Why are we called Stronghold Ownership?

In the salmon conservation world, there is something known as "The Stronghold Strategy." In contrast to historical efforts that were primarily aimed at reactive ecosystem restoration/recovery, the Stronghold Approach is a proactive strategy focused on protecting the most pristine, healthy salmon watersheds in the world (the "strongholds").

The strategy doesn't abandon restoration. But on the margin, it will prioritize the protection of existing Strongholds, because it correctly recognizes that once you lose a healthy salmon system, getting it back is extraordinarily difficult and sometimes impossible.

As noted in a recent study in the journal Fisheries: "The [stronghold] approach emphasizes the role of human stewardship in maintaining and restoring wild salmon diversity and abundance to provide ongoing benefits to human livelihoods and cultures, as well as ecosystems."

We see great parallels to the stronghold strategy in our work protecting what we call "Stronghold Companies." Stronghold Companies are sound businesses (profitable, well-run) with healthy ecosystems that prioritize purpose, stewardship, mutual benefit, and long term thinking.

Like salmon, Stronghold Companies face a constant threat: acquisition or ownership change that could destroy what makes them valuable, special, and unique.

Healthy watersheds don't stay healthy by accident. The world's best watersheds are proactively protected before the dams are built, before the mining companies arrive, before development fragments habitat. Once the damage happens, true restoration is expensive and often impossible. 

Same with companies. Once a purpose-driven business gets acquired by a strategic buyer or private equity, the original mission/ecosystem often dies. Maybe slowly, maybe quickly, but it withers. Trying to restore that culture and purpose afterward rarely works.

That logic underlies the thesis behind our work: It is important to identify Stronghold Companies (the ones actually living their values and doing well) and help them transition ownership into mission-aligned structures (ideally perpetual) while they have leverage and clarity. 

We need to protect what's working before it needs saving.

That is what we do here at Stronghold Ownership.