Family run businesses are a significant segment of any nation’s industrial structure. Exit for family led small and medium businesses happen predominantly through three channels: M&A, IPO or natural death. Unfortunately, many SME family businesses are ill prepared for the ownership transition. Most companies change hands in emergency situations such as illness or death of an owner or partner. Consequently, many SME family businesses (or their heirs) are forced to accept a transaction that is less desirable. Preparing a business for ownership change may bring in many an upside benefits even if the business is not finally sold. The inadvertent benefits that emerge because of planned changes may unbundle the hidden value of the company. In this paper, Browne & Mohan consultants share the approach that could be used by SME family business owners to profit from planned exit.
Family business transformation is complex and messy affair. Family businesses must not only untangle the tightly intertwined family from business, but also bring business focus into the family. Successful family business transformation requires thorough planning and diligent execution. In this paper, Browne & Mohan consultants share the steps a family business must pursue to remain competitive, sustain their relevance and grow over coming generations.
Family businesses account for significant part of the UAE economy. Family businesses dominate automotive, retail, fashion, real estate and manufacturing sectors. Family owned enterprises represent 90% of the businesses community in UAE and they contribute about 75-90% of the $500 billion plus trading activity. However, they face challenges on business continuity, succession, diversification, and professionalization front. In this paper, Browne & Mohan consultants present the approach to transforming UAE family businesses.
Trading companies add value by bringing suppliers and buyers together. To build a successful and growing trading company, there is much to be learnt by bench marking with successful ones, and working on some drivers that will enable the company to unleash growth. This paper discusses some of the drivers for improvement.
360 Degree Marketing: How to benefit from online and offline marketing commun...Browne & Mohan
With advent of online and mobile platforms, marketing managers now have both offline and online marketing assets to increase their brand reach and customer engagement. However, many companies do not plan and execute a marketing strategy that meshes assets available on different media. Moreover, companies do not use an extensive embellished strategy to keep in continuous touch with customers. In this white paper, Browne & Mohan consultants show how to integrate offline and online marketing assets systematically and build a strong extensive content strategy to develop from low cost low information intensive assets to costly high information intensive assets.
13 lessons for sme business transformationBrowne & Mohan
Browne & Mohan has had the privilege to work with Small and medium companies that pursued business transformation to improve their market relevance and financial sustainability. In this paper, we share 13 lessons gained from successful SME business transformation.
Manufacturing is a major contributor to GDP and employment provider in many countries. Both large and MSME are facing effects of global downturn which has made survival a test for many. With customer gains becoming far and few many companies worried about growth and profitability. Browne & Mohan consultants in this paper present the approach manufacturing companies should use to turn around profitability and survival.
Governance mechanisms that work in a family businessBrowne & Mohan
Adoption of good corporate governance practices and professionalization help business continuity of family business. This paper presents both formal and informal mechanisms that Indian family businesses of various sizes deploy to improve corporate governance. Formal mechanisms include family assembly, family office, board of directors for each business and independent directors. Informal mechanisms include shareholders assembly, and family outings etc..
Scaling up a business is not easy. Many start-ups, family business or professional run firms fail to scale to next level of operations. In this white paper, Browne & Mohan consultants share a framework that is successfully employed by companies to guide their scaling up process.
Family business transformation is complex and messy affair. Family businesses must not only untangle the tightly intertwined family from business, but also bring business focus into the family. Successful family business transformation requires thorough planning and diligent execution. In this paper, Browne & Mohan consultants share the steps a family business must pursue to remain competitive, sustain their relevance and grow over coming generations.
Family businesses account for significant part of the UAE economy. Family businesses dominate automotive, retail, fashion, real estate and manufacturing sectors. Family owned enterprises represent 90% of the businesses community in UAE and they contribute about 75-90% of the $500 billion plus trading activity. However, they face challenges on business continuity, succession, diversification, and professionalization front. In this paper, Browne & Mohan consultants present the approach to transforming UAE family businesses.
Trading companies add value by bringing suppliers and buyers together. To build a successful and growing trading company, there is much to be learnt by bench marking with successful ones, and working on some drivers that will enable the company to unleash growth. This paper discusses some of the drivers for improvement.
360 Degree Marketing: How to benefit from online and offline marketing commun...Browne & Mohan
With advent of online and mobile platforms, marketing managers now have both offline and online marketing assets to increase their brand reach and customer engagement. However, many companies do not plan and execute a marketing strategy that meshes assets available on different media. Moreover, companies do not use an extensive embellished strategy to keep in continuous touch with customers. In this white paper, Browne & Mohan consultants show how to integrate offline and online marketing assets systematically and build a strong extensive content strategy to develop from low cost low information intensive assets to costly high information intensive assets.
13 lessons for sme business transformationBrowne & Mohan
Browne & Mohan has had the privilege to work with Small and medium companies that pursued business transformation to improve their market relevance and financial sustainability. In this paper, we share 13 lessons gained from successful SME business transformation.
Manufacturing is a major contributor to GDP and employment provider in many countries. Both large and MSME are facing effects of global downturn which has made survival a test for many. With customer gains becoming far and few many companies worried about growth and profitability. Browne & Mohan consultants in this paper present the approach manufacturing companies should use to turn around profitability and survival.
Governance mechanisms that work in a family businessBrowne & Mohan
Adoption of good corporate governance practices and professionalization help business continuity of family business. This paper presents both formal and informal mechanisms that Indian family businesses of various sizes deploy to improve corporate governance. Formal mechanisms include family assembly, family office, board of directors for each business and independent directors. Informal mechanisms include shareholders assembly, and family outings etc..
Scaling up a business is not easy. Many start-ups, family business or professional run firms fail to scale to next level of operations. In this white paper, Browne & Mohan consultants share a framework that is successfully employed by companies to guide their scaling up process.
Align HR with Evolution of Company: An SME PerspectiveBrowne & Mohan
In this paper Ms. Indupriya S brings her insights on how to align your Human resources as your company grows and transforms from a SME to a larger company.
