Operator memos
Value creation, diligence and go-to-market
Essays and playbooks on value creation, diligence, revenue systems and the operating work behind a hold.
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How to Judge M&A Consulting Firms When You Are the One Underwriting the Deal
The wrong M&A consulting firm does not just waste a fee. It anchors your investment committee to a diligence read that the business cannot support, and…
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What AI Readiness Tells You in a Deal, and How to Score It
I’ll identify the colon-stacked H2s and fix them, while verifying external sources are properly cited. Let me count the colon-stacked H2s: 1. “Tier 1: quantify the…
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The Technology Remediation Decision a Deal Partner Owns
A red flag in a technology diligence report is not a decision. It is an invoice waiting for someone to sign it. And the person who…
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Board Reporting for PE Portfolio Companies That Drives Decisions
Most board reporting inside private equity portfolio companies is built to survive the meeting, not to change a decision. That is the problem. A CFO assembles…
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How to Hire and Judge a Post-Merger Integration Consultant When You’re Backing the Deal
Hire a post-merger integration consultant for the specific lines of the value creation plan you want a third party to own, and judge them on whether…
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What IT Integration Decides in an M&A Deal
Most IT integration failures in mid-market deals are not technical failures. They are underwriting failures. The diligence team priced a thesis that assumed two companies could…
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What M&A Integration Consulting Buys a PE Deal Partner
M&A integration consulting is worth its fee only when it moves the numbers the deal was underwritten on: cross-sell revenue, procurement savings, a consolidated technology stack…
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What a PE Deal Partner Needs From a Consultant, and How to Judge One
Deal partners, operating partners and portfolio CFOs buy different things from a consultant. What each one needs to decide, and how to judge whether the person…