build business, grow business and take care of customers. So different, yes. Scary at times, until you get into it. But if we remember that we still have to take care of people, and whatever their title is, maybe executive or something else, and it sounds like a big name, and maybe it is, but it's still a guy or a gal trying to do their job. And I think if we remember that at whatever level we are in in the organization, it will be just fine.

And the last thing I'd say is that the other thing it brings to the table sometimes more accountability than we all like, right? We get used to doing things our own way. That's not always bad to have some accountability. Probably all of us could use it a little more sometimes. But also the flip side is there's usually some investment in the business. You know, it's been bought for a reason typically and has to grow. And the only way that any of us, at whatever level we are in any organization, are going to experience growth ourselves is for the company we work for to be profitable and grow. So, you know, let's get rid of the concern, address it, deal with it and grow the management, grow the business. That would be my long term advice, I guess.

Emma Richardson: Thank you, Randy. That's a wonderful response. I think you're right, it's very important to be able to balance those new changes with understanding the human touch at the end of the day. Well, I appreciate it. Thank you so much. And we'll see you next month for our September topic. 

Randy Chaffee: So great to be with you. I appreciate you.