Inside Alpine Investors: How Mark Strauch Scales Leadership to Drive 1,000+ Deals

🎙️ The Private Equity Podcast – Mark Strauch, Founding Partner & President, Alpine Investors

⏱️ Key Takeaways & Timestamps:

00:00 – Intro
Alex welcomes Mark Strauch to discuss Alpine’s unique leadership-driven approach in private equity.

01:00 – From CEO to PE Leader
Mark shares his journey from operator to co-founding Alpine, now with $20B+ AUM.

02:08 – The Industry’s Problem: Lack of Differentiation
Alpine avoids the “deal shop” model, focusing instead on mission-driven, talent-led investing.

05:24 – Talent as Strategy
Alpine’s core philosophy: talent wins. Their “Unleashing Heroes” mantra puts leadership at the heart of every investment.

06:50 – Add-On Acquisitions at Scale
Over 1,000 deals to date, using each as an opportunity to deploy great talent and drive integration.

08:39 – Alpine’s Internal Playbook
Quarterly OFI (Opportunities for Improvement) projects, one-page strategic plans, and a long-term vision define how Alpine operates like a portfolio company.

10:59 – Lessons from Failure
Fund 1 struggled, prompting a shift to talent-first strategy during the 2008 crisis, guided by executive coach Tom Vacola.

15:00 – Building the CEO Bench
Programs like CEO-in-Residence and CEO-in-Training (CIT) bring in and develop top talent—Alpine is now the top recruiter at elite business schools.

18:31 – Attributes Over Resumes
They hire for grit, humility, and emotional intelligence—qualities highly correlated with CEO success.

20:00 – Real-Time Leadership Development
CITs train on the job with structured learning in both hard and soft skills, plus internal peer-learning pods.

24:00 – What Great CEOs Do
Traits include pace, clarity, resilience, focus, and the ability to inspire and win.

27:37 – Alpine’s Ongoing Constraint: Talent
Even now, talent remains the #1 priority across Alpine and its talent-constrained portfolio sectors.

30:47 – Lessons in Building Alpine
Create a strategy only you can win—play a different game, not the same one better.

32:38 – Operator Empathy = Better Investing
Being a former CEO helps Mark bring realism and focus to underwriting and board roles.

34:05 – Book & Coaching Insights
Recent reads include Boyd, The Bible, and classic philosophy. Coaching tip: great coaches help you unlock your own answers.

39:50 – Connect with Mark
💼 Alpine Investors

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Transcript

00:00
Welcome back to the Royal Selection Privilege Equity Podcast. Today we have an absolute cracker. Joining us is Mark Strock,  founding partner and president of Alpine Investors, a private equity firm  in the US.  Today we're going to go into lessons from an operator to an investor,  focused on his skill set and take on leadership  and  specifically how Alpine is doing it differently in a competitive

00:30
private equity market.  Get your pen ready. This podcast is exceptional and you're going to want to make some notes. Mark, if you can share a brief insight into you, please. Well, thank you, Alex, for having me, first of all. And uh I'm one of the founding partners and the president of a private equity firm called Alpine Investors,  based here in San Francisco. uh I  joined Alpine as a founding partner uh

01:00
a little over 15 years ago after running one of the early Alpine companies as CEO. And that was a successful exit uh that returned about 70 % of that fund. um ever since, it's been an honor to be a part of building this firm. uh My partner, Graham Weaver, started Alpine as a $50 million fund with a handful of people back in the day. And now we're approaching  almost $20 billion of  assets under management. And we're investing out of our

01:30
Nine Fund. um Before Alpine, uh I started out early in my career not knowing what I wanted to do and was a consultant. uh I was briefly an M &A investment banker.  I was a CEO multiple times. And then of course, um for the last few decades, uh a private equity investor.

01:56
You've got interesting lens having been in private equity and as an operator. So what's one mistake that you see either private equity firms or portfolio companies making and what would you suggest to correct them?

02:08
Well, I think the good news is that private equity has become just a real economic force  and a really important part of our economy. I feel very fortunate to be a part of kind of coming of age  when private equity was uh emerging. But I  think a common uh critique, I guess,  of the industry is there's too many undifferentiated private equity firms.

