Meet The Disruptors: Brendan P Keegan Of Merchants Fleet On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
“Your biggest career decision will be who you marry.” I was 20 at the time when I received this advice, and I didn’t understand it. Marriage was the last thing on my mind — I was a college senior getting ready to conquer the business world. Fast forward 30 years and an upcoming 25th anniversary, and that was the single best advice I ever received, and I share it with so many people today.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Brendan P. Keegan.
Brendan P. Keegan is the award-winning CEO of Merchants Fleet, where he has focused on transforming the company’s business model and creating a new category within the fleet industry known as FleetTech. He has been involved with Merchants since 2009 first as a client, then as a board member and strategic advisor. Brenden leads a widely followed LinkedIn Newsletter called “Fearless Leadership”, and is a frequent editorial contributor to Newsweek, INC, Fast Company, and Entrepreneur Magazine. Under Brendan’s innovative leadership, Merchants has seen meteoric growth as the fastest-growing fleet management company in North America, has been named to Fast Company’s list of Most Innovative Companies, and recognized as one of the nation’s “Best Managed Companies” by Deloitte.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I am a growth enthusiast, business transformation leader, and fleet technology innovator, believing anything is possible when you remove fear, uncertainty and doubt. I am the CEO of Merchants Fleet, the fast-growing fleet management company in North America. I am a six-time president and CEO of private equity and venture capital businesses ranging from 500 to 10,000 employees around the globe. I’ve been named a Distinguished Fellow by Dartmouth College, a Fast Company Fast 50 Executive, the World’s Most Innovative CEO, NH Business Executive of the Year, and an Inc 5000 company leader.
My wife, Dana, and I reside in Southern New Hampshire with our two wonderful children, Kaylie and Patrick. My wife and I firmly believe the secret to living life to the fullest is giving back to the community and so we founded the Keegan Courage & Faith Foundation and set a goal to give back $1 million to youth programs.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
At Merchants, we have a business model of long- and short-term leases that no one else in the industry has and we were ahead of the curve with electric vehicles. We also built eight new businesses in only four years by teaming up with banking and equity partners to tap into over $2 billion of capacity. Our innovation, relentless drive, and continued investment in growth sets us apart from other companies.
Merchants also acts and thinks differently when faced with challenges, creatively finding solutions to capitalize on opportunity and change. For example, during the pandemic, we saw an opportunity to grow our business while finding ways to help our clients keep their businesses moving. The unique solutions we created to help businesses survive and thrive during the pandemic continue to set us apart in the industry as a valuable partner with an industry-first approach to flexible, customizable fleet management.
Innovation is at the core of everything we do at Merchants, and we are focused on providing the tools, resources and information businesses need to chart their own path toward a more sustainable future. We understand that the journey toward electrification is unique for every business, and we are proud to offer inventive ways to help our clients, no matter where they are on their journey. This out-of-the-box thinking has helped our clients become more efficient, safe, and sustainable, changing the way people view fleet.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
The funniest mistake was when I got put into a sales role, as an engineer and programmer by training. It was my first sales call, and I was overly prepared for a meeting with a high-ranking government official from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. I had my 50-page PowerPoint presentation ready, and over the course of an hour meeting, I read through each slide with barely a breath between them and didn’t read the room or focus on anything other than giving my presentation. One of the NASA executives stopped me, thanked me for my time and explained to me that we had no chance of winning and that it was best I not come back.
In a shocking and disappointing moment, I asked why and was informed that we had the contract years earlier and did a poor job with it. As you might imagine I was furious and after a two-hour drive back to the office, I stormed into my sales manager’s office and asked, “Why did you give me the NASA account and why did you let me pursue that deal?” His answer, in hindsight, is spot on and somewhat funny, albeit 20 years later: “We gave you NASA and let you pursue that deal because you have no experience and need to learn. Did you think we would give you a good account? Or something important? You’ve got to learn some time, and best to learn on deals we don’t have a chance to win.”
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
There are five people that I can confidently say I owe my professional success to including Val, Bill, John, Gary F., and Gary B. These individuals and mentors offered business and personal lessons that helped to propel my career. They encouraged me, helped develop me as an individual, pushed me past my limits, and invested in me — it was so much more than I could ever repay. Their expertise was well beyond my years, and they managed to carve out time for me even with their own busy lives. This has shaped me into who I am today and put me on the fast track to success.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Positive disruption happens when a company is encouraging innovation. Take Amazon, for example — it is disrupting the way we view shopping, even the speed at which we expect deliveries and the amount and diversity of available products. At Merchants, we are disrupting the way people view fleets — such as offering short- and long-term leases all under one roof along with providing new technology that improves connectivity and driver safety. Disrupting positively means a company is paying attention to industry needs.
Disruption is not so positive when the company does it for its own sake rather than helping a problem. One example that comes to mind is GM EV1, the world’s first mass-produced EV. This failed because it was too ahead of its time and the technology was not in place to be sustainable.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
“Your biggest career decision will be who you marry.” I was 20 at the time when I received this advice, and I didn’t understand it. Marriage was the last thing on my mind — I was a college senior getting ready to conquer the business world. Fast forward 30 years and an upcoming 25th anniversary, and that was the single best advice I ever received, and I share it with so many people today.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
We’ve made some amazing strides over the past couple of years, and this is just the beginning. This industry will see a massive shift as more fleets become electric/autonomous and fleet managers are faced with new challenges when it comes to switching equipment, infrastructure, data, automation and carbon footprint issues. However, these changes will also bring about safer driving conditions, reduce the cost of ownership, and minimize carbon footprints. Merchants will be at the forefront of this since we have reached out to Ford, GM, and all other top vehicle OEMs, to supply the next generation of EVs. We’ve already made commitments to buy a large sum of new EV fleet models and will be one of the companies leading the charge to deploy these vehicles.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
“The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell. As a business transformationalist, I am incessantly looking for tipping points before they happen to enjoy the journey of *crossing the chasm. For instance, during the COVID pandemic, e-commerce and home delivery went from 11% adoption to 14% — a great example of crossing the chasm, and I had my team ready for the leap and we capitalized on it.
*Crossing the Chasm: Coined by Geoffrey A. Moore in his seminal work on marketing for technology startups, “Crossing the Chasm”; a phrase referring to the challenging strategic and marketing process by which technology startups transition from selling their products and/or services to innovators and early adopters to selling to the early majority.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Have the courage to fail and the faith to succeed,” is a quote that I have lived by for as long as I can remember. I have it on the wall in my office and other locations in my life as a reminder to take risks and that failure is OK — that failure is a key part of success. I have also made this relevant to all team members across my career, so many people are programmed not to fail, that they never do anything great or take calculated risks. My quote, which started to simply guide me in my life, has in turn guided many companies through starting new businesses and disrupting multiple industries.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 😊
As I always say, leaders are MADE not born. My goal is to help create 1 million Fearless Leaders. My hope is that my stories and experiences can help others recognize their potential and motivate them to take action and become a Fearless Leader.
How can our readers follow you online?
The best way is to follow me on social media: @BPKfearless (Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook). I have some exciting projects on the horizon so make sure to follow me on social, so you don’t miss out!
Follow Merchants’ social channels for some exciting projects coming up, including a new website: @MerchantsFleet (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) and @lifeatmerchants (Instagram).
I also publish a biweekly newsletter on LinkedIn called “Fearless Leadership” that features various stories, reminders, advice and life lessons. You can subscribe to that here.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Meet The Disruptors: Brendan P Keegan Of Merchants Fleet On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Yo was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
