... and What To Do About It
In the “Year-End 2023 Middle Market Indicator” published by the National Center For The Middle Market [1], 58% of middle market leaders are saying that Core Business Issues (maintaining revenue and sales growth, ensuring customer satisfaction/retention, and IT challenges) are their #1 concern for the next 12 months. At Pontem Advisors we see the same thing, as we help our clients in Private Equity and VC firms who are peering into their portfolio companies, measuring profits and cash flows and trying to boost valuation to payout their Limited Partners as promised. The pressure is on.
CEOs are either trying to navigate through the choppy waters of VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity), fending-off declining revenues or rising customer acquisition costs. What do you do? What do you need? Most CEOs look for outside expertise. But how do you find the right assistance?
This article will share different approaches for the types of consulting you should consider and then how to select consultants with the right expertise and background.
APPROACHES TO CONSIDER
Is it Restructuring? or Reorganizing?
Restructuring:
Definition: Making significant changes to a company’s financial or operational structure
Reasons: Preparing for a sale, merger, buyout, change in operations, or transfer of ownership
Examples: Divestment, spin-off
Types: Financial, organizational, portfolio
Reorganizing:
Definition: Rearranging the plan or structure of the company
Reasons: Financial troubles, new owners or staff, structural changes
Examples: Changing organization roles and focus to improve them
Is it a Turnaround? or a Pivot?
Turnaround:
Definition: A sudden improvement in the company’s success while staying within their market and product positions and history.
Reasons: Persistent decrease in sales, mounting losses
Example: If they didn’t turn things around, they would be out of business
Stages:
Change leadership
Perform business analysis
Enact emergency actions
Business restructuring
Return to normal
Pivot:
Definition: Changing the company’s product, business model, or target market
Reasons: Something significant has changed in the product, customer, market, or problem
Example: Changing the product capabilities, revising how the company delivers value to customers
Is it an Organizational Design/Development Process?
Definition: A social science-based process that helps companies build their capacity to change
Reasons: Achieve greater effectiveness, growth, responsiveness and reinforcing strategies/structures/processes
Example: Redeploying teams, charters and (people) structure as well as changing culture and processes for better communications
IDENTIFYING THE RIGHT EXPERTISE OR PEDIGREE
When seeking consultants, consider their past engagements and focus. There are many kinds of consulting firms: Finance/Investment Banking, Audit/Accounting, Consolidation/ Bankruptcy, Management/Organizational Development, Operations, Marketing, IT, and HR. You should not want a firm that is adept in bankruptcy or asset assignment to help you through a turnaround or pivot? Past experiences matter. One must look at mindset/perspective, history and first-hand experience for credibility and determine if they are the right fit for your needs. Have they been through similar experiences in their own career?
GETTING CLARITY
Be clear on the approach you think you need, be it a pivot or an organizational overhaul. Then, holistically look at prospective consultants’ past experiences, successes and workstyles that would make them a good fit for you and your team. Will they force feed you their playbook, or work with you on yours? At this stage, it is a good practice to compare what talents and mindsets you currently have on your team and identify the gaps you need to round out inputs from diverse and credible perspectives. Avoid running to a big, expensive firm who will proudly deploy their theorists and distribute a tome of to-do lists for you to do. Also, make sure that your team has clear and realistic expectations, and the consulting firm has the empathy and understanding to deliver on those goals, and that they can sincerely help you adjust your expectations. Your company’s future and team are on the line. Your stakeholders are watching. We’re here to help.
See more about the Pontem Advisors experience: https://www.pontemadvisors.org/team-profiles
and case studies: https://www.pontemadvisors.org/about-1
#ceo, #company performance, #roi for investors, #organizational development, #management consultants
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