Lessons from Brian Jellison

Brian Jellison was the chairman, president and CEO of Roper Technologies and led its quarterly earnings calls through the first quarter of 2018. — Roper Technologies Q1 2018 earnings call transcript (Motley Fool).

On Leadership and Culture

On Asset-Light Niches: Jellison: "our asset-light, niche market strategy continues to deliver just spectacular results. And a lot of that comes from nimble execution from our business." — Roper Technologies Q1 2018 earnings call transcript (Motley Fool).
On Niches and Nimble Leaders: Jellison of Roper's businesses: "Our businesses are really in outstanding niches. They're nimbly led." — Roper Technologies Q1 2018 earnings call transcript (Motley Fool).
On Software and Network Businesses: Brian Jellison: "the more we can grow in software and network businesses, the happier we are, because they just inherently are going to throw off more cash that we can reinvest for further compounding in the future than the products businesses." — www.roic.ai/quote/ROP/transcripts/2016-year/4-quarter.
On Mature Optimism: Jellison: "I think there's a mature level of optimism as opposed to euphoria." — Roper Technologies Q1 2018 earnings call transcript (Motley Fool).
On Working Capital as a Source of Funds: Jellison: "as we continue to grow, we find that the working capital becomes a source of funds for us." — Roper Technologies Q1 2018 earnings call transcript (Motley Fool).
On Inventory: Brian Jellison: "ten years ago we told people that our inventory was 9% of revenue, today it's 4.5%." — www.roic.ai/quote/ROP/transcripts/2016-year/4-quarter.
On Cash as the Measure: Brian Jellison: "when we say cash is the best measure of performance, all you have to do is look at these numbers, and see why we're so steadfast in our belief about that." — www.roic.ai/quote/ROP/transcripts/2017-year/2-quarter.

On Where M&A Breaks Down: Brian Jellison: "I think where a lot of the M&A breaks down in the world is people who try to buy their distribution, or try to buy their competitor" — www.roic.ai/quote/ROP/transcripts/2017-year/2-quarter.
On Buying Private Companies: Brian Jellison: "we're buying private companies that if they were public would trade at a higher value than they do trade in the private marketplace, which gives us always some beneficial arbitrage." — www.roic.ai/quote/ROP/transcripts/2016-year/2-quarter.
On Forward Growth: Brian Jellison: "We tend to discount their forward growth projections, because we don’t pay for synergies or forward growth, we only pay for what we think the business is going to deliver at the time of the acquisition." — www.roic.ai/quote/ROP/transcripts/2015-year/4-quarter.
On Platforms Not to Buy: Brian Jellison: "we’re not interested in looking at an SAP or an Oracle type of small platform that applies ubiquitously across a broad series of categories." — www.roic.ai/quote/ROP/transcripts/2017-year/2-quarter.
On Bolt-Ons: Brian Jellison: "you might find us doing bolt-ons that we would never do as a standalone" — www.roic.ai/quote/ROP/transcripts/2017-year/2-quarter.
On Capital Expenditure: Brian Jellison: "certainly less than 1% of revenue, probably quite a bit less than 1% of revenue." — www.roic.ai/quote/ROP/transcripts/2015-year/4-quarter.
On Cash and Performance: Brian Jellison: "cash clearly remains the best measure of performance" — www.roic.ai/quote/ROP/transcripts/2017-year/4-quarter.

On Strategy and Acquisitions

On Deferred Revenue: On what he looks for in an acquisition, Jellison says "we know the kind of business it's going to have, hopefully, has deferred revenue, so we're paid in advance for what we do." — Roper Technologies Q1 2018 earnings call transcript (Motley Fool).
On Critical Niches: Jellison: "it's going to be something that's niche, that's critical to the customer that's actually making the decision to deploy it." — Roper Technologies Q1 2018 earnings call transcript (Motley Fool).
On Capacity to Deploy Capital: Jellison: "our capacity for investing in capital deployment is very high." — Roper Technologies Q1 2018 earnings call transcript (Motley Fool).
On Gross Margin: Jellison: "it's sometimes forgotten that the 62.5% means something really important, that our cost of goods sold is only 37.5%." — Roper Technologies Q1 2018 earnings call transcript (Motley Fool).
On the Pipeline: Jellison: "We're seeing a lot more attractive opportunities in the pipeline already, and we're engaged in several, all of which look attractive at this point." — Roper Technologies Q1 2018 earnings call transcript (Motley Fool).
On Pricing Against Costs: Jellison: "if you can raise your prices by 1.9%, you have no cost risk at all." — Roper Technologies Q1 2018 earnings call transcript (Motley Fool).