02:37
uh We uh see  each of us like to think that we're so radically different with our strategy. And then when you speak with LPs and you're due fundraising, you sometimes realize that everybody can tend to sound the same. And I think the thing that we've tried to do at Alpine is to  think differently about what a private equity firm can be. And at the center of that um is  really just

03:06
running Alpine like a operating company.  And so that manifests in not just seeing the firm as a deal shop where  we encounter opportunistically this deal or that, but uh a firm that's got a  big hairy audacious goal that stirs the soul.  We call it our North Star to be the best performing private equity firm in the world and to... uh

03:35
be a place where we're the best place to work for exceptional people to spend their careers and to be a force for good.  Then with a strategy and there with a  mission and vision in hand, I think it's a lot about trying to have crystal clear answers, uh strategy answers to where you play and how you win. think it's really important that private equity firms do a better job of having a distinct

04:02
answer to those questions, where can you be best in the world? And so I'd love to see more innovation in private equity and more differentiation. And we've certainly tried to do that at Alpine. Okay. So interesting. We use the same terminology here. We use BHAC, we use Northstar, both personally and as a business thinking as well. So you mentioned the term thinking differently. Now thinking differently is amazing. And I'm big advocate for kind of

04:31
What we see now is the professionalisation of private equity as more capital comes in, more interest, more billionaires created than any other industry and therefore more competition. So private equity firms are having to think like portfolio companies. What specifically have you guys been doing along your journey beyond the vision, the North Star that creates that level of separation from your perspective?

04:55
Well, think uh I want to avoid being too self-congratulatory here, uh but I do think  we've done a good job of  realizing that the magic of Alpine is our people, um not just our people in the firm, but also running our portfolio companies. uh Our tagline is  Unleashing Heroes, which I know is a very high-minded, uh vague concept, but I think it speaks to

05:24
the importance that we've placed just on  talent and people. think at the end of the day, every private equity firm has money and all of that money is green and it's the same. So where you ultimately see remarkable investment outcomes in the middle market is when you're working with exceptional leaders. And so, so much of what we've tried to build uh in terms of our portfolio talent programs are a

05:51
a bench of just remarkable leaders who can run our businesses, many of whom are running our companies two, three times over.  And  not only has that been an effective way to have an investing strategy where we're able to buy businesses that don't necessarily come with management because we have that bench of talent, uh but also it's just fun. It's rewarding.  It's a strategy that allows us to basically as partners in the

06:20
and the firm see each of our CEOs as a clinical partner in the field, so to speak. um So  it's worked  very well for us in terms of performance, but it's also very enjoyable. So I think it starts with just that philosophy around being a talent-driven private equity firm. I think we've been fond of saying for years that in many ways we see ourselves more in the talent business than we do in the deals business.  And I think the other thing that

06:50
we're known for that I think has created some distinction for us  is  how aggressively we pursue add-on acquisitions. So last year we did nearly 180 deals. We've done over 1,000 deals inception to date, which is an enormous amount of volume. um And the reason that we are so fond of the  add-ons uh is that  it really creates

07:16
another opportunity to infuse exceptional leadership talent, not just at the platform level, but in every add-on acquisition. as you know, many of your guests talk about this, integration is difficult. so we've spent a great deal of energy really trying to handle the mechanics of integration, but also the social studies of that. We work a lot of times, Alex, with founder-led companies.

07:43
And uh we measure the net promoter score of the founders that we work with. The net promoter score is a scale of negative 100 to positive 100, and it measures to what degree you have promoters rather than detractors of what you do. And our founder net promoter score is 89, which  a number greater than 40 is considered exceptional. So we're very proud of that. And we think that that speaks to

08:08
the uniqueness of what we've tried to build with this talent centered model where we can bring in world class talent to each and every one of these businesses and in Drive Grove. So I think those are some of the things that we do  that I think have led to  real distinction um and really strong performance. I also think  the way we run Alpine, I touched on this at the outset,  is a real difference maker. So it's not just the North Star Vision and Mission, it's, you know, every, we,

08:39
We run our firm and every single one of our companies off of a one-page strategic plan where you have a five-year goal a set of five-year goals one-year goals quarterly goals every one of those goals has a  single initials next to them for who owns that and every quarter we're coming together and and and Looking at what went well what didn't go. Well, did we achieve those goals and then?  typically every quarter one or two

09:05
Improvement projects, we call them OFI projects, which stands for opportunities for improvement. And we're constantly innovating. What can we, what's working that's a bright spot that we can do more of? What's maybe not working that we need to fix? And we put a small Tiger team together for 90 days and empower them to, to go attack that problem. And when you think about the compounding value, Alex, over 25 years of our firm's existence, we've probably done 300 or more.

