Coffee Break with Jake

This week Jake Voll sits down with Scott Elkins, Executive Chairman of Zeus Fire and Security and 37 years into the industry. Scott started at his family's small commercial shop outside Philadelphia, grew it into the national account business UAS, then partnered with Access Holdings to build Zeus, which now ranks eighth on the SDM 100 by revenue after 27 acquisitions. He explains why Zeus keeps the local names on the trucks while running one set of systems behind them, and why the best idea wins no matter which company it came from.

In this episode, we talk about...

✅ Why national accounts returned $10 for every dollar and the local business got starved
✅ Choosing Access Holdings, and interviewing for the job of running Zeus
✅ Running your business today as if you were selling it tomorrow
✅ The house of brands strategy, and what a name change costs employees and sellers
✅ One ERP, one CRM, and fixing "I didn't know you did that work"
✅ Firing bullets before cannonballs when adding a product or service
✅ Why consolidation is still in the early to mid innings
✅ Handing the CEO role to Mike Cox and spending more time looking up and out
✅ Practical AI, starting with an HR benefits agent

Coffee Break With Jake is recorded live every Friday at 11am ET. Join us live or register to attend at https://go.ssandsi.com/coffeebreak