In reviewing CEO checklist of strategies for emerging from the COVID pandemic, and the biggest challenges they face, I am reminded of the near catastrophic meltdown of IBM in the early 90’s. The similiarities of the challenges faced by the new CEO to rebuild the value of the company has some similiarities with the challenges facing companies Read more…
In our work with middle market CEO’s, we often hear some variation of the above from them or people on their management team. Not surprising in this economic environment. Competition is tough and getting tougher. Companies in the industry are getting squeezed. The customer is demanding more for less. And everyone internally and externally is trying to Read more…
Over the last 20 years in working with executives from hundreds of corporations and non-profits I have seen a wide range of plans and methods of executing them. And there are as many reasons for failure and success as there are executives driving them. But there are some themes to both successes and failures, and here, Read more…
Have you noticed the changes? Strategy 3.0? I’ve been pondering the changes in strategy over the last few decades and have seen significant transitions. In trying to trace the origin of my own interest in strategy, I think it goes all the way back to when I was a kid and dad was a builder, developer and Read more…
In a discussion with an executive last week who is doing some work with a large private equity firm on one of their recent acquisitions, he asked a question I thought might be of interest. His question was, in maximizing the valuation of a company, is there any difference if you are planning on an IPO vs Read more…
We just read another survey, this one from BEI, that said 75% of business owners said they were ready to exit if the right circumstances presented themselves. And of that same group, 26% believed that they would not have any problems exiting their businesses successfully. The reality according to experts and a number of other surveys we Read more…
Buyers and investors in companies are buying or investing in the potential for future growth, not only in sales, but more importantly, growth in earnings, or more precisely EBITDA. They assess the organization for predictability of future earnings as part of their business valuation. Ensuring the future becomes reality results not only from keen insight and excellence Read more…
One of the value drivers that contributes significantly to the valuation of a company is the effectiveness of the management team. The New Growth Strategies SM process (Figure 3) was developed by Avantt Consulting, now Avantt Partners, to drive the paradigm shift and concomitant behavioral changes in management teams needed to implement these new goals. While there Read more…
Improving the valuation of a company will clearly imply changes need to be made to the ways in which the management team functions. The implications are clear: the growth strategies that are inhibited by the corporate dysfunctions require courage to come against the inertia, politics and fear in management teams to address the dysfunctional behaviors. What is Read more…
One of the major drivers of business valuations is the assessment of the growth potential of the firm. The effectiveness of the management team, and therefore the dysfunctional issues of the management team has a significant impact on the business valuation. Much of the business press has traditionally talked to the issue of looking beyond downsizing, TQM, Read more…