09:36
OFI projects. And I think a lot of that innovation is about seeing Alpine as the most important portfolio company rather than just as a deal shop. So those are some of the things that I think have allowed us to be distinct  in the private equity landscape. Interesting. So let's dive into  the operator and I'm seconding we're going to the town model. So  you've built this OFI

10:02
model as you called it. So you're diving into the portfolio, you're understanding the constraints, the issues, the challenges, you're appointing them. Just talk us through a little bit of the iterations that that's been through in its development, because it sounds amazing in perpetuity, but when you try and go, as I perceive in a business, from we haven't got that to your level, if your level is 10 out of 10 and zero is we don't have anything, that's quite a difficult thing. just talk to us about that kind of iteration and how that's evolved and...

10:30
You know, who runs that, not specifically who, but how that's run internally in the business and how that kind of fits into the offering that Alpine has. Well, I think  the roots of  that story start with some failure that we had early on. think in our first fund, was  a bit of a disaster  and we had very different strategy where we bought the cheapest businesses we could find and we...

10:59
inherited managers that we hadn't worked with before. And so we struggled. um I'm very grateful, as I've said before, for the loyalty and commitment of our early LPs to see that there was something to believe in there and keep going into Fund 2 through 9 ah as we've grown.  failure is a teacher, as we all know. And I think we learned um just the power of starting with a great business.

11:27
with high revenue quality, with competitive moats, uh et cetera.  And  we certainly got religion on talent. There's no question about that. So I think that was the first piece of the story, Alex, was that failure is a teacher and  we learn with our own mistakes.  I think the second most consequential moment was uh probably around 2008 when  that's when Lehman collapsed and uh

11:55
We all know  how difficult that time was. We went five years in between fundraisers.  And we used that time to focus inward and really look at ourselves. We had the audacity at that time to ask ourselves a question. ah And that question was, what would it look like to be the best performing private equity firm in the world? uh And I say audacity because I don't  know that we...

12:22
deserve to even ask that question based on where we were. We were a good firm at that time, but  I don't think we were exceptional. uh And the reason that question was so important  is we worked with an executive coach, Alex, at that time. His name was Tom Vacola. Coincidentally, he was my first executive coach uh years prior when I was a first-time CEO.  And  he had a playbook.

12:50
that he called CEO to creating exceptional organizations. we really took Alpine down to the studs and really examined uh who we would have to be, how we would have to roll, what would our strategy be, how would we run our own  firm such that we would maybe have a chance to be the best performing private equity firm in the world. And what that led to was we actually ended up not only following his playbook  and arriving at a

13:17
at this uh talent oriented strategy. But we also acquired that intellectual property and actually built our own strategy and culture playbook that each and every one of our portfolio companies have been following for the last 15 years.  And um it's really centered on making sure you have high engagement cultures.  And what would it look like for every employee? We have probably 40,000 employees across our portfolio today.

13:48
What would it look like for each and every one of them to actually feel engaged in their work and actually be able to see how their individual purpose and passion in life connects to the purpose of the company and be able to use that one page plan construct I described to actually have transparency into what the objectives of the company are and how they fit into that. And then ultimately, every time we do

14:17
an acquisition, um using that People First program as sort of the change agent, the change management container to inspire, you know,  the acquired company to see what they're capable of becoming and then see a tangible path to actually get there. So,  it was in 2008 when we really committed ourselves to this People First, we call it People First talent strategy where we hire  the leaders of the businesses prior to even finding the deals.

14:47
um and  building this playbook off of  Tom's uh program.  And  frankly, that's made all the difference in the time since then because it's driven us to really think differently about what a private equity firm really looks like, not as a financial engineer, but  as business builders. Okay, so there's a lot to dive in here. I'm trying to be as poignant as we can. how  has this team developed this kind

15:16
what people would call operating partners, portfolio, SRG, whatever is referred to in the industry. How has that team developed during the time period has been there, maybe that formulation in 2008 or when that became more of a serious element for you guys? The deploying this IP, these processes into the Alpine current portfolio companies, future portfolio companies, and also add-ons. Yeah, to get more tangible about it, we...

