The acquisition of Medical Manufacturing Technologies (MMT) marks a strategic shift to reduce reliance on the volatile fire safety business. MMT, which makes machinery for medical devices, offers more consistent demand and organic growth tailwinds, stabilizing the company's overall revenue profile.

To create predictable revenue, Perimeter installs permanent infrastructure and staff at airbases (the "razor"). This locks in customers and creates a recurring service fee, making them less dependent on the unpredictable consumption of fire retardant (the "blades").

MSA is embedding connectivity in its gas detectors, moving from a commoditized hardware sale to a recurring software service. This provides steadier revenue, higher margins, and improved safety outcomes for customers, strengthening MSA's competitive position and improving unit economics.

Fire safety leader API Group's strategy is to sell low-cost, statutorily mandated inspections. This creates recurring revenue and a foot in the door to sell $3-$4 of higher-margin, less-risky repair work for every $1 of inspection, a superior model to chasing large, cyclical installation projects.

Led by TransDigm's founder, Perimeter explicitly copies a successful strategy: acquiring small, highly profitable businesses with sticky customers and quasi-monopolies in niche industries like fire safety and specialty chemicals, then rolling them up.

The naive view is that lower prices are always better for customers. However, higher prices generate higher margins, which can be reinvested into R&D. This allows the vendor to improve the product much faster, ultimately delivering more value and making the customer better off than with a cheaper, stagnant product.

The company targets "boring" but essential products like phosphorus pentasulfide (a lubricant additive) and fire retardants. These niche, B2B products are often a tiny fraction of a customer's total cost but are integral to their operations, granting significant pricing power and stickiness.

Serial acquirer Brad Jacobs boils down his complex business strategy to two core objectives: growing organic revenue faster than the market and continuously expanding profit margins. Every decision is evaluated against its ability to move one of these two levers, providing a clear and powerful framework for creating shareholder value.

Pricing is your most powerful lever. For a typical service business with a 10% net margin, a simple 10% price increase goes directly to the bottom line, effectively doubling the company's total profit without any additional operational cost or effort.