We Built a Company. Then a Culture. Then a Movement.

Building a lasting business in Mergers & Acquisitions requires Culture and Integration at the core. Purpose-driven growth creates enduring value beyond short-term scale.

In the early days, you build a company. You focus on the mechanics, solving problems, hiring the right people, and winning that next client. You define your lane and stay in it. You measure success in months and milestones.

We started as an outsourced benefits business, filling a gap that existed in the market. With persistence - and more than a little luck - what began as a simple idea grew into something much bigger. Back then, our mission was straightforward: create value for employers. Over time, we realized our true purpose was about more than business outcomes, it was about people. By championing our team to do their best work and live their best lives, we could extend that same commitment to every client we served.

Twenty-five years later, that focus has made all the difference. Our success didn’t happen by chasing scale for its own sake or passing our business from one private equity hand to another, but because we held tight to a long view and a mission that would steer us even through mistakes, wrong turns, and many near misses. Doing so, we learned the true power of longevity and holding firm to a vision for the future.

Building something that lasts teaches you something that short-term success never can: that purpose is an evolving thing. It matures, just like people do. It deepens. It stretches. And when you commit to growing with it, not just repeating what worked last time, you give your company the space to become something that’s not only sustainable, but meaningful.

For us, that has meant continually re-centering around people, not just as employees or clients, but as people with complex lives. It required us to treat culture as a guiding force, not a byproduct. And it means rejecting the idea that doing well in business and doing good in the world are mutually exclusive. They’re not. In fact, we’ve found they’re often the same path.

What we’re experiencing now, with an integrated platform that touches each corner of people’s health and financial well-being, feels like the next evolution, not just in what we do, but in why we do it. And increasingly, it’s not just about us. It’s something that others want to be part of. A set of shared beliefs and behaviors that’s becoming bigger than any one leader, or even any one company.

That’s when you know you’re no longer just running a business.

You’re leading a movement.

Read the full series from Mike and Connect with him on LinkedIn, here. To hear more from leaders who joined OneDigital through acquisition, visit the Why OneDigital Hub.