IF YOU ARE SELLING YOUR COMPANY, YOU WILL NEED ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS!

The Harvesters spend quality time together every year in a strategic planning session that results in a Playbook for our future actions.  To make the most of our time together, we prepare ahead of time with summaries of performance compared to last year’s plan and in thinking about the future prior to the session.  This is similar to the process we followed in my prior life in a public company.  The Board of Directors and the senior executives worked on a macro level with these questions and the division and department managers worked on their sphere of influence with their teams.  

The Board might decide we should explore the application of our banking products to a new set of customers (such as community banks, for example).  The Banking Division President would be at that strategic planning retreat and would bring that idea to his senior team.  That group would include product development, marketing, customer service and other managers who would answer the questions as they related to their sphere of influence.  You can see how this planning will cascade through the organization.  

This list of questions is also useful to prepare for the questions that will be asked and answered as you prepare your company for sale and meet with potential buyers.  

Here is a reference you might like to use with your team to get started.

This is one way to think about where your company is now and where you might go in the future.  Our goal is to help you maximize your company’s value now and for future owners or buyers.  If you’d like to discuss your company’s readiness for sale, buying a company, help with an existing acquisition or sell your company, please let us know. In the meantime, if you have questions or comments, I can be reached anytime via email: [email protected] or phone at: 224-688-8838. We’re here to help you Harvest Your Potential.

Alison Hoffman

has more than 25 years of experience in strategy, operations, mergers and acquisitions and delivering business-to-business client solutions. Her areas of expertise include managing operations for profitable growth, organizational design and strategy activation. She brings a wealth of experience through her work in evaluating, valuing and purchasing over 30 companies, leading company-wide cultural and business integration projects and consolidating best practices among business processes and corresponding computing systems. Read Full Bio