Common traits of successful family business: why some thrive, while other fal...Browne & Mohan
How families build structures and process for managing the business and the family matters in the continuation of their family business. In this paper, Browne & Mohan consultants share common traits that associated with families that have survived multiple generations.
How to use annual plan to set your company for Win !!!Browne & Mohan
At the end of the financial year, everyone makes business plans for the next financial year. The process consumes resources, time, and yet often remains a just another ritual to be followed. This paper discusses why annual plans fail to yield results, and what should be done to make it a guiding document for the coming FY.
Mpower: An action-learning approach to leadership development in SMB companiesBrowne & Mohan
Leadership development, unlike management development, is preparing the next line to embrace complex tasks and decision making and build process that enshrine the team to work and deliver higher productivity. In this article, Browne & Mohan consultants share Mpower progragm, an action learning leadership development program that can be effectively deployed in learning by doing and resource considerate SMB environments.
Companies of all sizes (SMB to large ones) are finding the current economic environment challenging. Business growth is slow or almost stagnated, new customer gains are far and few, customer spend has become very unpredictable and hence managing capacities is posing a big challenges. Browne & Mohan consultants based on their experience of guiding companies have compiled strategies that can be adopted to successfully maneuver the low tides. We suggest product or service offering changes, organizational changes, employee engagement changes, partner and ecosystem changes, sales and marketing structure changes that are appropriate to most companies.
Building an outcome driven high ownership companyBrowne & Mohan
What does it take a build company where every employee owns the quality of their outcomes and productivity , every act is purpose driven. What elements of a workplace make an employee to willingly own and contribute more to her job?. In this paper Browne & Mohan consultants presents the mechanisms that can be used to build an high ownership and outcome driven company
Performance Measurement in NGOs is a challenging task as they have both business and social obligations to meet. Traditional accounting measures may not suffice to capture and benchmark growth and other challenges of NGOs. In this paper, we enumerate some key performance measures that could be used by some practitioners.
Business transformation - Building the company to SellBrowne & Mohan
Small companies though faster and nimbler than larger companies and MNCs, do experience headwinds, hit a growth plateau and face uncertainties. Small companies are faster because of the founder mentality, which is a sense of mission and a passion for front line customers. They have a deep understanding of what their customers want. This is what makes them successful. However, smaller companies tend to be very dependent on a few customers. They find it difficult to sustain their effort in the long run. The owners of these companies usually depend on preferential access to clients, capital and talent to achieve initial success. Replicating this pattern in the long run is difficult. To be sustainable in the long term needs an ability to scale. At this stage, founders are faced with two options – grow and transform the company so that it can be sustainable. Or, they often think of exiting the business due to challenges in succession, lack of ability to invest etc. Even if they need to sell the business, there still is a runway to grow and transform the business for sale. Though the two options involve undergoing a transformation of sorts, the agenda and goals will be a different in each.
It is clear that companies, whether old economy or start-ups, need to work on a few areas before they sell out. All of these companies seem to be adding value somewhere which is what makes them attractive to buyers. Start ups in Israel take 4 years to sell out and on an average make 7 times their Return on Investment. In France they take 7 years to sell out and the ROI is less than 4. German companies too an average of 4 years to sell out, and their return was 2.5 times their initial investment. For most start ups, it is new technology which others think will be the next big thing. But there are lot of investors like Warren Buffet and large corporations, which make strategic investments to park their cash safely, especially given the uncertainty in the global economy. For them, old economy companies that can deliver regular dividends and has a self sustaining business will always remain attractive. Hence the question is what companies need to do to transform themselves to sell. Asian paints for example bought out the brand and entire front end sales of Ess Ess bathroom products, because of the capability Ess Ess had developed in this area. French company Lactalis acquired Tirumala Milk products for its niche products and infrastructure that it built over the years. Be it chemicals, pharma or engineering, M&A of small companies have been happening for various reasons like the people and skills possessed, functional competencies, benefits of integration to the buyer, regulatory clearances available or strong presence in the value chain.
Governance mechanisms for unlisted family businessesBrowne & Mohan
Family business need to adopt effective governance practices such as family office and on board independent directors. In this article, Browne & Mohan consultants describe what, when and how to go about implementing these in family businesses
Delivering outcome based Business TransformationBrowne & Mohan
In this paper we present an empirical framework of business transformation based on our experience of implementing business changes across several organization. The paper covers the PSPD Framework, drivers of integration framework used and some DOs and Don'ts of Organizational Transformation.
Sales is an area where many companies find the outcomes belie investments and outcomes. Many companies attempt sales transformation in a piece-meal fashion. In this paper, we discuss the framework for sales transformation and five fundamental levers of sales transformation.
Browne & Mohan consultants conducted a survey on what factors constitutes the best workplace or a place where employees would love to work. Findings show three aspects which influence an organisation to move towards being a 'lovable workplace'.
India prison reforms 2020 & State Industry Jail Board Browne & Mohan
Reformation and rehabilitation of jail inmates is a principle laid down in the UN Standard Minimum Rules, 1955, and is the corner-stone of the correctional policy of the Government of India. Most Jails in India offer skill development, work, entrepreneurship and empowerment programmes to the inmates. Most of these initiatives are targeted at creating small manufacturing or agri-based programs with majority of produce for self consumption. In this paper we analyse current programs and suggest setting up of a state level industry Board. The paper desrcibes the structural arrangements and how scale and sustainability can be achieved.
Superseva: Building a successful service businessBrowne & Mohan
Superseva is an enterprise services company offering concierge, Rewards & recognition, employee engagement services to corporates. It also offers personalised services to employees of client organizations. This case presents the evolution of the company under the dynamic leadership of its CEO, Ms Kumud Sharma.
Many brands become stale and loose their sheen over years if they can't connect and keep pace with changing customer preferences and market dynamics. Many iconic brands lose their market share and relevance. In this presentation, Browne & Mohan consultants share what is required to resurrect a stale service brand. Resurrecting a service brand must go beyond logo change and consider a complete rehaul of service design, customer experiences, product/service mix and consumption environment.
