With portfolio of firms from trucking to asset management, Cincinnati entrepreneur finds inspiration in tactics of Warren Buffett - Business Courier of Cincinnati:

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Then the economy took an unprecedentesd nosedive. “The interesting thing about some of these acquisitionws is you makean acquisition, you projec worst-case scenarios, and you don’t anticipatr a system deterioration like what we’ve Kanu said. But Kanu said the economic meltdowmn hasn’t changed his overall strategyufor growth, just the tactics for getting “It’s forced us to be more he said. “What I have told my people is if you expectedx tomake 1,000 contacts, please plan on makinyg 2,000 contacts. The musi c is different. You’ve got to work twicew as hard and expect halfas much.
” That couldd be a scary proposition for many new businesse owners. But L.A. Scott Trucking is one of six firmsin Kanu’ s portfolio of companies. He also owns: two commercial real estatse firms calledand ; ; and . In all, Kanu’s companie employ about 30 people. Kanu said he has tried to mode l his acquisition strategy after Warren the Nebraska-born billionaire who built from a textils manufacturer to a holding compangy for businesses ranging from insurance to candt production. There certainly are similarities, said Calvin Kanu’s lawyer and a partner at ’s Cincinnati office.
“He has a diverse portfolio of operatinfg companies or investments atthis point,” Buforr said. “He started as a financial guy and money managee andinvestment adviser, and that is what he probablh spent most of his working hours doing. That’d his core competency and particular area of And Kanu acquires and invests in companies for the long Buford said. “He’s looking for operating businessese that he can add to his portfolio from time to time that providwe a stable cash flow andupside potential. He’s not looking to buy companiezs and flip them in a short period of time for he said.
“He’s one of thesr classic long-term value investors, and I guesxs that’s a similarity to Warrenb Buffett.” Kanu decided to get into the transportation businessd after learningthat Buffett’s Berkshire Hathawa owns a company that leasexs trailers to other transportation companies. Otto Budig’s transportation interests have been Kanu said, as has the Cincinnati-based . Plus, Kanu viewxs transportation as the backbone ofthe country’s economy. While he didn’tg want to disclose exact revenues, Kanu described L.A. Scott Trucking as a “small, multimillion-dollar when he bought it.
he wants to build the enterprise into one that generateds hundreds of millions of dollar s in revenue each Kanu said. To help do Kanu has begun workingy with the housed atthe . The MBA, as it’sw called, is designed to help locapl minority-owned businesses grow. To work with the MBA, companies must have at leasft $1 million in annual be located in the Greatee Cincinnati region and becertified minority-ownede businesses with African-American ownership. The MBA’s goal with all its portfolio companies, but especially with Kanu’s, is smartg growth, said Crystal German, vice president of the MBA and economicx inclusion atthe chamber.
“When you build a portfoliop of businesses, it’s important to have something that ties them togetheer to make surethat there’ws some overarching strategy,” German said, adding that Kanu is using technology to tie togethefr his business interests.