Strategic Planning Expert Robert Bradford
By Robert W. Bradford, CEO of the Center for Simplified Strategic Planning, Inc.
Many of our clients have found themselves considering acquisitions in this time of uncertainty. In this coming series of articles, we will discuss the process of acquisition screening and give you some tools to make the process easier. Once you have identified your reasons for making an acquisition and the specific enhancements you are seeking to your strategic competencies, your first stage of acquisition screening involves creating a list of potential acquisition targets. At this point, we don’t need to know much about the targets except that their acquisition is a possibility, and their strategic resources may include the desired assets or competencies we are seeking in our acquisition. Having established this list, some quick evaluations can be made without a great deal of homework. You want to capture six data points about each possible target: 1) Name, 2) Sales, 3) Ownership, 4) Competency Enhancement, 5) Asset Value and 6) Probability of Success