An entire industry can consolidate around a company that simply declines to sell.
observation — attributed to Jaclyn Bernstein
The destination management industry Bernstein entered has mostly disappeared into private equity. PRA sold first. Two rival brands merged and were absorbed under a new private equity name. One of the industry's oldest firms folded after forty years. Empire Force did none of it. It stayed locally owned in New York for thirty-two years, represented nationally through a network but never sold outright. The observation is that in a consolidating category, simply remaining independent becomes a competitive identity in itself, distinguishing a firm from its peers regardless of whether independence was ever marketed as a selling point.
For firms in a consolidating industry evaluating whether staying independent still matters to clients.
industry-consolidation, independence, market-positioning, longevity