Michael Zaremski: Hey, good evening. So first question on M&A. You guys have been extremely successful integrating and acquiring firms. But I’m just curious if the landscape has changed a bit in terms of kind of what’s available. And, I guess, just for example, when I was — you’ve announced a few bank-owned brokers. I believe, historically, there’s two of your competitors that did most of those, and they would — one of them would talk openly about those deals being tougher, meaning take a couple of years to turn them into the growth machines that those companies are and Buck was a little different, too. So just curious if the pool is changing a bit, and so we should kind of expect probably different types of deals going forward versus the historical five, 10 years.
J. Patrick Gallagher: Well, I’d tell you, first of all, let’s remember. I think that when we do acquisitions, we like to talk about the fact that we’re getting two things. We’re not just getting revenue and earnings, which, of course, we want, we get. But we’re getting terrific brains. And the bank-owned deals happen to be more sizable and they’ve got a lot of terrific people. And in addition to the brain power we’re getting, we’re getting expertise in the niches from the brain power, but we’re also getting more volume in areas that now are spreading the brand. And it adds to that the virtuous circle of knowing about Gallagher, listening to the con-call, accepting the call. And I think what we’re seeing is that our acquisition targets come aboard, and I guess this is the right way to phrase it, they kind of get on fire.
It is our organic engine. There’s no question about it. They come in. They’ve got a lot to say. Now, the bank deals are bigger. But if you take our day-in and down-out, roll-in acquisitions, these are people that more often than not have not been able to really tackle the large accounts in their own geography. In the minute they sign on to us, they’re out telling those clients we’re part of Gallagher, here’s what we’ve got, let me tell you about the expertise we’ve got, let me show you some of the things that we do in data and analytics. You’ve all heard us talk about drive. What do people like you buy? What kind of limits should you have? So, we arm them with tools that they just — whether they’re in a bank or not a bank, they’ve never had before.
So, the excitement level does not take a long time to resonate. The calls go out pretty immediately, “Hey, did you hear that we’re part of another firm.” And these are not folks that are in any way on their back foot. They are on the front foot and moving literally at the day of closing.
Douglas Howell: Yeah. Let me add one thing on that. I think that the organic in Cadence and Eastern was running very similar to what we’re seeing in our similar geographies in similar areas. So I think your premise was that it take a while to restart them. I think they’re already started. I think they’re going after it. Buck is already showing terrific organic growth. We don’t get it in our numbers for a year. So somebody goes out and sells something within the year, but we never get organic credit for that. And we get the revenues for it, but we don’t get the organic growth credit in our numbers. So, I wouldn’t say that the premise was, if the ones that we bought that they were — they needed a restart.
J. Patrick Gallagher: No, in fact, Mike, I’ll tell you what we’re referring to in our process is the Gallagher effect. The Gallagher effect is what happens after you announced you’re part of Gallagher. It’s not a slowdown, explain it. It takes their list, their pipeline of prospects and energizes the team to go back and tell about we really have something new to talk about here. And it’s not just about, I know you. I’ve called on you many times. I’ve got a good relationship in the marketplace. Can I talk to you about your pricing? It’s a hard market, soft market, but no, no. This is — let me bring some data and analytics. Let me show you what’s going on in our niches. We have experts in your specific area that I think you’re going to want to meet. It’s pretty exciting, actually. When I get a chance to get involved, it turns me on.
Michael Zaremski: Okay. No, I appreciate that color. Switching gears and you could tell me if I’m splitting hairs here. But on the December Investor Day, there was a number of reasons you kind of lowered the very near-term 4Q organic growth estimates versus what you previously have been thinking. And I think a couple of those sounded like they were more of like a push into ’24 like on the life insurance side and maybe entertainment business rebounding. But I didn’t think you really brought up your — you didn’t bring up your ’24 guide. So I guess, should we seasonally — obviously, we know there’s seasonality in the quarters, but should we be thinking 1Q or the first half of the year gets a little bit more of a bump than it does historically? Or am I just reading too much into things?
Douglas Howell: I think you’re missing the magnitude of this. In the quarter, let’s call it, $10 million, we get $15 million in total here that gets pushed out on a $10 billion business next year. Okay, it’s 10 or 15 basis points in there, but so that wouldn’t be enough to change that 7% to 9% guide in there.
Michael Zaremski: Okay, And just lastly, you’re one of the leaders. You’ve been doing it successfully for a while in terms of moving folks — or sorry, in your center of excellence. Any changes in kind of the trajectory there in terms of what you guys talked about last year in terms of kind of the goal of kind of doubling, maybe the percentage of employees there over the next five or so years?
