Growing your business starts with knowing your business

Dealmaking is no longer the territory of ageing, well-established businesses, but a vital consideration for any strategic business leader who knows the way forward is more complicated than simply ‘getting bigger’.

Strategic events like acquisitions and business exits are essential to realizing success, and those who can execute well, stand to get the biggest returns. At some point (or several points) in every company’s lifetime, they need to strike a deal while the iron is hot, or know the prime time to get out in order to come out on top.  
 

It’s time to be more assertive about your deal strategy

Take the late entrepreneur, Wayne Huizenga. Huizenga started his company in 1968 with a single garbage truck. By 1972, he had acquired 133 smaller sanitation companies and turned Waste Management Inc. into a Fortune 500 company; by 1983, it was the largest waste disposal company in the U.S.

Huizenga left with a reported $100M in stock. His assertive acquisition strategy saw equal measures of success with Blockbuster Video, where he grew the business into an industry leader, then sold it for massive profit to Viacom – just three years before Netflix came into being.

Given the pace of change today, the right way to move your company forward can take a number of different forms. But they all start from the exact same place.  
 

Growing your business starts with knowing where you stand

The responsibilities of a business leader are vast. With legislations changing frequently, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with what’s required for basic compliance, let alone focus on strategy or growth. All of your company’s potential risks, roadblocks, and issues are hidden within its abundance of material information.

Without the full picture, you risk misrepresenting your business, missing opportunities – even inadvertently derailing deals at the last minute. A single missed signature on a key contract is all it takes for everything to go awry. On the flip side, a full evaluation of your material information – grounded in real data and based on real-time activity – gives you the insights to make smart decisions. Discovering the risks and opportunities will leave you in a much stronger position, able to fill the gaps, leverage the strengths and get the upper hand in the deal.

Platforms that use advanced technologies to deep dive into the real data – and subsequently, the real story – are increasingly widening the gap between those leading the pack and those left behind. Once the majority adopt these innovations, there won’t be any competition. Just a divide of those who know, and those who don’t.

What would a deep dive into your critical documentation reveal? As it stands, would you be willing to have a third party examine it?  
 

Know your business, know what’s coming next

A full view of the current state of play is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the potential of technologies like artificial intelligence and predictive analytics. Companies are already using AI to analyse hundreds of thousands of data points to find patterns and predict the future with incredible accuracy. “58% of enterprise business executives are already using predictive analytics within their organizations. 61% of those who have an innovation strategy say they are using AI to identify opportunities in data that would otherwise be missed.” (Narrative Science)

The Bidder Engagement Score is the world’s first AI tool for deals; it actually tells you the likelihood of a bidder completing the due diligence process, reaching the negotiation stage and submitting an offer – up to 97% accuracy by day 7 of the deal. The risks associated with not knowing will become more pronounced as AI technologies and predictive analytics make their way further into the mainstream.  

Know you’re on track – and ahead

Knowing exactly where your business stands allows you to adapt with urgency to the fluctuating landscape, free up capacity (especially for the leadership team), and be ready to act at a moment’s notice when the right deal comes along.