Shownotes
The culmination of diving into the curious question of, “Who am I?” resulted in Kerry Crandell’s establishment of WoMAN or the Women of Mergers and Acquisition Network. The mission at WoMAN is to enrich the lives of women who work in mergers and acquisitions through three pillars – information, connection, and service. Kerry explains that it’s basically a great group of women in a male-dominated industry that comes together every month. They’re building this great community so that they can share with each other and can also enrich their lives through personal growth, professional growth, and service. Learn more about this great group as Kerry shares how it all started, what it is all about, and how you can qualify to become a member.
What It Takes To Be A WoMAN with Kerry Crandell
We’re so fortunate to have Kerry Crandell on the show. She is the Founder of WoMAN: Women of Mergers and Acquisition Network.
Thank you for having me.
Tell us a little bit about WoMAN, who you serve and what you do.
WoMAN is an acronym for Women of Mergers and Acquisitions Network. Our mission at WoMAN is to enrich the lives of women who work in mergers and acquisitions through our three pillars and that’s information, connection and service. As the name implies, you do have to qualify to become a member of WoMAN. You have to be or you have to identify being a woman and you have to work in or be affiliated with mergers and acquisitions in some form or fashion within your work. We launched in January of 2017.
For the young ladies and women, maybe they’re going, “I don’t know if I’m in that industry or not.” Expand on the folks that are in your group.
All of this is found on the website. I try to do a great job of it. It is Womanglobalgroup.com. As we’re expanding and growing into other markets, we’re actually in the process of figuring out an international domain that we can plug into that but right now that’s where you can go. The categories that we have of WoMAN is very broad and very diverse which is definitely a great thing for us. The first category we have is corporate women. That’s anywhere from a woman business owner who is acquiring companies or the one that has started a business and knows that she wants to exit it and wants to stay informed and connected to the M&A community. The other middle corporate category that we have are a lot of the general counsel and corporate dev team and that sort.
What if it’s a woman that sold a business lately, would they be qualified to be in your group?
Potentially depending on what their role is.
If they were the CEO, Founder of the business and they sold it?
Absolutely, and then they would want to stay involved and connected to the community for sure.
If you’re a corporate officer in a company, let’s say you’re the COO or the CEO of a publicly traded firm, would that be someone that would be qualified to be in your group?
We have a few COO and CEO members as well. Those companies are in the acquisition phase right now. There’s relevancy there but even if they weren’t, it’s basically a great group of women in a male-dominated industry that comes together every month. We’re building this great community so that we can share with each other and we can also enrich our lives through some personal growth or professional growth and through service.
Do you meet up? You have a presentation or a meetup.
We have an event, WoMAN Connect.
If somebody is going, “I don’t know whether I should go or not,” if they’re not a member, what do they do to show up at one of your events?
We cap our membership to 100 of the best in each market. Every member has the ability to invite one qualified guest and that guest can then attend. If that guest is very connected and feels like, “This is my tribe. This is a community that I like,” they can then apply for membership. We analyze it every year to figure out how do we maintain balance, first and foremost. Who are the right people there? The right person there for me, my definition of it are women who have that sense of authenticity. They’re successful at their work, but they want to have that connection with their other women peers in mergers and acquisition to balance it out, to build those more authentic, deeper relationships and contribute, be able to share a lot of their intelligence and their expertise and experience with the group. It’s someone that’s going to be connected, someone that’s going to put as much into it and get as much out of it. That’s who we want to attract.
WoMAN: We want to attract someone that’s going to put as much into it and get as much out of it.
What did you do in the mergers and acquisition space that gives you this insight to start this group? Let’s talk a little bit about your past.
I fell into this happenstance, but I was hired with a local broker and the whole thought process was to specialize. I had to find a specialty vertical that I wanted to focus on. I was initially hired to do public company directors and officers in Denver, Colorado. I had a list of 73 that I could call upon and I laughed and said, “What do you want me to do after next week because there’s not a lot here?” They were like, “We hired you based on you. Find a vertical.” I basically had some friends that were in private equity and mergers and acquisitions was always this sexy, cool industry that I wanted to know more about.
I found a niche within an organization and a blue ocean that we started risk management insurance due to diligence practice within an insurance broker. We were calling on private equity firms when they were acquiring companies. We would go in before they acquired them to do all of their risk management. It was very much in Denver. It was something that they checked off but never did a deep dive. There was a win-win situation there. They knew that they could come to me and my trusted team to go in there, fully analyze it, and give them a report before so that they could be strengthened on that.
