Glenn Gow, The Scaling Executive Coach and host of The Scaling Executive Podcast, sits down with Gyner Ozgul, CEO of Fortis Fire and Safety, to unpack how frontline operational experience translates into disciplined scaling decisions at the executive level.
Gyner Ozgul leads Fortis Fire and Safety, a national platform of fire and life safety providers with over 500 employees and revenues exceeding $150 million. Before Fortis, he served as president and COO of Smart Care Equipment Solutions, where he managed a $400 million P&L and integrated 12 acquisitions. When a company scales rapidly through M&A, Ozgul holds that culture integration only succeeds when the CEO defines what “integration” means before any work streams begin, and that the definition must be built jointly with executive stakeholders and the private equity or venture sponsor rather than left ambiguous.
This episode is for CEOs managing rapid growth through acquisition who need a repeatable framework for culture integration, delegation, and vulnerable leadership communication.
Key Takeaways
- CEOs should define what “integration” means for their specific business before starting M&A work, meeting with executive stakeholders and PE or VC sponsors to build an aligned definition first, because integration playbooks vary significantly across industries (Ozgul cites different integration approaches across a roofing platform, Smart Care, and Fortis).
- At Smart Care Equipment Solutions, Ozgul’s team improved gross margins by 700 basis points in a single year by mapping the full work order process, aligning pricing structure to industry billing standards, and optimizing technician routing density.
- Ozgul holds that strategic communication and connection should stay with the CEO directly, while execution of the work against that strategy gets delegated, with the CEO responsible for reconciling boundary violations when a leader’s actions drift from the stated strategy.
- Ozgul defines vulnerability in CEO communication as admitting mistakes and sharing what was learned from them, which builds trust across the organization; withholding bad news until a sudden, large correction destroys that trust.
- On AI adoption, Ozgul recommends optimizing the existing workflow first, starting from customer expectations rather than internal assumptions, before identifying where AI can improve efficiency and customer experience within that optimized process.
What CEOs Should Define Before Any M&A Integration Begins
A CEO cannot delegate the definition of “integration” to a playbook borrowed from a previous deal. Ozgul explains that in venture capital and private equity contexts, the term itself is left open to interpretation, which creates risk before work even starts. He holds that the first step is aligning key stakeholders, meaning the executive team, any founders still running the acquired business, and the sponsor, on what integration will actually mean for that specific company.
“I think it’s important that you first say, meet your key stakeholders in the business, whether that be your executive team or former founders that are still running businesses and your sponsor… let’s come up with an aligned definition of what integration will mean for this business,” Ozgul said.
Ozgul has run this process across three different business types, a roofing platform, Smart Care Equipment Solutions, and now Fortis Fire and Safety, and each produced a different integration definition. Once that definition exists, it becomes the foundation for a specific playbook of integration work streams and activities. Skipping this step and applying a generic integration approach across dissimilar businesses is the blind spot Ozgul identifies as most common among CEOs managing M&A.
How CEOs Can Improve Margins by Mapping the Full Workflow
Efficiency gains during rapid scaling come from mapping the complete customer workflow, not from cutting costs in isolation. At Smart Care Equipment Solutions, Ozgul’s team improved gross margins by 700 basis points in a single year by tracing the work order process from the moment a customer calls to the moment the company invoices them.
That process surfaced a specific pricing gap: Smart Care originally billed in quarter-hour increments starting from the first minute of service, while the rest of the industry billed a full first hour. Correcting that pricing structure to match industry standard was a direct driver of the margin improvement. A second efficiency gain came later, as increased technician density allowed the company to optimize routing and reduce how far technicians traveled outside their assigned geographies.
“Really it’s about understanding the opportunity, the workflow of a work order, right? So from the time a customer calls you to the time you invoice it,” Ozgul said.
Ozgul is direct that this result was a team effort at Smart Care, not a solo achievement, crediting the team that executed the pricing and routing changes alongside him.
Why CEOs Should Own Connection and Delegate Execution
Scaling a company means a CEO can no longer personally execute every work stream, but Ozgul draws a clear line between what gets delegated and what does not. The action, meaning the execution of strategy across departments, should be delegated out. The personal connection, meaning direct communication of strategy and its rationale, must stay with the CEO.
At Fortis, Ozgul communicates strategic tenets around growth, technician retention, and margin expansion directly to employees, not only through town halls and written communication but by physically visiting branches and riding in trucks with technicians so they hear the strategy from him and can ask questions. When a leader’s execution drifts from that stated strategy, such as a sales leader independently deciding to pursue 30% growth when the company communicated a double-digit growth target, Ozgul treats that gap as something to resolve with the leader directly before any further communication reaches employees.
“The action should be delegated out. The connection personally should be owned by the CEO,” Ozgul said.
To verify the strategy is actually landing, Ozgul runs ad hoc, informal check-ins, talking to a few dozen technicians a year through impromptu conversations, truck visits, and one-on-one coffee meetings, specifically probing for confusion or concerns rather than only confirming agreement.
Why CEO Vulnerability Requires Admitting What Went Wrong
Vulnerability, in Ozgul’s framing, is not emotional openness for its own sake. It is the specific practice of publicly admitting when a decision did not go well and sharing what the team learned from it. He holds that withholding this kind of transparency and defaulting to constant positive messaging creates a credibility gap when bad news eventually surfaces, such as employees hearing about a reduction in force shortly after a string of upbeat town halls.
