Pat O’Donnell just retired as President of YESCO Outdoor Media after a 40 year career in out of home.  Today he talks about acquisitions, remote work and what to monitor at work.

Acquisitions

I’ve probably been involved in 80-100.  Everything from one unit to hundreds of faces.  I’ve learned you can’t quantify the value of the asset simply by relying on the accountant.  You look at your return on investment, but understanding how these assets fit into your overall plan is key.  The ability to say to large advertisers that you’ve added another market is important and you’re not going to be able to quantify that.  You have to ask how do the assets feel to your gut.  The beancounters would not always agree with me.  The whole idea of trying to find the correct multiple has to do with how it fits with your overall plant.

Reps and warranties.

We’ve been flexible.  There are deals we’ve done when we’ve taken things as is but in larger transactions you want a little more insurance.  You have to remember it’s almost always a competitive market acquiring inventory.

Remote work.

We learned the value of giving people more opportunity to work at home.  They loved it.  It’s worked well.  We come into the office one day a week.  Usually it’s one day for everybody and then some of the admin people and some others come in an extra day as well.  We’re essentially working from home.  If its not broke don’t fix it.

What metrics did you look at to monitor performance?

Lease to revenue ratio.  We’ve been able to maintain around a 15-16% lease to revenue ratio.

Earnings and EBIDTA.

Sales.  We try to pay our people appropriately and fairly.  The same goes for our real estate people  When you do really good, you do really good.  We reward high performance.   We pay our real estate people well.  You want to make sure you’re putting them in a position to do the best that they can do.

I’ve taken a lot of pride at hiring people who’ve been at YESCO for years.  They understand the business.  They work hard.  I’ve told every person I’ve ever hired that if they’re not having fun, then I need to find them another job.  I want employees to have fun.  I want them to be productive.  I want them to enjoy the out of home business because it’s a great business.  I just love the people in the industry.

To receive a free morning newsletter with each day’s Billboard insider articles email info@billboardinsider.com with the word “Subscribe” in the title.  Our newsletter is free and we don’t sell our subscriber list.

Paid Advertisement