So I'm speaking today with Brett Conradt from Stax Consulting. Stax is a firm, it's based in Chicago, partners with us in our Internal Consulting Academy, and does a lot of great work. Brett in particular, has had lot of experience working with private equity firms that acquire other companies and try to turn them around and make value out of them. So I want to ask Brett a few questions about this process of acquiring firms and deciding which firms to target. Naturally, there's a lot of utilities that goes into this. You can give us a sense of who's involved, what steps or what things should managers be thinking about to do when they're thinking about a target to acquire? Sure. That's right. There's absolutely a lot of diligence that takes place. It can range anything from commercial diligence that we focus on to legal, financial, environmental type diligence. It's really critical to do that diligence for a couple of reasons. The first, is from an investment standpoint, making sure that it's a sound investment. Just from a pure investment standpoint, it's really important. There's a number of folks involved. So there'll be an investment bank who's representing the company for sale, there'll be the management team from the company and then there's the private equity fund that's making the investment. So we work with all of those groups and where we're focused is on things like market size, market growth, competitive positioning, and different growth opportunities. So just from a pure investment standpoint, that's really important. The other macro view is to look at where the capital is coming from. So it's coming from insurance companies, it's coming from pension funds. So the private equity fund is taking that capital and putting it to work. So when we think bigger picture, the work that we're doing and those investments, eventually end up driving some of the growth in those pension funds, in those insurance companies, which impacts faculty and features and people outside of the business world. So it's pretty exciting to think bigger picture like that as well. Sure. This the larger socially. Sure. Exactly right. So when people are looking for meaning in their work, you can find it in the day-to-day, but then you can find it in the macro level too. So one of the few things that whether it's an investment bank is looking at, a private equity firm is looking at, or even a company looking at that feature. There's always some idea or some logic and theory about how we're going to create value from the acquisition. Right. Where does that come from? How explicit does that have to be, and how can one even check that it's true, that there is value there? Yeah, absolutely. So usually there's a private equity fund side, the partners have a vision of where there's value creation and where it's possible. In parallel, the management team from the company has a vision for how they're going to grow their business. So it's our job to make sure that those things really exist, and that those hypothesis can be proven out. So that's something really critical that we do and our work is just really scrutinize those things. We're there to dig deep and to really understand, are those true opportunities? What are the size of those opportunities versus, are these just hypothetical or theoretical growth opportunities? I really like that word hypothesis in there, because it really tells something to any student or any manager who's thinking about transactions like this. Sure. That you need to have some statement of how it is that the value is going to be created. Then be able to gather data that can either confirm or dis-confirm that statement that we have. Yes, that's right. It's helpful to start out with those hypothesis, because it's going to give you a framework by which to organize your project and structure and thinking about the objectives. So those are critical things to start off with. Then I think for a manager who's participating in the work to really be flexible along the way. So as you're digging through those objectives and thinking through things, other things may pop out. A deal's dynamic, a deal is a living breathing thing. So the best laid plans when you have going out with those objectives, other things may pop up in that deal that you might need to pivot and think about those things in addition to the original objectives. So one of the things that I want to help our students understand or things to look out for, things that a less experienced manager might not quite realize is the common concern in [inaudible]. So if you're thinking about the vetting process of a potential target for acquisition, what are some the more common pitfalls that in-experienced managers might get wrong? That'd be helpful to look out for. I think one thing is certainly just taking things at face value. So the company that's positioning itself for sale is going to highlight the good things about the business and maybe not so much the things that need work. So for a manager to acknowledge those highlights, but then to also dig for, what are the opportunities for improvement here? So really to go beyond the pitch from the company and really to dive deep into the work and into the business to identify some of those opportunities for growth. I think the other thing is stopping at the easy answer or not getting a number of different opinions in their work. So being open to team members and pressure testing the things that are coming out of the work to make sure that, do we have this right? You have to let down your ego a little bit to say, "Hey guys, am I thinking about this right? Are we thinking about this right?" I think that's a nice thing about consulting, is you have people from different backgrounds who may approach problems in a different way and have a different perspective, and so important to get those perspectives just to make sure that you're checking all the boxes. So in transactions, you have to think about the parties that are involved. So you have the investment bank, you have the company being sold, you have the private equity fund. All of those parties are incentivized to have the deal get done. So for us, it's important to come in with an independent view and to remain prudent in our approach, and to look at the facts and to think about it objectively. Oftentimes, there's good news to report and just say, "Hey, things are checking out and look in rosy," but there are times when there's bad news to report. When there's bad news to report, you need to make sure that you're doubling down on the fact base and making sure that all checks out and, then presenting it in a way that is digestible to everybody involved. These aren't always red flags, but they may be things to think about as part of the transaction. So again, remaining calm, independent, understanding too what the things that you're saying or reporting, what impact they have on the deal. So being conscious of all that in the process. Thank you very much Brett. This is great. Thank you on behalf of the university and Internal Consulting. Thank you. I appreciate it.