15:45
We have developed a number of talent programs, uh two  that I'd like to highlight. uh One is called the CEO and Residence Program, and the other is the CEO and Training Program. And the CEO and Residence Program really started about 15 years ago, where we  worked with a number of CEOs that we had known from our networks, people who  we believe possessed the attributes of great leaders that maybe came from different industries, but people we trusted.

16:14
And so we went from it being a thing that we did 15 years ago to it being the thing  that we really anchored on. And we've probably had over 50 CEOs and residents go through that program. It worked so well that  it led us to create  the companion talent program, which we call CEO and Training. And that's for less experienced up and comers. We go recruit at the top business schools  and find

16:42
the very best people who aspire to positions of leadership. And then we hire maybe 15 of those a year. We bring them into residence. We hire them here at Alpine. And then we match them to our portfolio companies. They go in and take roles working for those  experienced CEOs  I described. And we put them into a two-year training program to learn all the hard and soft skills of leadership.

17:08
It's basically the farm system, if you will, so that they would in the future become sort of an insourced bench of CEOs and residents that are homegrown. And it started as kind of a glimmer in our eye, this CEO and training program, maybe 10 or 12 years ago, excuse me. it's fast forward to today and we've got, we're now the top.

17:35
a most applied to business school job at Harvard, Stanford, Kellogg, and Wharton,  which is outrageous to even think about  that it would become that big. we have, I think we've had 173 executives from our talent programs uh over the years. We have 104 of them active in our portfolio today, Alex. We support them with 29 executive coaches that are trained in that.

18:02
People First Leadership Program Playbook,  I mentioned who we make available to our leaders.  And fundamentally, all of that is based on this philosophy um that really it's the leadership talent that are the heroes of the Alpine story in our companies.  And  how do we focus on finding those leaders or future leaders who possess attributes like grit?

18:31
emotional intelligence, humility,  white hot will to win. And we've built a way to measure those difficult to measure attributes  and they're highly correlated with success. So that's a little bit more tangibly how it kind of shows up. um And uh as I said,  it's uh not just effective, but it's really for someone who is very,  I guess, inspired to help.

18:59
build great leaders.  It's been very fun and rewarding too.

19:05
Sounds it. Sorry to interrupt. Just a quick mention of our longstanding partnership with Grata. As you will probably know, the private equity scene is constantly evolving and deal flow is moving now to proprietary and data-driven processes. Grata provides you with the data and information of over 7 million private companies. So if you're looking to improve your proprietary deal flow and improve the data access, then reach out to Grata today.

19:33
Now back to the podcast.  Let's talk about the actual program itself to some detail. What are the, you know, if there's  probably a bit of a cliche question, but for the,  what I'm trying to find out is what are these leaders  learning and developing from a Keyskills perspective? And there's going to be a lot. What is it in your program without you giving away the secret source that they're  learning?  it...

20:00
And I'll give some examples here. Is it predominantly they're learning how to run a business or is there something else from a leadership?  you know, if we think like, uh, Mark and Gladwell, Patrick Lenshoni, although not really leadership, but  obviously his book writing is around that.  Um,  that is it that kind of leadership or is it more structured? Here's how to run an effective good business. Well, it's really both. mean, when you think about leadership,  it's, it's such an apprenticeship.

20:28
business, which is like investing. all say frequently how investing is an apprenticeship business and it is. So I think the biggest training that occurs is on the job. Remember, they're working for and being mentored by these experienced CEOs that we've worked with several times before. So they're getting day in, day out.

20:53
um feedback and direction and mentorship from leaders that we have very carefully chosen um in advance of even finding the deal, as I said. So I think that's the main place that that training takes place. But in addition to that, I mentioned this two-year training program. So we bring together all of these uh CEOs in training quarterly together in one place, and we'll dive deep on our playbook. So it will be everything from

21:22
the softer skills of how to win in relationships to the hard skills of how you build a go-to-market engine or how you build a financial stand-up function when you make an acquisition, how we do integration.  And the list goes on and on. So it is a mix of hard and soft skills, Alex.  And so two-year training is sort of a parallel program to what they're actually doing on the job.

21:52
And then the last piece of the program is um you may be familiar with YPO or talent  organizations that bring CEOs together that learn from each other, even if they're in different industries. We do that internally in our program. we put each of these CITs um into pods where they're learning from each other, sharing experience. so I think  the magic of it is that we're really hunting for those attributes.