Performance measurement system for startups and scaling upBrowne & Mohan
what measures should startups and scaling up firms use to direct and align their multi-functional activities. In this paper, Browne & Mohan consultants present a comprehensive performance system that not only guides startups and scale ups, but bind several functions within the organization towards common objective.
CRM adoption in many companies do not yield intended benefits as it is managed as a IT roll out and not as a transformational project involving changes in process, procedures, ownership and measures. This paper presents MACE framework to manage this transformation and achieve the intended goals.
To be a truly effective chief financial officer, you have to learn to be the champion of strategic discipline. Interviews with leading CFOs at Caterpillar, Philips, Sainsbury's, Verizon, and Wells Fargo bring five traits of the strategic CFO to light: value chain insight, business driver leverage, attention to talent, cultural engagement, and integrity and interpersonal skills.
A Study of National Innovation Systems of GCC countriesBrowne & Mohan
A robust NIS system is a prerequisite for building a successful nation. With huge amount of wealth at their disposal, GCC countries are taking initiatives to transform themselves into knowledge based economies from oil based economies. This paper evaluates the current NIS of GCC countries, shows where they stand when compared to other countries, and how they can learn from countries like Singapore, Brazil, Malaysia, USA and Norway to make their NIS more effective.
Indian government has announced several measures to promote on-grid solar and thermal PV projects. This study presents the financial attractiveness of solar and thermal projects considering the central & state incentives and tax regime.
Align HR with Evolution of Company: An SME PerspectiveBrowne & Mohan
In this paper Ms. Indupriya S brings her insights on how to align your Human resources as your company grows and transforms from a SME to a larger company.
Common traits of successful family business: why some thrive, while other fal...Browne & Mohan
How families build structures and process for managing the business and the family matters in the continuation of their family business. In this paper, Browne & Mohan consultants share common traits that associated with families that have survived multiple generations.
How to use annual plan to set your company for Win !!!Browne & Mohan
At the end of the financial year, everyone makes business plans for the next financial year. The process consumes resources, time, and yet often remains a just another ritual to be followed. This paper discusses why annual plans fail to yield results, and what should be done to make it a guiding document for the coming FY.
Mpower: An action-learning approach to leadership development in SMB companiesBrowne & Mohan
Leadership development, unlike management development, is preparing the next line to embrace complex tasks and decision making and build process that enshrine the team to work and deliver higher productivity. In this article, Browne & Mohan consultants share Mpower progragm, an action learning leadership development program that can be effectively deployed in learning by doing and resource considerate SMB environments.
Companies of all sizes (SMB to large ones) are finding the current economic environment challenging. Business growth is slow or almost stagnated, new customer gains are far and few, customer spend has become very unpredictable and hence managing capacities is posing a big challenges. Browne & Mohan consultants based on their experience of guiding companies have compiled strategies that can be adopted to successfully maneuver the low tides. We suggest product or service offering changes, organizational changes, employee engagement changes, partner and ecosystem changes, sales and marketing structure changes that are appropriate to most companies.
Building an outcome driven high ownership companyBrowne & Mohan
What does it take a build company where every employee owns the quality of their outcomes and productivity , every act is purpose driven. What elements of a workplace make an employee to willingly own and contribute more to her job?. In this paper Browne & Mohan consultants presents the mechanisms that can be used to build an high ownership and outcome driven company
Performance Measurement in NGOs is a challenging task as they have both business and social obligations to meet. Traditional accounting measures may not suffice to capture and benchmark growth and other challenges of NGOs. In this paper, we enumerate some key performance measures that could be used by some practitioners.
Business transformation - Building the company to SellBrowne & Mohan
Small companies though faster and nimbler than larger companies and MNCs, do experience headwinds, hit a growth plateau and face uncertainties. Small companies are faster because of the founder mentality, which is a sense of mission and a passion for front line customers. They have a deep understanding of what their customers want. This is what makes them successful. However, smaller companies tend to be very dependent on a few customers. They find it difficult to sustain their effort in the long run. The owners of these companies usually depend on preferential access to clients, capital and talent to achieve initial success. Replicating this pattern in the long run is difficult. To be sustainable in the long term needs an ability to scale. At this stage, founders are faced with two options – grow and transform the company so that it can be sustainable. Or, they often think of exiting the business due to challenges in succession, lack of ability to invest etc. Even if they need to sell the business, there still is a runway to grow and transform the business for sale. Though the two options involve undergoing a transformation of sorts, the agenda and goals will be a different in each.
It is clear that companies, whether old economy or start-ups, need to work on a few areas before they sell out. All of these companies seem to be adding value somewhere which is what makes them attractive to buyers. Start ups in Israel take 4 years to sell out and on an average make 7 times their Return on Investment. In France they take 7 years to sell out and the ROI is less than 4. German companies too an average of 4 years to sell out, and their return was 2.5 times their initial investment. For most start ups, it is new technology which others think will be the next big thing. But there are lot of investors like Warren Buffet and large corporations, which make strategic investments to park their cash safely, especially given the uncertainty in the global economy. For them, old economy companies that can deliver regular dividends and has a self sustaining business will always remain attractive. Hence the question is what companies need to do to transform themselves to sell. Asian paints for example bought out the brand and entire front end sales of Ess Ess bathroom products, because of the capability Ess Ess had developed in this area. French company Lactalis acquired Tirumala Milk products for its niche products and infrastructure that it built over the years. Be it chemicals, pharma or engineering, M&A of small companies have been happening for various reasons like the people and skills possessed, functional competencies, benefits of integration to the buyer, regulatory clearances available or strong presence in the value chain.
Governance mechanisms for unlisted family businessesBrowne & Mohan
Family business need to adopt effective governance practices such as family office and on board independent directors. In this article, Browne & Mohan consultants describe what, when and how to go about implementing these in family businesses
Delivering outcome based Business TransformationBrowne & Mohan
In this paper we present an empirical framework of business transformation based on our experience of implementing business changes across several organization. The paper covers the PSPD Framework, drivers of integration framework used and some DOs and Don'ts of Organizational Transformation.
Sales is an area where many companies find the outcomes belie investments and outcomes. Many companies attempt sales transformation in a piece-meal fashion. In this paper, we discuss the framework for sales transformation and five fundamental levers of sales transformation.