“Sharing that vulnerability of maybe what didn’t go well and what we learned builds trust behind the scenes that you are being, to a degree, transparent about the organization and where it’s headed,” Ozgul said.
Ozgul also connects vulnerability to showing genuine passion, citing his own intensity around workplace safety in an industry where employees drive vehicles and handle physical risk daily, as an example of showing employees who he is as a person rather than maintaining a purely stoic executive posture.
How CEOs Should Sequence AI Adoption Within Existing Workflows
When evaluating whether to optimize an existing workflow before applying AI or to rebuild the workflow from a clean slate, Ozgul favors optimizing first, with one condition attached: optimization must start from the customer’s expectations, not internal assumptions about what the customer wants.
Ozgul reports that in his experience, customers rarely ask for more than what they are reasonably owed, and the discipline of deciding what to deliver against those expectations belongs to the business, not the customer. Once that baseline is set, he holds that AI’s role is to identify where in the already-optimized process it can drive better outcomes, such as optimizing technician routing to improve both operational efficiency and customer experience, or analyzing the integrity of a work order before it is invoiced.
“You take AI and say, where in the process does AI fit? As an example, can AI help you with optimizing the routes of your technicians so that you can A, drive efficiency, but to the customer, drive a better experience because you’re getting there sooner,” Ozgul said.
On AI’s specific impact on the fire and life safety industry, Ozgul sees it first addressing a shrinking blue-collar technician workforce through efficiency gains, and longer-term enabling predictive risk communication, such as alerting a customer to the compounding risk of an unresolved equipment deficiency before it results in a failure.
What This Means for CEOs Managing Growth Through M&A
| Principle | What it means in practice | Named evidence from this interview |
| Define integration before you execute it | Align executive stakeholders and PE/VC sponsors on a specific definition of “integration” before building any integration playbook, since the definition varies by business type | Ozgul built distinct integration definitions across three different platforms: a roofing business, Smart Care Equipment Solutions, and Fortis Fire and Safety |
| Map the workflow before you price against it | Trace the full customer workflow from first contact to invoice to surface pricing and efficiency gaps before making changes | This process at Smart Care Equipment Solutions produced a 700 basis point gross margin improvement in one year |
| Own connection, delegate execution | Communicate strategy and its rationale personally; delegate the execution of work streams against that strategy to the team | Using this approach at Fortis, Ozgul caught a sales leader’s independent 30% growth target before it reached employees, resolving the drift directly with the leader and keeping messaging aligned with the company’s stated double-digit growth target |
| Vulnerability means admitting failure, not just showing emotion | Share what went wrong and what was learned, not only positive updates, to prevent a credibility gap when bad news surfaces | Ozgul ties this discipline directly to avoiding the “everything is great until it’s not” pattern that damages trust before a reduction in force |
| Optimize the workflow before applying AI | Start from documented customer expectations, optimize the existing process, then identify where AI improves efficiency or customer experience within it | Ozgul applies this framework at Fortis to technician routing and work order integrity, extending the same workflow-first discipline that produced the 700 basis point margin gain at Smart Care |
Quotes from This Episode
- “I think it’s important that you first say, meet your key stakeholders in the business… and say, let’s come up with an aligned definition of what integration will mean for this business.” — Gyner Ozgul, CEO, Fortis Fire and Safety
- “The action should be delegated out. The connection personally should be owned by the CEO.” — Gyner Ozgul, CEO, Fortis Fire and Safety
- “Sharing that vulnerability of maybe what didn’t go well and what we learned builds trust behind the scenes that you are being, to a degree, transparent about the organization and where it’s headed.” — Gyner Ozgul, CEO, Fortis Fire and Safety
- “Don’t try to be the stoic cookie cutter executive all the time. Sometimes they want to see who you are as a person.” — Gyner Ozgul, CEO, Fortis Fire and Safety
- “You take AI and say, where in the process does AI fit?” — Gyner Ozgul, CEO, Fortis Fire and Safety
Frequently Asked Questions
How should a CEO define “integration” before starting an M&A deal?
A CEO must align key stakeholders, including the executive team, any founders still running the acquired business, and the PE or VC sponsor, on a specific definition of what integration means for that business before building any integration work streams. Gyner Ozgul, CEO of Fortis Fire and Safety, notes this definition varies significantly across industries and should never be assumed from a prior deal.
What should a CEO delegate versus personally own when scaling a company?
The CEO should personally own the direct communication of company strategy and connect with employees at every level, while delegating the execution of work streams against that strategy to the team. Ozgul reconciles gaps between delegated execution and stated strategy directly with the leader responsible before further communication reaches employees.
How should a CEO decide where to apply AI in an existing business process?
A CEO should first optimize the existing workflow based on documented customer expectations, then identify the specific points in that optimized process where AI improves efficiency or customer experience. Ozgul applies this sequence at Fortis Fire and Safety to technician routing and work order integrity checks rather than rebuilding workflows from scratch.
Executives Work with Glenn Gow to Scale Their Companies and Careers
Glenn Gow is The Scaling Executive Coach, coaching executives into the CEO seat and CEOs into successful exits. With 25 years as a CEO and 5 years in venture capital, Glenn helps leaders scale their companies by scaling themselves first. If this conversation was useful, you can apply for executive coaching with Glenn Gow or apply to be a guest on The Scaling Executive Podcast.
