The New CEO Playbook: Thomas Davenport of Davenport Capital Management On Balancing Purpose, Profit, and Personal Brand
An Interview With Chad Silverstein
A short-term boost in revenue and cash flow to the team was not worth tarnishing what all we’ve built and who we are.
As a part of our series about “The New CEO Playbook: Balancing Purpose, Profit, and Personal Brand”, we had the pleasure to interview Thomas Davenport.
Thomas Davenport is the founder and Managing Partner of Davenport Capital Management (DCM), a private investment platform focused on building and scaling companies across digital infrastructure, energy, industrial services, and specialty manufacturing. With more than 20 years of experience spanning investment banking, private equity, and operations, Thomas combines financial acumen with hands-on leadership to drive value creation across multiple sectors. Through DCM, he leads a portfolio of growth-oriented companies including Direct Services Group, a digital infrastructure and energy services platform; Shakespeare Company, a materials science and specialty manufacturing business; and Steeltoe Advisory, an investment banking firm serving industrial and commercial services clients.
Thank you so much for joining us! Can you share your backstory and what led you to become the leader you are today?
I was born and raised in Atlanta and always had an interest in entrepreneurship. My first inspiration was my mother. She was a nurse for almost 20 years and a night shift supervisor. Once she had me, she needed to find a career that was more suitable. She became a school nurse, but it was not satisfying for her and her ambitions. Then she became a financial advisor. That’s quite the pivot, especially in the early ’80s. It took a lot of fortitude.
She held a corporate role then transitioned to open her own firm. Seeing that leap of faith, that ability to go out, sell and represent yourself, and build a business was probably my first foray into entrepreneurship. She would sometimes take me when she saw clients. My job was to entertain the clients’ kids while she talked with the clients. I had to entertain kids from different backgrounds, different ages, and find middle ground. For me, that laid the foundation for learning how to sell. By high school, I had a running list of the businesses I wanted to acquire.
My mom is still a role model. She turns 80 in May. Last year she was the top producer of the insurance company where she works.
What’s the why that drives your work? How has your personal sense of purpose evolved as your business has grown?
What drives me is intellectual curiosity. I like to know how things work. I have a natural inclination to make things better, which is why I like buying businesses. I like seeing a platform that’s had some level of success, and thinking, ‘How do we strategically augment this to take it to the next level?’ That’s my sweet spot.
Our goal is to be the first piece of outside capital that goes into a business. Both have very similar characteristics. There’s still some ‘meat on the bone,’ some modicum of success, but the business requires some augmentation to get to the next level.
I’m passionate about business. That’s just who I am.
The series is about balancing purpose, profit and personal branding. Can you help explain why each of those three matters and why they can sometimes pull against each other? If possible, share a real example from your experience.
Profit is the foundational piece. If you don’t have a profitable business, you’re not going to be doing it for very long. But profit can be at odds with your purpose or your personal brand.
I came across a business available for investment that had branding targeted to an adult audience. The owners and I hit it off. But as I did further due diligence, including spending time with employees, I acknowledged the business just did not align with my core values. I have two daughters and a wife. The business was very profitable and did phenomenally well. It would, at the time, have been a game changer for my portfolio profile. But it just didn’t align with who I am and ultimately I passed on it.
Because this is the way the universe works, they offered it to me again, so I had to pass on it a second time. A short-term boost in revenue and cash flow to the team was not worth tarnishing what all we’ve built and who we are. I didn’t want my personal brand to be associated with this type of business.
Many CEOs focus heavily on strategy and profitability, but hesitate to invest in their personal brand. What do you think about that? What have you seen work best?
I’m still on that journey. I was a big believer in letting the work speak for itself. You don’t have to talk about it. Just get it done.
In today’s environment, I’m opening up to the idea that it’s valuable to communicate about your personal brand. Just as in managing a portfolio of businesses, if nobody knows your goods and services, they’re unlikely to buy them. If no one knows your capabilities and your track record, you may miss opportunities.
In my world of business acquisition, there’s a natural skepticism. It’s a big investment for a company to sell. You’ve got to pay advisors, attorneys, and accountants. When you’re investing in a buyer that’s not a household name, there’s some risk. Some people are all bluster. You can either splash water around or you can pour it in a cup, but once you pour it in a cup, make sure people know that you have some water.
The work doesn’t necessarily speak for itself because a lot of the work is done in a confidential setting.
What are some misconceptions you’ve encountered about personal branding in the C suite, and how do you challenge those narratives?
There’s historically been a concern that personal branding is more about being a blowhard and tooting your own horn than a strategic tool. Personal branding is a strategic tool that, if leveraged correctly, can connect you to opportunities, or keep you in conversations, or allow you to upskill where you’re currently playing to a different level.
I see a lot of leaders making sure that they’re consistent with their brand and who they are, and that there’s strategic messaging around it. It’s not just letting the work speak for itself. Sometimes you have to speak for the work.
What’s one specific way your visibility as a leader, through interviews, speaking or social media has directly impacted your organization’s success. Walk us through what happened. How did you know it worked? What changed in measurable terms?
I’ve always been one tapped to speak at events, but as those rooms have grown more influential, it has led to opportunities. Sometimes that’s a commercial opportunity which helps the firm. Other times it’s opportunities to give back. In more influential rooms, I’ve gotten more elevated community service opportunities that require more influence.
A friend of mine was a professor at Tulane and invited me to give talks and sit on panel discussions for his investment banking class. Those experiences led to meeting one of my friend’s colleagues, an attorney on the board of the Atlanta YMCA. I now serve on that board as well. I’ve always had a strong personal connection to the Y, but never expected that speaking to college and MBA students would lead me to the connection that helped me reconnect with the Y.
