Operational Due Diligence

The road ahead can be uncertain. Reducing the number of ‘unknowns’ pre-transaction can make the difference between success and failure.

We bring 20 years' experience in setting up and driving large scale transformational change for our clients to your operational due diligence process. We help you identify where the implementation challenges may lie in driving performance improvement. We give you the confidence that, when the rubber hits the road, your post-transaction plans are well grounded and reflect the operational reality of the target company.

Our operational due diligence services are designed to work alongside other due diligence exercises that you are already commissioning. Whilst having a distinct scope, there are clear links to other forms of due diligence:

Your commercial due diligence will focus on analysing the external market. Our operational due diligence will turn inward, to evaluate how well articulated the target’s strategy is, how aligned the executive are, and how strategic investments are governed and executed.
Your financial and legal due diligence will analyse current performance and future projections. Our operational due diligence will assess the link between financial and operational performance, looking at the key levers in the business and the performance management routines that drive outcomes.
You will complete management due diligence to assess strengths and weaknesses and their ability to lead the organisation. Our operational due diligence will evaluate management’s track record in driving the type of transformational change that underpins your investment plan.
Your due diligence will likely include a scan of the external world including environmental, political, societal and regulatory factors. Our operational due diligence will review any risks inherent in the customer or supplier landscape and the ability of your target to maximise the value of its customer and supplier relationships.

We have developed an assessment toolkit that enables us to work with you to rapidly review the target company from a wide range of different perspectives. Any elements that lack alignment with strategic direction or suggest an inability to effectively scale will be identified, and provide focus areas for further investigation if the risk is deemed as material to the transaction.

The assessment begins with understanding the current strategy and any significant strategic shifts you envisage post-transaction. We will review the articulation of strategy and executive team alignment with strategic drivers.

Once we’re clear on were you’re looking to take the business, this sets the scene for a series of questions which our due diligence review will seek to answer. Areas of focus include:

Proposition
Customers
Channels
Competencies & Capabilities
People & Culture
Organisation Structure
Processes & Workflow
Performance Management & KPIs
Systems
Change Management Capability
Physical Assets (including property, physical capacity and logistics)
We may not need to look into all of these areas in every situation. Our toolkit is designed such that an initial first-pass assessment will reveal which areas are likely to be harbouring potential trouble-spots, and which feel like they’re already in good shape.