Browne & Mohan consultants conducted a survey on what factors constitutes the best workplace or a place where employees would love to work. Findings show three aspects which influence an organisation to move towards being a 'lovable workplace'.
India prison reforms 2020 & State Industry Jail Board Browne & Mohan
Reformation and rehabilitation of jail inmates is a principle laid down in the UN Standard Minimum Rules, 1955, and is the corner-stone of the correctional policy of the Government of India. Most Jails in India offer skill development, work, entrepreneurship and empowerment programmes to the inmates. Most of these initiatives are targeted at creating small manufacturing or agri-based programs with majority of produce for self consumption. In this paper we analyse current programs and suggest setting up of a state level industry Board. The paper desrcibes the structural arrangements and how scale and sustainability can be achieved.
Superseva: Building a successful service businessBrowne & Mohan
Superseva is an enterprise services company offering concierge, Rewards & recognition, employee engagement services to corporates. It also offers personalised services to employees of client organizations. This case presents the evolution of the company under the dynamic leadership of its CEO, Ms Kumud Sharma.
Many brands become stale and loose their sheen over years if they can't connect and keep pace with changing customer preferences and market dynamics. Many iconic brands lose their market share and relevance. In this presentation, Browne & Mohan consultants share what is required to resurrect a stale service brand. Resurrecting a service brand must go beyond logo change and consider a complete rehaul of service design, customer experiences, product/service mix and consumption environment.
Performance measurement system for startups and scaling upBrowne & Mohan
what measures should startups and scaling up firms use to direct and align their multi-functional activities. In this paper, Browne & Mohan consultants present a comprehensive performance system that not only guides startups and scale ups, but bind several functions within the organization towards common objective.
CRM adoption in many companies do not yield intended benefits as it is managed as a IT roll out and not as a transformational project involving changes in process, procedures, ownership and measures. This paper presents MACE framework to manage this transformation and achieve the intended goals.
To be a truly effective chief financial officer, you have to learn to be the champion of strategic discipline. Interviews with leading CFOs at Caterpillar, Philips, Sainsbury's, Verizon, and Wells Fargo bring five traits of the strategic CFO to light: value chain insight, business driver leverage, attention to talent, cultural engagement, and integrity and interpersonal skills.
A Study of National Innovation Systems of GCC countriesBrowne & Mohan
A robust NIS system is a prerequisite for building a successful nation. With huge amount of wealth at their disposal, GCC countries are taking initiatives to transform themselves into knowledge based economies from oil based economies. This paper evaluates the current NIS of GCC countries, shows where they stand when compared to other countries, and how they can learn from countries like Singapore, Brazil, Malaysia, USA and Norway to make their NIS more effective.
Indian government has announced several measures to promote on-grid solar and thermal PV projects. This study presents the financial attractiveness of solar and thermal projects considering the central & state incentives and tax regime.
The pervasiveness of digital technologies is reshaping aftermarket. e-tailing is gnawing away the market for spare parts as more people are buying online, social media is influencing the consumption of aftermarket services and customers are demanding deeper 24*7 experiences. In this article Browne & Mohan consultants showcase the drivers of digital transformation and adoption for aftermarket.
Companies realize without emotional commitment, even the most brilliant strategies will fail. To attain any change, people must not only accept and agree with the strategy, they must buy into it. In this paper, Browne & Mohan consultant share a six stage empirical model of commitment buy-in.
Is your company reaping ecosystem advantages??Browne & Mohan
Companies are increasing realizing there is a limit to which internal investments and resources can contribute to their sustainable competitive advantage and innovation. Companies need to build capabilities, systems and process not only to generate ideas and paths from internal sources, they also need approaches to identify, integrate and exploit their ecosystem partners. In this paper, Browne & Mohan consultants share what values can each of the player in the ecosystem bring to the company and how they can be systematically harnessed.
Indian government promulgated a scheme (brain child of Dr Abdul Kalam, then President Government of India) to bring urban infrastructure to rural areas under a scheme titled Provision of Urban amenities for Rural areas (PURA). This paper presents the financial assessment of PURA scheme based on data from two states in south India.
Social media compared to other known forms of media primarily differs on the interactivity and engagement process. This paper presents the process of building a successful social brand.A detailed understanding about what are the steps to be followed from the vision statement to the review has been provided.A list of recommendations has also been enlisted.
Credit Guarantee Scheme for SME: An assessmentBrowne & Mohan
Government of India set up a collateral free credit scheme for Small and medium business termed CGSTME. This paper evaluates the financial and economic additionality of the scheme in terms of availability of funds, and business impact
Common Objectives Performance Management System for Not-for-profit and Public...Browne & Mohan
Designing Performance management system for government, public sector and not-for-profit organization is a daunting task. Many of these organizations pursue long-term programs and projects. Alignment of various groups, departments and individuals within each department is the need of the hour. However, many of these organizations suffer from functional silos and focus on financial measures only. Managing for results by directing right staff behaviour and initiative taking is not facilitated. In this paper Browne & Mohan consultants present a common objective approach that could be used to fix accountability, ownership and outcome based behaviour in public sector and non-profit organizations.
23 principles of successful product companiesBrowne & Mohan
In this paper, we present 23 principles of successful software product companies. These principles cover product development, organizational design, sales and other process that propel product companies to grow and excel in their domain both in domestic and international markets
What impact does Customer Management have on Business PerformanceDoug Leather
We know intuitively that managing the customer portfolio well leads to improved business performance. This slide deck shares important insights into what makes customer management work and how to measure it. This is based on research done by QCi (the main players now with The Customer Framework Ltd) and although I put this deck together 6 years ago I was astounded as to how relevant the thinking still is. The sad reality is that Customer Management capability hasn't improved very much over the years (in the majority of cases, hence we are still subject to inconsistent and poor customer experience) yet it remains a topic that is spoken about and focussed upon by many organisations. The difference that I find today versus 7 or 8 years ago is that MORE people talk about customer management than previously, however I don't se much improvement in the understanding of what it involves or much improved capability in operationalizing customer centric business.(this is a generalised statement)
The second presentation in a 3 part series on Fast and Sustainable Business Growth - how to thrive, not just survive regardless of the economy.