22:22
And then we're saying to the world that you can actually train in the hard and soft skills, but you better have those attributes as the foundation. Because I think if there's one thing we maybe disagree with the rest of the world on, it's that your resume is the best indicator of success. Piece of the CEO training puzzle is sort of a YPO like cohort of leaders that we put these CEOs in training in the small pods where they can learn from each other, share experiences across companies.

22:51
The whole idea is what would it look like to really be in the talent development business? If you can start with those core attributes  that I mentioned, which we believe are predictive of a CEO's success, more so than their track record.  And you really can kind of uh train the hard and soft skills of leadership on top of that foundation. So that has worked uh beautifully well for us. We're constantly tweaking in it and refining it, trying to make it better. But a number of those uh

23:20
former CEOs in training from years back have now gone on to become platform CEOs of our largest businesses. So we're really looking to get that flywheel of internally developed talent growing. It just increases confidence in our under the right. It reduces risk and it's, as I said before, a really enjoyable way to build businesses together with people who are fundamentally your partners. before we dive into a little bit further, let's just go into that kind of leadership capability piece.

23:50
Now, Mike, I know before we spoke, before we went live here, that you spoke a lot about kind of leadership fundamentals and that being a passion for you.  What's your take on  what good leadership, and then this is probably about seven hours of conversation and then probably a further seven from there, but what are you looking for maybe easier in those leadership capabilities that you can then bring into people that become your, you know, your  stalwart  chief executives in your portfolio?

24:19
Well, maybe a way to answer that question, Alex, uh you're right, we could spend hours and hours. I've spent a lifetime studying what makes great leaders, uh made plenty of the mistakes myself. uh But I  think our best leaders,  maybe the best way to answer that is what do our best leaders do well? And I think when you look at our  CEOs who've been very successful, uh they  tend to uh operate with terrific pace.

24:47
Um,  and, and so, um, that's not to say there aren't important thoughtful decisions to be really careful about. Of course there are, but I think, I think pace of play is something that is a characteristic of our best leaders. Uh, we use a term called management intensity, which is a characteristic of our best leaders. Really that think of that as the, just the  complete command of the market and the business, the numbers, the trends, the fundamentals,  um, very connected to, um,

25:16
how we make life better for customers, how we make money.  And the reason management intensity is so important is it allows CEOs to focus on what really matters right now.  And  too many CEOs, think,  certainly myself included in the early days, you just have too many priorities. And so a lot of what we do on the boards and in the development of our leaders is really getting clear on what's the big  one priority that matters right now.  And I think the great CEOs are good at that.

25:45
I think toughness and resilience is an underrated  quality. think that um it's very important that we have a  of a learning mentality where you have a positive relationship with feedback. And when you have setbacks, you immediately fall forward into what's the learning and get better. um We like to say that uh you need to win in all of your relationships. uh think  going back to Tom Vacola, the CEO coach I mentioned, he was

26:14
of having this sort of equation for business, if you will, which is people working with people to do stuff for people. And as an engineer, that equation finds me a little wanting, but it's really true that 75 % of that is people relationships. so, I think that a certain toughness or resilience is finding success in every relationship, be it a customer or a coworker someone who works for you. And I think

26:45
We sometimes use the term followership to describe our best CEOs who have a certain set of qualities that make people follow them that make people trust them and believe in them and Ultimately, I think maybe the last thing I'd say is they tend to win, you know I mean we all want to win and so  there's a certain competence and and habit of winning that our best leaders have that That we look for  in people's in people's background

27:10
You referenced something there, the big priority that matters. I call it the single biggest constraint, which if resolved will bring the largest return on investment. Sounds like that was talent, could still be, but it sounds like that was talent for Alpine. That's why you've invested in this, why you've got such a unique structure. Other firms have got uh executive first programs and things, but I've never heard it explained in detail in the level investment that you guys are giving it.

