Mark Leonard of Constellation Software is media shy so when he speaks I listen multiple times. This didnt fail.

Talks through vertical market software, capital allocation, growing talent from within, culture, incentives, and investing in network of people https://www.buzzsprout.com/832150/5135959 

Given Constellation's niche focus on vertical market software, Mark prefers to promote from within to preserve culture but also knowledge compounding within this niche

He says if CSU were to expand beyond or become very big in one vertical, he would probably hire from outside

Keeps business units to small teams because communication overhead expands exponentially based on each new node's connections added to the previous group

If BUs became bigger, decision making would become more centralized vs preserving agility now

Important to note, he isnt against centralization but wants to only centralize decisions that need to be (large strategic moves, things that affect whole company) vs preserving ability for individuals to make smaller add-on M&A

Know when to centralize vs empower employees

Promotes experimentation (again through smaller teams) in business units, this helps to improve best practices and then share those throughout whole company in terms of incentivizing people and maintaining culture

Mark views his most important impact as continuously investing in his network which allows him the ability to connect business units and employees to key talent to help with various issues

Building network of specialized knowledge to each niche