To expand on risk management, let’s say I’m the business that you walked into and I’m going like, “Please help me with my risk management,” what are the things that you would do and what would you look at?
The full gamut of it. Anywhere from the executive liability, to the employee benefits, to the retirement plans, to the key man insurance, buy and sell agreements, all of that. We would go in and do that as a team.
That had to be of interest quite a bit.
I loved it at the start. Not only did I take it from a non-existent to one of the top performing verticals within that company in 2008, which is a feat in itself, but it was a great project focus. I’ve got to dive in hot and heavy into these deals, learn a lot and then I was on to the next one. I self-diagnosed myself having career ADD or bored easily, so it was a great environment for me to thrive.
Every single thing that happens has an intention.
If you were to look back and over the companies that you did the deep dive on, if you were to say the top two or three things that they were missing, what comes to your mind?
One was pulling back the curtain and actually taking a look and analyzing the impact that some of these decisions and or challenges I faced. Another one that was interesting was taking one platform company and then doing four bolt-ons in less than eighteen months and how all those pieces fit together and how do you integrate it. That was a learning curve and that was an exciting time. Although probably when I was in it, I wouldn’t have used those words. My clients were the private equity firms and it’s making sure that what they understood from my element of what they were doing in the deal was locked solid, that we were doing the best that we can so that they were comfortable moving forward with that transaction.
For the business owner that’s listening and he goes, “We need somebody to come to do that and take a look because we think that we’re going to be getting ready to exit our business at some point.” What type of resource would they look for in their local market that might have that skill set?
Hopefully, they’re already aligned with a broker that can do that work for them and that’s trusted. If not, always go out there and get a second set of eyes from a different perspective on it. Most of the investment bankers I’ve encountered have taken a more proactive approach to better prepare that element, just that little tiny piece. Most deals, they’re focusing on the finance piece, the numbers. Depending on how long we have, I could go on and on about culture and integration and then what makes them successful. From my little sliver in that, it was just a focus on that one piece and to make sure my clients, the private equity firms, were buying companies and very aware of that risk element.
Part of the reason is to paint the picture for the readers of your experience and exposure to the marketplace. To go to the next step is when you put your events together and you’re trying to change or add to the inventory of experience for your members. What types of things do you take in and do at your get-togethers within your organization to help the members?
That’s even taking a step back, putting aside my past on there within WoMAN. It’s a very different feel. I’m still serving the community of women that work in M&A, but it’s completely different from what I’m doing. That was a factor of getting aligned with who I am and what I’m here to do on this planet in this lifetime and then doing something about it. Our events are very different. We have three pillars: inform, connect and serve. If you think holistic, it’s the head, the heart and the hands. All of our events each month, we alternate between those and they’re very different. Our informed meetings are probably what everyone else is mostly used to. You’re going and you’re learning and you’re being educated on hot topics and industry perspectives that are going to help you be better or more informed in your work within mergers and acquisition.
Panel presentations, talking to women who have sold their businesses and what maybe intricacies they’ve had during certain deals and being a woman from that perspective, how that valued. Our connect events are very different. That’s what we have and that’s all about the heart. That’s how we form deeper, more authentic relationships, not only with each other but within ourselves. We do that through personal development. This is where WoMAN has a unique perspective because my guess is and I’m generalizing, most women have had to fight the fight to get to where they are and to pretty much embrace more of a masculine approach. They’re being inauthentic to advance. I firmly believe and what I’m trying to do is expose these women to other things to personally develop their true authentic selves because there are gifts that women bring to the table that are unique.
Not that they’re better, they’re different and they’re under-valued and more and more they’re becoming under-valued. This is a platform that we can do to bring in certain things, like now it’s all about neuro-linguistic programming, NLP. How do you change your mindset when you’re a woman walking into a boardroom full of men to get to the objective and the results that you want? It’s cool, interesting techniques that you can do about this that we bring to the table. Our third component or pillar is service. That is where we come together as a group and we’d go out to various nonprofits and charities in the community and use our hands to serve.
You got to have that fire to go create a splash and make a ripple.
I also firmly believe in creating this company, when I gave back, it enriched my life so much more but what I found was as a woman running a successful business unit, I never had the time. When I finally had the time, I was overwhelmed with, “How do I serve? How do I give back?” I would waste all that extra time that I had trying to identify something. Within WoMAN, I found making it mindless, all you have to do is show up at this date and time and this is who we’re serving. It’s been great to be able to do that.
