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Transaction-Cost Economics and the Build-Borrow-Buy Choice: Why Platforms Acquire
Transaction-cost economics and the build-borrow-buy choice: when it pays to bring a capability inside the firm rather than rent it.
17 hrs ago
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David Carr
12 Is the New 5
Bain Midyear 2026: a deal that needed 5% EBITDA growth a decade ago now needs 12%. For mid-tier PE in building products, no single lever delivers it…
Jul 2
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David Carr
What Warren Bennis Understood About Leading Under Constraint
Why leadership credibility matters most when systems, authority, and time are imperfect. Bennis’s vocabulary applied to buy-and-build platforms.
Jul 1
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David Carr
June 2026
The Frequent-Acquirer Premium and What It Demands of the Operating Model
Bain documents a 690 bps annualized TSR gap between frequent and inactive acquirers in building products — and for mid-tier PE, the gap is an…
Jun 30
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David Carr
Integration Load Compounds, Not Linearly
Why each additional acquisition strains execution more than the last. Integration load is a stock that compounds cumulatively rather than additively.
Jun 29
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David Carr
The Scale Curve Has Run Out — Where Scope Goes Next
Bain 2026 building products M&A data: scale curve exhausted in cement, scope rotation in the largest deals, and the mid-tier PE opportunity.
Jun 26
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David Carr
Fit Is Not Compatibility
Why familiar targets often increase integration risk rather than reducing it. Fit as interaction risk under constraint, not as similarity to the…
Jun 25
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David Carr
The Holding Pen
When the answer to the distribution drought is “hold longer for MOIC,” the operator carries the cost the asset class hasn’t priced.
Jun 24
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David Carr
When Buy-and-Build Stops Compounding
Why early success in serial acquisition is a poor signal of long-term capability, and why compounding stops without anyone choosing it.
Jun 23
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David Carr
Add-Ons at 76% — When the Modal Acquired Entity Is Also the Exit
PitchBook Q1 2026 add-ons hit 76.3% of US PE buyouts — a record, with 1,422 add-ons vs 442 non-add-on deals. What that does to integration, compounding…
Jun 22
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David Carr
The HALO Trade and the End of “Software Is the Default Sector”
HALO captured 31.2% of US PE capital in Q1 2026 vs a 14% long-run average. PitchBook + Bain data, and what the rotation asks of mid-market operators.
Jun 17
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David Carr
When Capital Concentrates Into the Sector That’s Resetting
Software hit 18% of US PE deal value in 2025 — the highest share on record — at the moment public multiples reset >1 SD below 8-year avg. PitchBook data…
Jun 10
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David Carr
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