Is your business ‘sale-ready’? | Issue #237
Six important qualitative factors that will influence the value of your business
Wondering how ‘sale-ready’ your business is? You may have a clear exit plan with PE or VC backing. Or your business might be privately owned, and you’re working on increasing its value. Either way, understanding the factors that influence sale-ready value is useful.
Exit planning has always fascinated me. My experience scaling Peer 1 taught me so much about the levers to pull to increase value. In 2013, we sold the business, realising the highest multiple for a hosting company ever achieved.
Last week, I blogged about the measurable, quantitative factors at play in valuation. Here, I’m moving on to look at the broader qualitative factors that will influence the value of your business. It all boils down to the story you tell. And, like all good stories, you need to understand your audience. Once you know your potential buyer’s identity, you can tell them why your business is a good fit.
E242 | Dealing with Risk In A World of Uncertainty with Michele Wucker
Does everyone in your team look at risk in the same way? When we make decisions about whether to take a risk or not, we all have our biases. Our guest on The Melting Pot this week argues that diverse groups tend to make better decisions as they bring different perspectives. That’s why it’s beneficial to look at the risk profile of everyone in the room to ensure that your team looks at risks the right way and understands everyone’s perception of risk.
This week we learned from strategic advisor and best-selling author, Michele Wucker. Michele is famous for having coined the term ‘Gray Rhino’ – a metaphor that made headlines worldwide as a framework for the ignored warnings for the COVID-19 pandemic and has appeared in media in more than 70 countries and 35 languages and counting.
In this episode, Michele talks about her latest book, You Are What You Risk: The New Art and Science of Navigating an Uncertain World, about the perception of risk and how people feel about it. How can you ensure that your team looks at risks the right way? Michele explains that it’s important to understand what those risks are, and what the different risk perceptions are within the team. That is what will help you to assess how to move your business forwards, so you don’t make the wrong decision. At the end of the episode, Michele shares her perspective on the recent collapse of several banks and how people chose to ignore the signs that led to it.
A great conversation. Make sure to download and listen to learn more from Michele.
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You Are What You Risk by Michele Wucker
The #1 international bestselling author of The Gray Rhino offers a bold new framework for understanding and re-shaping our relationship with risk and uncertainty to live more productive and successful lives. What drives a sixty-four-year-old woman to hurl herself over Niagara Falls in a barrel? Why do we often create bigger risks than the risks we try to avoid? Why are corporate boards newly worried about risky personal behavior by CEOs? Why are some nations quicker than others to recognize and manage risks like pandemics, technological change, and climate crisis? You Are What You Risk is a clarion call for an entirely new conversation about our relationship with risk and uncertainty. In this ground-breaking, accessible and eminently timely book, Michele Wucker examines why it’s so important to understand your risk fingerprint and how to make your risk relationship work better in business, life, and the world.
Quote of the week
“Plain old world-class execution is your best protection from competitors and is a profit generator. Very few businesses can really deliver.”
Greg Crabtree
Dominic Monkhouse
Dominic offers business coaching and management development, strategy planning and organisational change, using tried and tested methods to launch your organisation onto an unparalleled growth trajectory. His programme is a function of his broad experience, his deep expertise and a proven process used by over 2,700 firms worldwide.