The Course Forward is hazardous, but staying put is worse. …Applied Knowledge is Power
Access The Science of Small Business Growth to maximize your current operations.
Many of my friends from industry have asked for my opinion on the economic crisis and its impact on business. My answer to them is that the real problem is that companies simply do not internalise the proper actions to take in order to respond to such a situation.
And rarely is it more critical than in retail business strategy, and the far-reaching implications surrounding the phenomena often known as ‘wallet share’ or ‘share of wallet’.
‘Share of wallet’ is in essence an holistic term capturing the aspect of a retailer’s desire to understand and manage consumer spending, how much they have, and how frequent and recent this occurs. This clearly introduces the aspects of service, proposition, customer loyalty, and internal & external change as strategy components for serious consideration by the senior management team.
This paper seeks to explore these aspects of a Retail business strategy, giving insight and advice for a stronger business strategy in ‘Changing Times’.
Developing an exit strategy is vital for businesses to navigate unpredicted plans, offering a roadmap for investors, stakeholders, and entrepreneurs to optimize returns and reduce risks. Developing a brief exit strategy involves careful consideration of different factors such as market conditions with SWAT analysis, financial projections, and business objectives.
You understand your business better than anyone but how do you stack up against these businesses?
We surveyed more than 1,300 small and mid-size business owners across the nation to create our business life stage report. Here's the complete report outlining the key characteristics of each business life stage: starting up, growing, maturing, re-inventing, surviving or transitioning.
Educaterer India is an unique combination of passion driven into a hobby which makes an awesome profession. We carve the lives of enthusiastic candidates to a perfect professional who can impress upon the mindsets of the industry, while following the established traditions, can dare to set new standards to follow. We don't want you to be the part of the crowd, rather we like to make you the reason of the crowd.
Today's Effort For A Better Tomorrow
Chapter 8 - SECRETS TO BUILDING A WORLD-CLASS BUSINESS THROUGH LEADERSHIP MAR...VINCE FERRARO
Do you dream of winning? Are you In It To Win It? There is an old saying that states:To the victor go the spoils. This saying originated from wars fought in ancient days - and meant that the victor got all the goodies! In today's competitive society, our desires and intentions are to be the best at what we do to win the prize - tangible or intangible. In fact, even the US Army used the slogan Be all that you can be as a motivator for recruits to join and excel.
Tom Hopkins, Author of How To Master The Art Of Selling & states that if you're going to do anything-small or large-why not do it to the best of your ability? Being the 'best' connotes drive, perseverance, leadership, success - factors that are valued by our culture, by which we are judged, and which make us feel good. Where does this take us? Well, we all want to be successful in our endeavors.
The Celebrity Expert® authors in this book have earned 'Blue Ribbons' in their respective fields of endeavor. They have succeeded in attaining their goals. Are you aspiring to be the best in your field? Are you planning to succeed? These Celebrity Experts® have blazed a trail that will show you the way and make it easier for you to succeed. They will show you how to avoid the pitfalls they encountered and, if you take advantage of their experiences, they will coach you to attain your desired goals. Experience suggests that readers of this book will be...In It To Win It.
Many small and medium sized enterprises [SME] owners already know what needs to be done to grow their business but lack the time and/or resources to bring about the necessary changes.
Others may simply be reluctant or restrained by tradition to make a shift.
Change is difficult.
This series attempts to help answer the question, "How will owners [like me] make the necessary changes to aggressively grow their business in 2014 — and beyond?”
Breakthrough the traditional way of planing. Read Venture Care’s “Corporate Digest” December, 2017 .
Here are some insights of the magazine :
– What are your company strategies in this new Economy?
– Rewritten Risks and Entrepreneurship
– Valuation: A Modern Art
– Financial Modeling A practical view &
– Starting a Producer Company in India.
Similar to Hanging the shoes in style!!: Planning & Preparing SME family business for profitable exitFamily sme for sale (20)
Rewiring HR for WFH, Hybrid work & Future of workBrowne & Mohan
Humans working in tandem with automated robots on shopfloors is increasing. Covid 19 induced WFH is here to stay as an economic and resource strategy for many companies. Human resource (HR) departments must therefore rewire themselves to balance work between digital and human associates. HR systems will be driven by intelligence, own change management and design systems for boundary-spanning workflows, collegial support.
Studies indicate that 9 out of 10 businesses have shut down within 5 years after the death of the founder and only about 3 out of 10 survive in second generation. Most family business are designed to fail as they do not address successor planning and training, have poor risk management practices and suffer from interdependencies between the family, the business and ownership. In this paper, Browne and Mohan consultants share how successful family businesses have built resilience to stay relevant and stay resilient in challenging times.
Internal controls maturity and SME corporate governananceBrowne & Mohan
Good Corporate governance is a key factor in ensuring sound financial reporting and deterring misappropriations of capital and resources. Internal control and corporate governance go hand in hand. Many SME
have an ambitious goal of reaching a
reliable, continuous and integrated internal
control state. However, many SME’s are
still grappling to build a comprehensive
control process. In this paper, we present an
internal maturity framework that SME can use to benchmark and know how they can discourage frauds, improve compliance and adoption of standards.
How to transform a family business: insights from the trenches Browne & Mohan
Working with many family businesses across industries, we realize they face a high rate of failure because of their inability to distinguish between family and business issues and build structures and process that protect value across generations. In this paper, we share governance process and systems that are a must for family businesses to preserve and sustain economic and social values across multiple generations.
AI solutions are the most important component of the digital transformation of many companies. AI Startups are racing ahead to address the needs of industries. In this paper, we present the broad strategies AI startups can employ to be successful.
Government of India’s ambitious Skill India program created National Skill development council (NSDC) to create a powerful network of training ecosystem to address employment skills and support gainful entrepreneurship. Despite the best efforts of the government, partners and other agencies involved in the outcomes of Skill India program have fallen short of objectives. The problem of skilling India can’t be solved by increasing expenditure and bringing in more training partners alone. We present here the reasons for the shortfall and approaches to overcome each pain area.
