At the 2026 Growth Conference in Banff, Simplicity CEO Domenic Ieraci announced ambitious growth targets including processing one million vehicles annually by 2031, while emphasizing that success requires stepping outside familiar routines, embracing failure as a learning opportunity, and building habits that support long-term business performance.
- Simplicity has an average cycle time of 10.2 days, which is 35% faster than other networks in the collision repair industry.
- The company aims to process one million vehicles annually by 2031 as part of its ambitious growth strategy.
- Keynote speaker Jesse Lipscombe emphasized treating failure as a learning opportunity rather than an outcome to avoid, comparing growth to a lobster shedding its shell.
- Simplicity CEO stressed the importance of clarifying personal and professional goals and building habits that support long-term growth in a challenging market.
- The collision repair industry faces headwinds including vehicle technology reducing collisions, rising customer deductibles, and economic uncertainty tied to tariffs.
The 2026 Growth Conference brought collision industry professionals together in Banff, Alberta, on Friday, Oct. 16, for discussions on business performance, leadership and personal growth.
Simplicity CEO Domenic Ieraci opened the day by challenging attendees to clarify their personal and professional goals and consider what they wanted to achieve. He emphasized the importance of stepping outside familiar routines and building habits that support long-term growth.
“We’re not here to educate you on KPI's, we’re here to help you elevate your business and pursue what you’re after,” Ieraci said.
He also addressed the challenges facing collision repair businesses, including vehicle technology that is reducing collisions, rising customer deductibles, claim deferrals and economic uncertainty tied to tariffs and trade tensions.
Against this backdrop, Simplicity is pursuing ambitious growth targets. Ieraci said the network has an average cycle time of 10.2 days, which he described as 35% faster than other networks. The company is aiming to process one million vehicles annually by 2031.
“We have very bold, ambitious plans that we want to take one step at a time. We want to keep raising the bar on the performance standard,” he said.
Keynote speaker, actor and author of The Art of Doing: A Guide to Getting Motivated, Getting Unstuck and Getting it Done, Jesse Lipscombe continued the personal growth theme with “The Art of Doing: Turning Momentum Into Mastery,” drawing on his experience as a professional high jumper and actor to explore how people respond to failure.
A former full-scholarship athlete, Lipscombe was an eight-time All-American, a two-time national champion and ranked sixth in the world in high jump. He explained that every competition ultimately ends with a missed attempt, making failure an unavoidable part of pursuing higher performance.
“Failure became my goal. It was something that I sought after. Something that I wanted. It wasn't something that I feared,” Lipscombe said.
He encouraged attendees to treat setbacks as opportunities to learn rather than outcomes to avoid. For business leaders, that means being willing to acknowledge mistakes, remain open to feedback and create an environment where team members can learn from failure.
Lipscombe compared the process to a lobster shedding its shell to grow, arguing that progress requires leaving behind what is familiar and accepting periods of vulnerability. His message challenged attendees to reconsider how they approach risk and how they support others through uncertainty.
The afternoon continued with featured speaker Cole Strandberg’s session, Build it, Scale it, Capitalize it: The Operator’s Roadmap to Organic Growth, followed by the strategic panel discussion Fueling the Future: The Insider’s Playbook.
The program also included Leadership Unfiltered: The Senior Team on Simplicity’s Next Chapter, bringing the company’s leadership and future direction into the day’s broader discussion of growth.
Friday concluded with a trade show and networking opportunities, including an evening hospitality event hosted by Sherwin-Williams at the Rose & Crown Pub in Banff.
