thinking of selling? — play a game … (part 3 of 3)

(please read parts 1 and 2, below)
So you’ve played the game and you’ve summarised your thinking on how your company will fare.
You’ve created an invaluable set of maps for future owners: maps in the sense that different plausible business backdrops are made explicit, and more importantly, maps in the sense of different – profitable – [...]

thinking of selling? — play a game … (part 2 of 3)

(please read part-1, below)
So you’ve described how your company will make money in the future that everyone probably thinks is the common-sense future.  It’s certainly the kind of future business environment you’ve planned for, the kind of future where you have a pretty good idea of where there are opportunities and where there are potholes.
The [...]

thinking of selling? — play a game … (part 1 of 3)

Imagine a couple of senior people from your company standing at a conference room table.  On that table is a 2 ft by 3 ft piece of foam-core that’s been printed on.  There’s a small pile of cards that have shorthand descriptions of important issues facing your company.  There’re also some kind of spinners or [...]

Strategic Recasting – making your company more sale-able

Case study: A Northern California textile company – manufacturing and importing. Specializing in fine wool (men’s and women’s suits) and specialty fabrics. 12 years old, family run, $3.2M revenues. 2 woolen mills in Ireland. Steady if not impressive growth. Founder retiring, sons tired of business – will stay on for term. Company has weathered [...]