In recent years, many companies are turning their back on “brand investment” and aggressively pursuing what is known as "no branding principles". In this paper, Browne and Mohan consultants recommend approaches to use "no branding" principles for their products and services
Heroes give people a character to aspire, root for and relate to in a campaign story line. Brands have realized ordinary people as hero's can be effective to promote many products/services.
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Hanging the shoes in style!!: Planning & Preparing SME family business for profitable exitFamily sme for sale
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Hanging the shoes in style!!:
Planning & Preparing SME family
business for profitable exit
Abstract: Family run small business form the core
of economic activity of many countries. Most
companies change hands in emergency situation
such as illness or death of the owner. In this
article, Browne & Mohan consultants share an
approach the family business SME can use to plan
and prepare for successful exit.
Dr TR Madan Mohan and R.M. Sanjay
Images are courtesy of copyright owners.
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Introduction
Family run businesses are a significant segment of any nation’s industrial structure. 5% of US GDP is
contributed by family businesses and 35% of Fortune 500 is family owned. They generate close to
50% of employment and 59% of all new job creations (Institute of Family owned business, 2011).
According to Inc magazine 65% of small companies, around 10 Million are likely to exit during the
next decade. Shockingly 90% of then have no exit plan. In nearby Canada, the story is similar.
According to CIBC, at least 5,50,000 owners are likely to exit their business and about $3.7 trillion
business is going to change hands by 2020. There are around 3 Million family businesses in UK, about
75% of them are expected to retire soon and none have an exit strategy in place (Institute for Family
Business). Closer home, in India 95% of business are family run, and 30% of BSE listed companies
are family owned (CII, 2010). According to a recent IFC study, in India 65 Million people are
employed in 298.8 Million MSME spread across the states. These companies product more than
6000 products, contribute to 45% of manufacturing output and 40% of the total exports of the
country. While no official statistics is available on their closure, anecdotal data and secondary
information indicates just about 20% survive for a first generation transfer and 95% of them become
defunct within two decade of demise of founder. Many SME family business owners wish to pass
their business on to a family member or a new owner. Entrepreneurs want to cherish their
achievement and wish to see the benefits of their creation enjoyed by successive generations.
Preparing for sale of a family led SME business is not just a micro issue that impacts the business
involved. Companies changing hands can employ 2-3 million people in next five years and account
for 10-15% of the GDP.
Exit for family led small and medium businesses happen predominantly through three channels:
M&A, IPO or natural death. Unfortunately, many SME family businesses are ill prepared for the
ownership transition. Most companies change hands in emergency situations such as illness or death
of an owner or partner. Consequently, many SME family businesses (or their heirs) are forced to
accept a transaction that is less desirable. Most SME family business owners do not discuss the exit
plans with their family or partners. SME family business owners must plan the exit if they are eyeing
retirement or a new venture. Insufficient planning prevents the SME business owner from
capitalizing on ideal valuation. SME family business owners need to develop an exit strategy with a
target date in mind and prepare the company to move ahead under new leadership. They need to
plan sufficiently in detail and in advance to systematically execute the transition. Some business
owners may shy away from creating an exit strategy because they are fine with the status quo or
believe once it is planned and executed, the plan can’t be changed. Preparing a business for
ownership change may bring in many an upside benefits even if the business is not finally sold. The
inadvertent benefits that emerge because of planned changes may unbundle the hidden value of the
company. In this paper, Browne & Mohan consultants share the approach that could be used by
SME family business owners to profit from planned exit.
Preparing the SME family business for sale: a three step process
Goal Setting
One of the important components of a family business exit is to have a clear perspective of what is
the end goal. Have a clear business plan and strategy for at least 2 to 3 years on what the business
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has to achieve for them or their heirs, how will they extricate themselves and how the transition is
going to be in near term quarters and couple of years. This is to show the road map, the growth
plan, investments required and vision for the company. It helps clarify purpose and reinforces the
vision of the buyer or investor. Clarity on the type of capabilities that need to be built to reach a
certain goal is important. Detailed plans in other functional areas will also help to show that much of
what is being done has been thought through carefully.
Identifying Gaps
Once the goals are clear, visualize what should be status of the company to receive that valuation.
Analyse the limitations of your current business, how it is run, how it is managed and monitored.
Identify gaps that exist within the firm in the form of individual talent, a second level of leadership,
functional expertise etc that need to be fortified. Gaps could also be in the form of missing
performance management systems to professionally manage the company, a weak sales and
marketing organization that is reactive in nature, an unsuitable organization structure that hinders
the firm from responding effectively to the market, or systems that are not facilitating share of
information for effectiveness. Benchmarking with competition is useful to identify these gaps and
bridge them.
SME business owners must have a time frame in mind and develop an improvisation plan to
coordinate the schemes of activities to be pursued and resources. Any SME family business exit can
never happen early. Three to five years lead time is required to adequately plan and execute a
profitable exit plan.
Pursue improvisations
To secure the best valuation, the company must pursue actions that help to fill the gaps and
optimize company value. SME business owners must consider all tasks and activities that improve
value from both strategic and financial buyers perspective. Acquiring investors would look at free
cash flow, the risk and scalability of the business. Value drivers that enhance value of the
organization need to be identified and the transformation plan should revolve on putting in place
systems, processes and people to increase value along these lines in sales, marketing, alliances, for
review and control. The PSPD (Predictability, Sustainability, Profitability and De-risking)
methodology can be used to identify these drivers. Making cash flows predictable and stable,
building customer diversity, de-risking from certain technology platforms, building and executing a
realistic growth plan, systems and procedures, product diversity, an effective sales engine, human
resources and leadership are all drivers of business value.
Profitable business exit for SME businesses is all about holistic change companies need to undergo
to basically grow faster or become more relevant to the market. This change can be implemented
incrementally with small measured steps. There surely would be resistance on the path. The first
question when companies attempt transformation is which process to touch. In most businesses, the
easiest function that is amenable change and one without too much dependencies and investments
is “sales”. Moreover, any minor changes in sales function has a direct impact on the “outcome”, be
it new customer acquisition, or more orders from existing customers. Any win, however small, can
uplift the mood for change and thaw the resistance to change.
