Ashish KothariMake flourishing your competitive edge

Building People: The Secret to a 100% Acquisition Success Rate

6 May 2026 · 0 min

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Barry-Weidliner has completed 80 consecutive successful acquisitions while the industry averages a 90% failure rate. The company's secret: they see themselves as building people, not machines. Success is measured by lives touched, not profit.

They've grown through 80 acquisitions, every one of them successful in a world where 90% of acquisitions fail to create value. This is blue-collar, heavy engineering work. And when he was asked, what business is Barry-Weidliner in? He said, we are in the business of building people, not building machines, but building people. And when he was asked, how do you measure success? He said, I measure it based on the number of lives we touch.

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