27:37
If you don't mind me asking, Mark, what's the single constraint at the moment from an Alpine perspective that you're currently trying to solve? Yeah, I don't know if I would word it as a constraint, but the single most important thing almost at any point in time for Alpine is what you said. It is talent. If you look at the markets that we invest in, many of them, most of them are talent constrained industries. Or is that another way, they're markets where winning on talent, whether it be

28:07
um retention of technicians in a blue collar field services business or whether it be in the accounting profession where there's a dearth of accounting talent entering the field. Winning on talent at inside the portfolio is the name of the game and without question at Alpine, that's the case.  We  pride ourselves on a culture that's based on empowerment. So we're constantly

28:30
looking to give young people opportunities that they might not get elsewhere and constantly feeding that and growing that, finding more leadership sandboxes for people to grow. We're not interested in a two year and out type of program like investment banks. We want people here for their careers. So  invariably the answer to that question is uh rhymes with talent at Alpine and in the portfolio. And I might just say one more thing about that, Alex, which is at a higher level,

29:01
One of the lessons learned, I think, about leadership over the years is that, you know, everybody wants to have the right answer.  I remember as a first-time CEO years ago, I thought I had to be the smartest guy in the room and that that was the job. I had to be the person with the right answer to everything.  And  I think you learn pretty quickly that that's wrong, um that  you learn it's more important to make sure your company is focused on the right question. um So I think...

29:29
The right question matters more than the right answer.  having the right question drives where the team spends their time, what you choose to prioritize, what you don't. um Albert Einstein is famous for saying, if I had an hour to solve a problem, I would spend the first 55 minutes figuring out the right question.  And I think that is uh maybe the meta level  theme or lesson that I would describe that  the great CEOs  rarely

29:57
waste time answering  the wrong question. They're focused on what really matters right now because  they knew what that single priority was.

30:07
Interesting. It's the old earthy, something around a sharpening an axe, then it's dropping down a tree and then hours, first 55 minutes sharpening the axe. Interesting. talk to us a little bit about, so we focused a lot leadership on the portfolio, on the firm. Just talk to us about some of the learning points that you've had, both in the growth of Alpine. What's kind of one or two things you wish you knew then that you definitely know now?

30:36
And then secondly, what have you learned from being an operator that's made you better as a private equity investor?

30:47
Yeah, I think um to your first question, uh I think as I mentioned in the early days of Alpine, were, many of us are followers of Warren Buffett.  I've read that book Snowball a few times. uh And  so there's a deep value orientation to where we began as a firm. And um as I said, that didn't go great in Fund One. I think  what we learned uh

31:15
based on that setback was you have to choose a game worth playing. um I think the  most attractive people and the most powerful cultures are the ones that play for a reason bigger than themselves, where the game that you choose to play is based on some high dream that actually stirs the soul. m And I think at Alpine,  so much of our energy over the years

31:42
has been staying anchored on that principle and choosing a strategy that satisfies two conditions.  One is  one that we personally care a lot about that matters to us beyond just commercial success.  And second, and I think this is important, is where you have a legitimate claim to win. uh And what we've learned is that  move the goalpost to a game that you and only you can win.

32:07
rather than just playing the same game that everyone else is, remember my critique of private equity,  define the game and the rules of the game in a way that make what you are great at the most important thing. And of course, that's where we chose to really devote ourselves to talent um and  add-ons. So I think that's uh one of the big lessons learned  to answer your first question.  I think having been an operator,

32:38
Um,  it does benefit me, uh, as an investor, certainly. Um, and I think, I think one of the ways it benefits me is,  it just makes more real, like how you actually go about making some result happen. And private equity, use terms like playbooks and levers and, and if only it were that simple, you had the buttons in your cockpit to just push the sales growth button or the margin improvement button or whatever it may be. And I think having run businesses and led

33:08
teams, I think it allows me to um maybe a more practical  view to  both the underwriting decision of what is likely to transpire in a given industry and what's  risky and aspirational versus what is  something that we know we can execute on. And then I think as a board member, just having operator empathy for the fact that things do take time. uh I tend to be an impatient person.

33:35
And I think it has helped me be more patient and realize that  you can't have seven priorities. If you have seven, you have none  and  be more reductive and again, focusing on that one big thing. So  I think it's helped me be more practical as an investor and probably  more helpful to the CEO as a board member,  having  walked a mile in their shoes. You referenced that  you've done a lot.

