Painting Targets
Some people have a plan. Others have a strategy. Success tends to follow those that have both a strategy and a plan … and the means to ensure that the plan stays on course with the strategy. Another way to look at it is strategy without execution is pointless, while execution without strategy is dangerous. The key to formulating a sound business strategy is painting the right targets and then mobilizing your workforce to hit those targets. Determining and prioritizing the specific targets to hit, however, is often challenging.
Building a company that can be sold at a premium is the quest of most entrepreneurs. Therefore, it makes sense to build into your company’s DNA the characteristics sophisticated buyers value most. Growth in this manner not only increases the value of your company, but also increases the likelihood of closing a deal on good terms when it is time to exit.
ExitHigh’s Core Equity Value Dashboard gets everybody on the same page and helps a business owner build a more valuable company by concentrating energies and resources on areas that are important to sophisticated buyers. The dashboard consists of three “value drivers” you use to grow your business and four “performance drivers” that deliver economic results. These drivers are proven in the marketplace and exemplify businesses that out-perform their competitors.
Value Drivers
- Strategic Positioning depicts how a company is positioned in the industry relative to its competitors and what makes the company unique and special.
- Market Development dissects the industry in which the company competes and picks markets that matter to propel the company’s growth.
- Sales Execution drives top-line revenue growth and converts prospects to paying customers.
Performance Drivers
- Revenue Model captures how the company makes money in its addressable markets.
- Margins & Assets denote how the company utilizes its resources – both tangible and intangible – to create value at a profit.
- Risks & Liabilities cover how the company is financed and the risks it must overcome or hold at bay to maintain a healthy company.
- Sustainable Growth addresses important elements that must come together to create value driving growth that can be sustained over time.
Each of these drivers have nine “value-centers” that are important to sophisticated buyers. By prioritizing the value-centers with the greatest potential to increase strategic premiums or to reduce risk discounts, business owners can build additional “value that matters.” The ability to show how these value-centers contribute value and explain the company’s performance is critical information for potential buyers. Of equal importance, this information is also highly relevant to a company’s leadership team, investors, and employees. Deliberately manufacturing this DNA translates directly to creating core equity value in the company and increasing future cash flows, which positions the business owner to command strategic premiums and reduce risk discounts when the timing is right for an exit.