The Stephens Group Philosophy

The Stephens Group philosophy has been honed during more than seven decades of successful partnerships with a wide range of companies and managements. At its core, our approach is based on a straightforward idea: by partnering with exceptional management and providing the resources they need to achieve their strategic vision, we can build long-term value.

Our philosophy is one of partnership.

We do not seek to control companies but rather to work with owner CEOs to help them accomplish their goals. Therefore, we emphasize partnerships, not portfolio components. We invest in management and its strategy, not just a company. With no mandated long-term investment horizon, we are able to take a long-term perspective.

We are investors, not active operators.

We typically have board level involvement but do not participate in the day-to-day management of the business. We are investors, not operators, who will go deep to learn management’s strategy and then leverage our resources to help drive value in concert with management.

We invest our own money, not that of others, enabling us to be long term builders of value.

An abundance of “advantaged capital” allows us to think in terms of future value rather than present value. Accordingly, we are more interested in earning high returns on our capital over long periods of time than in generating realized IRRs over specific investment periods. In short, we can afford to be patient and see long term strategies realized.

We are very flexible on transaction structures.

We are comfortable with either majority or minority ownership stakes, and have the ability and desire to invest in tax-advantaged pass-through entities like LLCs and S corporations. We can present unique investment proposals and structures tailored to a company’s specific goals and situations.