Implementing the “Build to sell” agenda
From an SME perspective, the value drivers which they need to work on to enhance the company’s
value are:
Goodwill and brand value
Employees, capabilities and competencies
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Profitability
Costs
Intellectual property
De-risking on technology, customers and geographic markets
Enhance Goodwill and brand value: A SME business acquires goodwill through better customer
service, innovation and common good business principles (credit policy, quality and legal framework
adherence). The result is reflected in the valuation of the business as measured by the mentioned
factors. Companies building to exit must first evaluate where they stand on these parameters. From
a quality perspective strengthen the QMS maturity of the organization. Invest n best practices, adopt
and get certified on ISO and other industry standards, and eliminate non-standard business
practices. Emphasize to drive these vigorously with quarterly improvement plans. Marketing
outcomes like winning of sponsored awards, sponsored research, industry and government
recognition increases the visibility of the company. SME owners planning to exit their business must
pursue outcome drive engagement with industry association, nominate their company for winnable
government and non-state actors awards, sponsored publications. Having eminent professionals on
board (management) and being associated with market renowned institutions provides that extra
mileage or push the company requires to position itself in the market or related industry. Companies
often get noticed because of their management or investors. These professionals/institutions play a
major role in the market perceptions about the company and its credibility. Leveraging the standing
of these entities or persons, the company can signal the market about its arrival, potential and
capabilities.
Focus on Improving Profitability: Profitability is the primary goal of business ventures and investors
look at companies that have predictable YoY growth profit making companies. Two aspects that are
vital for the business owners planning to build their companies for sale. An untiring focus on top line
revenues and bottom line profit is a must. SME owners can pursue quick and faster impacting
strategies such as increase in the customer base or increase in price to gain the top line revenues.
Again, these decisions need to be made considering the market in which the business operates and
the type of product sold. The profit to sales ratio when compared to historical results and industry
averages need to favourable signifying efficient management of revenue and costs.
For, SME companies that are building to sale in long term, major consideration would be increase in
the market share, investment in R & D and best quality resources thereby enhancing the quality of
the product and constant innovation in products to become a reliable and long term player in the
market. Companies with long term exit windows must use the surplus cash for growth strategies,
such as investing in research and development, expanding capacity and exploring new geographic
markets.
Optimize Cost: SME companies that are planning to exit must get its hands over cost structure and
cost management at earliest. To create a business with predictable revenue on periodic basis, a
company needs to create opportunities and business models so as to keep the revenues coming and
expect continuous returns. The more the company makes profits by reducing its costs, the more
lucrative it becomes to the buyers. Companies built to sell focus would be on generating maximum
revenue and increased profits by making efforts to reduce the costs and generate maximum benefits
with the available resources. The reduction in operating cost of a company is the primary financial
objective for many good companies. Eliminate non-value adding activities and expenditure that have
an impact on the financial performance or revenue of the company. The efficient utilisation of
resources and minimal wastage with good quality are key elements to create a profitable and
attractive business. Determining how to cut costs without disturbing the company’s ability to
generate revenue and survive over the long term is a challenging issue. Companies should evaluate
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what is the immediate / long term impact on the value drivers due to cost savings. Unprofitable
product lines, bloated sales organizations, inefficient delivery organization, inadequate marketing
department are the right candidates for cost optimization. For SME owners building to sell, the
focus should also be on utilizing near 100% capacity. This would indicate the buyers that the
organization has enough work on hand and the cost per unit is also minimised wherein there is
optimum utilization of resources. The firm is assumed to be using all of its fixed assets effectively;
therefore the profits should be high. Two approaches that could increase capacity utilization could
be by reducing the factors of production employed or move into smaller premises/ cut down
investment on facilities.
A company’s proportion of short term and long term debts are key areas of evaluation. The debt
equity ratio is an indicator of the company’s internal and external liabilities. It reflects the financial
position of the company as it is a measure of the financial leverage. A high debt equity ratio would
mean that a company has been aggressive in financing its growth through external debts. A low ratio
is considered good as the company is less exposed to interest rate increases. But a good interest
coverage ratio can back the high debt by indicating a better operating income to meet its
obligations. Built to sell companies must tend to maintain less long term obligations and improved
liquidity positions. The profit to sales ratio when compared to historical results and industry
averages tend to be favourable signifying efficient management of revenue and costs. Creating
positive cash flow cycles is a pre-requisite as buyers need not commit their capital to fund daily
operations and positive cash flows do not incur financial expenses. The favourable liquidity ratios
indicate the company’s position in leveraging the current assets to pay off the immediate/short
liabilities. Working capital, if managed efficiently proves to be an add-on in the buyer’s list to
consider the company.
Identification of revenue leakages would be a prime focus to attain sound financial performance.
Revenue leakage could occur due to misappropriation of funds by the staff, errors in documentation
or recording transactions, lack of trained staff and operational issues in control systems. Streamline
with appropriate controls in all the areas of the revenue cycle. Consolidating and co-relating all
revenue related information and constant reconciliation could identify and minimise potential losses
and associated risks. Automation of processes and industry best practises like Six Sigma, ISO and
CMMI could also prove to be a method by which standardisation of activities and processes could be
brought about in the organisation.
Identify, prop and protect Intellectual property: It is very important for Owner led SME companies
that are planning to benefit from knowledge integration. Productization of services help in creating
standard business lines that are standardized and scalable revenue sources. Corporate valuation
relies greatly on a company’s intellectual assets such as patents, and trademarks. SME owners can
gain value by creating skunk teams that quickly integrate the “implicit knowledge” underlying a
service and convert that into a demonstrable explicit work-flow based product.
