Transaction Based Growth SUMMIT: “Build-to-Sell”

Many owners of companies want to sell their business eventually, or they are required to sell since their investors are looking for an exit at some point. The issue is that most businesses that sell are not adequately prepared, resulting in lower financial returns and undesired results. An optimized exit is not just an event, it is a process that starts years before and continues well into the transition to the new owner. It usually takes several years to properly build a company for an exit. Such a Build-to-Sell process can also achieve much more than just higher financial returns, including securing the future of the employees after the exit (“Sustainable Exit”). 

In this live case study we look specifically at intellectual assets, since they are usually the value drivers in strategic transactions, including but not limited to exits. We distinguish between technology intellectual assets (with patents and trade secrets as their protection mechanisms), brand intellectual assets (with trademarks as their protection mechanism) and operational excellence (with culture as a key driver or limitation). The importance of each intellectual asset class depends on the individual case study. Since operational excellence plays a particular important role when preparing a business for an exit (Build-to-Sell), we particularly look at this factor in our live case study.