Balancing profit and purpose is easier said than done. What practices or principles guide your decision making when those two goals seem to conflict?
If you’re in industries or settings where you’re profitable and in alignment with your purpose, you have less conflict on the back end. Don’t get associated with settings that may be profitable, but long-term, don’t align with your purpose. Things can happen while operating a business where you could choose a path that’s not in alignment with who you are.
It’s important to me that I’m a job creator. There are times to be strategic with job cuts, but also times where you may say, “This is not a long-term approach.” You may have to invest in people to see that longer-tail dividend in three to five years.
I align myself with co-investors who have similar business philosophies. I want to know, “Where do you see this business going, and how do you think about management?” Private equity has a bad rep for being slash and burn and cutting costs. I have aligned with investors that are putting more costs in the business short-term to elicit long-term outcomes that are better.
Can you share a story about how aligning your personal values with your company’s mission created a breakthrough in performance or growth?
I had a couple of employees that culturally may have not fit the organization but were capable. One was an engineer not originally from the United States. He was a good soul with a good personality, but he was having communication challenges. He wasn’t always engaged in the social nuances that happen at work but was really good at the work itself.
I pushed our managers to be more engaging, to help that employee navigate and get more cultural affinity within the organization. He is still there and doing well. He got a promotion. It’s our goal to manage our workforce and develop folks we need. You may have to develop him differently than you develop others, but spend that time figuring it out.
From my vantage point, I’ve often found we have preconceived notions of cultural backgrounds. I believe that high performers regardless of background are more similar to each other than folks from the same background who are not high performers. A players like to be with other A players. If you see that in someone, you really need to cultivate it to see how it’s going to pan out. Sometimes you need to challenge yourself about how you elicit performance in people who possess the core performance attributes.
In your view, what separates a leader who simply runs a company from one who builds a movement around their message?
“Movement around your message” feels a little lofty. There are some fundamental tenets and values that you typically have when running an organization. I’ve inherited instances where there weren’t any values. It was all about the cash. You treat people as tools and commodities. That is one way of running a business.
But I think you get more out of your workforce if people have an opportunity to bloom and blossom. To me, it’s a team sport. I haven’t cornered the market on all the good ideas. I can invest in my workforce and create a culture where folks are willing to take a risk or implement cutting edge ideas. When your team can generate ideas and execute, that’s where outsized outcomes come from. When someone starts in a business at a junior level, develops and has the space to fail, I think those folks make better leaders. You get more loyalty from them.
How do you integrate storytelling into your leadership, both internally with your team and externally with your audience or clients?
I once took a storytelling class in high school. We learned the structure of the story, how you develop it, how you engage the audience and develop emotion. That’s a large part of leadership. There’s got to be substance. But the ability to present and articulate a vision and engage buy-in is a huge piece of leadership and setting direction for a team.
Can you share a time when taking a public stand or sharing your story authentically strengthened your credibility or influence?
My experience in how I came to join the YMCA board showed the value of authentically sharing my story. I grew up at the Y playing soccer, baseball and attended the summer camps. Some of my closest friends have come from the Y ecosystem.
What are your top five principles for balancing purpose profit and personal visibility? Please include a short example for each plus one action a reader could try this week.
1. Let the work create the spotlight, not the other way around
Principle: Visibility should be a byproduct of execution, not a substitute for it.
Example: When I talk about infrastructure, I anchor it in real outcomes. Jobs created, systems built, capital deployed, not abstract “thought leadership.”
Try this week: Share one concrete result you delivered recently and explain how it happened, not why you’re proud of it.
2. Choose problems that matter economically and socially
Principle: The best businesses solve unglamorous, essential problems at scale.
Example: Digital infrastructure, energy services, industrial operations. These are not hype-driven sectors, but they underpin modern life and generate durable returns.
Try this week: Reframe one project you’re working on in terms of who relies on it daily and what breaks if it fails.
3. Be visible about principles, not ego
Principle: People trust leaders who are consistent, not loud.
Example: I’m open about standards like discipline, fiduciary responsibility, and long-term thinking, while staying selective about personal exposure.
Try this week: Articulate one non-negotiable principle you use to make decisions and explain how it shaped a recent choice.
4. Operate like an owner, communicate like a steward
Principle: Profit comes from ownership mindset; purpose comes from stewardship mindset. You need both.
Example: In acquisitions and operating companies, I think in decades, not quarters, balancing investor returns with employee continuity and community impact.
Try this week: Ask yourself how a decision would change if you expected to own the outcome for 20 years.
5. Scale impact before you scale attention
Principle: Attention without substance is fragile; substance eventually attracts attention.
Example: I focus first on building platforms that can compound. Capital, teams, and systems. Visibility follows once the foundation is real.
Try this week: Identify one process or relationship that, if strengthened, would quietly improve outcomes across multiple areas of your work.
If you could summarize your leadership philosophy in one sentence, what would it be and why leadership philosophy?
Leadership is aligning incentives, people, and time horizons to produce consistent results and bring out the best in others.
How can our readers continue to follow you or your company online?
davenportcap.com
linkedin.com/in/thomasdavenport
Thank you for sharing these insights!
About The Interviewer: Chad Silverstein is a seasoned entrepreneur with 25+ years of experience as a Founder and CEO. While attending Ohio State University, he launched his first company, Choice Recovery, Inc., a nationally recognized healthcare collection agency — twice ranked the #1 workplace in Ohio. In 2013, he founded [re]start, helping thousands of people find meaningful career opportunities. After selling both companies, Chad shifted his focus to his true passion — leadership. Today, he coaches founders and CEOs at Built to Lead, advises Authority Magazine’s Thought Leader Incubator.
The New CEO Playbook: Thomas Davenport of Davenport Capital Management On Balancing Purpose… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.