34:05
of reading around leadership as I am a big passionate  advocate for every different management leadership book I can get my hands on. What are some of the books that you've read that have been the most impactful for you? Well, um in terms of reading, I've probably spent the last year and a half reading a lot of the classics. So  I'm  generally not someone who devours business book after business book. I occasionally do that. um

34:34
but I feel like there's just a huge realm of  human intelligence in  philosophy. uh And uh one of my sons studied philosophy in college, and so I sort of drafted off him, whether it was Machiavelli or Marcus Aurelius or Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals, where he  examines the origin of our different moral concepts. um I think the application for real life, other than it just being an intellectual exercise,

35:03
is just understanding how people think and why they do what they do. And it turns out in private equity, at least in our version of private equity, understanding the human condition and motivations and how people think is a very valuable skill. I also reread recently a biography called Boyd. Colonel John Boyd was a

35:32
Maverick fighter pilot who actually is a pretty obscure figure that I'm guessing most of your listeners will never have heard of but He was described as the most influential  military thinkers since Sun Tzu which is high praise and he really changed the art of war uh and That the US Marine Corps really adopted into their doctrine  all of his thinking he was famous for

35:59
a theory which he called the OODA loop. It's an acronym O-O-D-A, which stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. um And  he developed this concept of making faster decisions, moving through that Observe, Orient, Decide, Act uh journey uh to gain advantage in conflict. And I think in investing in business, the application is just having a habit of

36:23
meticulous observation and I think the most important part is the orient part like constantly reorienting yourself we in dynamic market conditions uh as an investor or as a CEO and So I  reread that book and loved it kind of a obscure figure, but I think really important and interesting um and then you know,  I don't know how applicable this is to your listeners. I'm a faith driven person. So I actually read the Bible pretty regularly I'm constantly amazed at how powerful a guide it is to

36:54
who we were designed to be.  think  maybe one of the most powerful applications for just being successful in business or  in  business building  is not seeing yourself as the center of the universe. And it's amazing how that can help you see things more clearly and  avoid kind of the unnecessary ego-centered conflict that can sometimes happen  in our work. So those are  some of the books um that I've been reading recently.

37:24
And you um also referenced that you're a big advocate for mentors and coaches. What's,  it's something, bit of a personal question actually, it's literally something I'm about to  bring on a different net into the business and I'm always looking for different avenues.  How do you go about  deciding what the best coach is for you at the right time and whether that be for you or the executive leadership uh team that you have to make sure that it's the person that will bring  the biggest return on investment?

37:54
Yeah, that's a good question. I  think there's a little bit of trial and error. There's certainly some personality fit that goes on there. um So it's not uncommon to give it a shot with someone and feel like you got maybe some value, but not full value and you want to try someone else. I think in our coaching ranks, uh most of our coaches uh follow sort of the philosophy of the truth is within you.

38:22
And so it's less that they're bringing some amazing universal insight that you don't possess. It's more of how do they ask the right questions, going back to remember the power of asking the right question, that  to draw out your own wisdom. One of the questions that our coaches sometimes answer or sometimes ask  is,  you know, Alex, what would you do if you knew you couldn't fail? And,  right, and it's scary because I'm like, well, I might fail. I might not want to do that thing.

38:51
And that turns out unlocks, I think, a little bit more dream state thinking uh and unlocks things that  a lot of our coaches call limiting beliefs. the limiting beliefs of that little imposter syndrome voice that's on your shoulder that says, here are the 48 reasons why you can't do that, Alex.  And so I think if you have a coach that's good at asking the right questions and believes that the truth is within you and their job is to draw it out, ah I think it's

39:20
massively impactful. uh You know, my first coach, Tom Vacola, not only helped Alpine, as I said,  with our playbook,  not only helped me as a leader, but really kind of impacted me as a husband and a father, as a human. So  I think if you really lean into it, it can be hugely powerful and there might be some trial and error, but uh just the act of investing the time and energy to do that, I think is 80 %  of the victory.  Well, thank you very much for that.

39:50
If anybody wishes to reach out, post this podcast, Mark, how best do they get in touch with you, please? Well, certainly our website, alpineinvestors.com, they can also reach me on LinkedIn,  where I am uh fairly active. So  happy to engage with anyone and really appreciate the time with you, Alex. Hope this was helpful to your listeners. It's certainly been helpful for me, Mark. So I  would guess it'd be helpful for the listeners, but I'll be very selfish and say thank you very much.

40:18
from me personally, it's given me a lot reflex on. I've been making a ton of notes whilst you've been talking. So yeah, thank you very much for coming on the podcast. Yeah, cheers. Thanks, Alex. I enjoyed it. And as always, thank you very much to all our listeners for yet again tuning into the Private Epsi podcast. If you haven't done so already, please do subscribe and you'll be notified the next one that comes out every single week. But till the next time, keep smashing it and thank you very much for listening.