For the folks who go, “We would love to have a woman come and help them out with a project,” how can they reach out to you to see if the help that they need is something that you do?
We have an executive steering committee, and an executive steering committee is a group of eight women, two women for each vertical or categories, corporate, private equity, investment banking and professional service providers. That team spends that year focusing on what we do to populate those events. When you apply to become a member of WoMAN, you fill out an online application. There’s one of the questions that says, “In relation to nonprofit or charity work, tell us what you choose to support and why you choose to support that and how do you support it, whether it’s time, talent or treasure.” We take all of this data and put it in and then we take that at the executive steering committee and find these common threads and choose that as the theme for service or for connection or for information.
You had this mad idea and you say, “I’m going to change the planet starting here.” You think about that and in reflecting back when you went home and you said to your spouse, “I’m going to change the planet and I’m starting this way.” What was that thought process like for you?
That was a culmination of about three years of me asking and diving into the curious question of, “Who am I?” Once I tasted that authentic nature of, “Who am I and what is this lifetime all about and how do I want to make an impact?” pieces started falling into place. I felt the discomfort within myself being very successful financially and loving what I did but just that, “What was I missing?” and having the courage as ideas would have come in to take action on those. I would say WoMAN in some form or fashion has been percolating in my mind for three years. I asked the universe to say, “Send me a sign so that it’s not negotiable.” It’s clear and you are now exiting this former life and entering into this new life that you have the vision out for. That happened, my company was acquired. I woke up at [5:00] AM and my phone was just exploding and I read that we were acquired. I knew right then and there that that was my sign.
WoMAN: WoMAN, in some form or fashion, has been percolating in my mind for three years.
Many folks are very interested in the why. Why do people do what they do? What causes them to step off? In particular, when you have some level of success and you go, “It’s not enough,” you get to the point where it’s not about the money anymore.
What is your currency? My currency switched from money to time. I had all the money that I needed abundantly in there and I’m blessed. I’m grateful for that, but time was what I felt. I didn’t have enough time in the day. I have two young children now and I see how fast they grow up and it’s like, “Time is my currency.” You see the world from a different perspective, through a different lens. Consciously changing that currency from money to time to make a positive impact, that was my driving force.
There’s going to be a population of women that are reading this. There is this, “I’d like to have this in my community.” In looking at that, there was a timeframe between idea formation and execution. What was the timeframe and how many folks did you have signed up in the very beginning?
Myself, and about seven other women, had what’s called a focus group. We sat down and were like, “This is missing in our community.” I’m raising my hand and said, “I’m going to lead the charge but ladies, I need your help.” I say, ten women, because there were some outside. Those ten women, we all reached out to our networks and said, “We’re going to have a kickoff event. We’re going to share with you the concept of what we want to do, but we need to make sure that you all are in and this is something that we want to do.” We held that kickoff event in September and more people showed up than I have ever known were women in mergers and acquisition in Denver.
They all were magnetic to it and wanted to get going, “How can we support you? How can we grow this?” We grew, I don’t want to say effortlessly because there was a lot of effort, but we grew in flow and with ease to a little over 80 members in that first year, which was insane for me. That proved to me that not only was this concept important, that people valued it and that there were more people than I even imagined that were attracted to it. That was enough fuel in my fire to keep it going and commit to it to next year. How do we tweak it? How do we make it better?
Were you surprised at the need?
I knew there was a hunger and there was a need and there was a space that there was a void that I could help fill, but the attraction and how fast it happened was very shocking to me.
I’m in another marketplace where you’re not at. I want to take and pursue setting this up. What are the steps that a woman would need to take to pursue this?
Reach out to me. Share the reason why you might want WoMAN and we’ve been fielding calls and emails in Womanglobalgroup.com. We are because there have been at least five other cities that have reached out to me to say, “What’s going on? What are your intentions with this? How do we get women in Minneapolis?” We’re building the playbook and the criteria. We’re actively working on that between now and the end of the year. My hope is if we’re talking again in January that we have the playbook done, we have the criteria set, we have identified the five national partners that want to help us roll out from a financial standpoint, and we’re rocking and rolling and we’re growing. If I were to carry that on to three years, I want to say we’re at least in five other markets in three years, maybe even more. I don’t know, I’m open to being surprised. The first step is to share your interest. The second step is we’ll have dialogue and we’ll work with that so that we can help position and make it a wild success to roll it. Obviously, there are...