De-risk from customer, market and technologies: SME owners planning to exit their business must
prepare to de-risk their companies from customer and market dependencies. In short term
incentivize the sales team to acquire new logos, preferably large and recognizable firms in the
market. Pursue market ecosystem strategies where partners, business agents and OEM could
provide new opportunities. Investing in a partner program sales engine is a good investment that
SME owners planning to exit must invest. Expanding the market with existing products and strive for
a wider portfolio with a gamut of products catering to multiple needs of the customers. Seek out
opportunity to evolve from single or few product / solution to an array of product/ solution
company. Extension of the product would mean the enhancement and improvement of the existing
product to suit the current market need and technology. Versioning the product could create a
6. 6 | P a g e
market for the product at multiple levels. A comprehensive product is separated and developed into
individual products to facilitate the ease of selling and quicker revenue generation. Though a risk
mitigation strategy the company has to constantly drive these products and evolve itself to excel and
compete.
Focus on Integration, eliminate “unrelated variety” : SME companies planning to sell must know
the power of integration and quickly eliminate unrelated variety. Integration in terms of common
parts, processes, and people offers great economies of scope advantages. SME owners must pursue
integration of production or delivery process, conversion of “implicit knowledge to explicit
knowledge”, common parts and competencies approach to gain from alignment and improved
valuation. Look for Processes or activities which can be automated. This reduces the time taken to
perform, manpower cost and manual errors leading to re-work. Consolidation is an integral part of
the strategy as it reduces duplication of work and aggregates activities/resources with similar tasks
thus reducing the cost and time. Try and eliminate all the activities that prove to be adding least or
no value to the company. Modifying the structure, process and incentives of an organisation to
support the objectives and revive the existing function yields better results.
For SME companies building to sell, it is better to focus on a few products that are scalable. A single
product focus is best – especially a product that is complementary to a large market leader, or
perhaps a standardized product with minimum customization. To scale, small companies must stop
responding to all and sundry RFPs and not spread themselves too thin. Focus on high margin
business. Expand the customer base for this product and grow revenues here. The product should
also be scalable, where one is able to foresees future requirements and build in the ability to modify
the product with minimal effort. Amidst all the noise and a plethora of products in the market, be
careful to avoid commoditisation and make sure the product is valuable to customers, and that they
keep coming back for repeat business. The routines to build the product or service also need to be
standardised so that owner is not sucked into it. Only when the owner is free from this routine and it
becomes executable by the second level of staff, will scaling really happen. SME owners planning to
sell their companies must restrict projects with complex work contracts and customization. High
Customization and clauses in work contracts may necessitate too project specific investments and
might not be acceptable or in good taste with the buyer. The buyer would look at contracts which
are hassle free, less binding and ease of execution.
Invest in Employee competency, and capability development.
Many SME are identified by their owners and may lack formal leadership engine to drive the growth.
Many may lack formal “how to” instruction manuals in place to run the organization like a well oiled
machine. SME company owner planning to exit their business must identify possible leadership
resources, invest in them to drive ownership and outcomes so that they are prepared to drive under
new management. SME owners can broadly group their associates into doer, improviser and
innovators. Bring in formal system to engage doers and provide opportunities for improvisers and
innovators to drive change in short term. Help them in picking in low hanging improvement
programs so that they taste the sweet taste of success of their initiatives and grow in confidence to
own and drive more changes. Simultaneously, Identify and put in place a pool of leaders. These
leaders need to be in a position to identify goals, customers, markets and basically address “What is
to be done”. They also need to work on the execution plans which talks about “How to do it”.
Building an effective sales organization is crucial for SME companies planning to exit. Experienced
salespeople have to be brought in, who lend a sense of professionalism, lend credibility and make
the organization look larger than it really is. It helps in better reach and branding too. Sales metrics,
7. 7 | P a g e
processes and reviews have to be designed and implemented to function effectively. Put in common
sense tracking systems that help regularly track prospects, pipeline and conversions, shows buyers
that there is visibility into sales, and it can be forecasted.
Employees should not feel threatened by change; instead they must be allowed to participate in this
change – especially the critical members of the team who are key influencers. It must vibe with a
sense of growth and pride in the organization. Such changes convince fence-sitters that change is
good and doable. A highly visible short term win will also enable the top leadership of the firm to
start change on a winning note.
Once this clarity of purpose is communicated through initial changes, it becomes necessary to get
the second level involved and broaden the base. Create groups to improve their respective
functions, ask them to identify and drive changes where they feel empowered. Next involve people
in information, communication and advocacy changes. Ask the employees to suggest changes to
website, the sales and marketing collaterals that work best and ask them to drive these
improvements. Their buy-in is absolutely essential to drive the second-order change. Now that we
have a broad based team that believes in the new vision, we need to build a sense of urgency so that
the change that has been demonstrated can be capitalized upon. Once this happens, creative inputs
on products, offering and markets start to pour in. It also gives everyone a chance to delve deeper
into the core offering and strengthen it. Once we have the top and second level of leadership
involved in this exercise, they believe in the new vision and positioning, especially since it is their
aspiration that has been translated into the firm’s vision and strategy. Training and reviewing team
members to drive this, building their capabilities and motivating them becomes essential. Working
as teams and leveraging off each other needs to become a habit, a new way of working. Once
success can be shown in a couple of inter-functional initiatives, a broad base of employees becomes
adept at adopting such structures across the entire organization. Making change happen in other
functions and departments new becomes a lot easier. Hence managing transformation in stages with
the right vision, by building the right capabilities, help build the foundation for a large business
transformation. To bring about change for building and organization to sell, the implementation
needs to be faster, and hence a top down approach is suitable.
Conclusion
Unplanned exit for an SME family business has both microeconomic and macroeconomic impact.
Unplanned exit results in a low valuation not commensurate with the toil and sweat that has gone
into building it. The key to get the right valuation for the company is to transform it over at least a
year to build in certain capabilities that will make it look attractive to potential suitors. This
transformation from an SME business owner driven to a new ownership involves crafting a carefully
thought out plan with clear goals and timelines, and implementing it with least disruption. An SME
family business considering exit must be aware that actual exit is a result of building a great
business. A successful exit strategy requires a clear understanding of the company, what the
business owners want out of their business, and consciously building a sellable company over three
to five years.