On Compounding: Brian Jellison: "We’re going to continue to expand and compound our cash flow" — www.roic.ai/quote/ROP/transcripts/2016-year/4-quarter.
On Worldwide Cash: Brian Jellison: "The mobility of worldwide cash is a huge benefit" — www.roic.ai/quote/ROP/transcripts/2017-year/4-quarter.
On Managing the Portfolio: Brian Jellison: "I think we have learned how to manage all of the things in the portfolio really quite well" — www.roic.ai/quote/ROP/transcripts/2017-year/2-quarter.
On Asset-Intensive Multiples: Brian Jellison: "people are focused on product-oriented, more asset intensive businesses that are trading at 12 times or 13 times because of very low interest rates" — www.roic.ai/quote/ROP/transcripts/2016-year/2-quarter.
On Interest Rates: Brian Jellison: "as interest rates go up, we’re in a better position with each passing month that occurs" — www.roic.ai/quote/ROP/transcripts/2016-year/4-quarter.
On Long-Term Growth: Brian Jellison: "We do think a focus on long-term growth is pretty important" — www.roic.ai/quote/ROP/transcripts/2017-year/4-quarter.
On Gross Margins: Brian Jellison: "the gross margins above 50% for all four of our segments, and that’s something that everybody running those segments is very proud of." — www.roic.ai/quote/ROP/transcripts/2017-year/2-quarter.
On Niche Leaders: Brian Jellison: "they’re very specific leaders in niche markets; and they have high recurring revenue and strong management teams at each one of these companies that we acquired." — www.roic.ai/quote/ROP/transcripts/2015-year/4-quarter.
On the Core of the Model: Brian Jellison: "To get to really what’s the core of our entire business model is compounding our cash flow." — www.roic.ai/quote/ROP/transcripts/2015-year/4-quarter.
On Shareholder Value: Brian Jellison: "Compounding cash flow is really what creates so much shareholder value" — www.roic.ai/quote/ROP/transcripts/2016-year/4-quarter.

On Financial Performance and Shareholder Value

On Compounding Cash Flow: Jellison: "We continue to compound cash flow and are in a particularly good place to achieve another all-time record in 2018 for cash-flow performance." — Roper Technologies Q1 2018 earnings call transcript (Motley Fool).
On Negative Working Capital: Jellison: "This quarter, we closed out at a negative number of 2.7%." — Roper Technologies Q1 2018 earnings call transcript (Motley Fool).
On Deferred Revenue Growth: Jellison: deferred revenue "totaled $585 million at the end of the first quarter, which is more than double what it was just two years ago." — Roper Technologies Q1 2018 earnings call transcript (Motley Fool).
On Debt and EBITDA: Jellison: "you're up on EBITDA, down on debt." — Roper Technologies Q1 2018 earnings call transcript (Motley Fool).

On Tax-Free Alternatives: Brian Jellison: "selling them is not the best thing for our investors, finding tax free alternative to that would be more attractive." — www.roic.ai/quote/ROP/transcripts/2015-year/4-quarter.
On Compounding Cash Flow: Brian Jellison: "Our proven CRI principles and discipline really drive our ability to compound cash flow and acquire great businesses" — Roper Technologies Q3 2017 earnings call transcript (Motley Fool).
On Getting Paid in Advance: Brian Jellison: "as we grow, we actually get, oftentimes, paid in advance for the work, and so, it actually strengthens the cash in our balance sheet as we grow." — Roper Technologies Q3 2017 earnings call transcript (Motley Fool).
On Negative Working Capital: Brian Jellison: "the importance, of course, of the negative working capital, is that we don't need to add working capital as we grow." — Roper Technologies Q3 2017 earnings call transcript (Motley Fool).
On Containing Cost Push: Brian Jellison: "it demonstrates our ability, we think, to contain the cost-push challenges that other people are complaining about, with material and supply chain issues." — Roper Technologies Q3 2017 earnings call transcript (Motley Fool).
On Deploying Capital in Acquisitions: Brian Jellison: "We think over the next four years we'll put something above $6 billion to work in acquisitions, which is simply our normal glide path" — Roper Technologies Q3 2017 earnings call transcript (Motley Fool).

Personal Philosophy and Legacy

Learn more:

Lessons from Brian Jellison

On Leadership and Culture

On Strategy and Acquisitions

On Financial Performance and Shareholder Value

Personal Philosophy and Legacy

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