Due Diligence

Because of the complexity of human nature, any management team’s competence and effectiveness is difficult to assess unless an objective, independent review is undertaken.

For lending and investment decisions there is an increasing appetite for independent due-diligence to be undertaken on the management team that is accountable for the investment. This mitigates risk and demonstrates good governance.

Board Evaluation’s consultants have many years experience in corporate finance and in a wide range of specialisms that can help lenders and investors to identify:

• motivation in people and teams
• weaknesses in people and teams
• strengths in people and teams
• leadership qualities
• competencies and synergies of the team
• ability to deliver against plan
• ability to deal with risk and the unforeseen
• current or developing gaps in the team
• training, development and coaching needs
• opportunities for succession

As the result of our practical experience, we understand the needs and objectives of investors. Whilst we do identify gaps and weaknesses, we concentrate on the strengths of team members and advise on the optimisation of the Team’s effectiveness, with a focus on long-term commercial success.

In order to fulfil our assignments we tailor our approach to suit the needs of the investor and the deal and we ensure that we understand:

• how well the Management Team is able to execute strategy
• how the organisation’s culture and structure supports the strategic objectives
• leadership and senior team effectiveness
• how management’s ability to execute the investment strategy can be ensured
• who has the required competencies and can add value, who needs development and support and, in extreme cases, who needs to go
• how the Management Team will engage with us

How we operate

The way we operate is to take a comprehensive briefing from the client and then, working with the management team, generate an understanding of the existing business, the future business plan, the financial and strategic agenda, and the competencies required in the Team.

We then carry out personal interviews to establish the experience, ability and motivations, psychometric assessment to evaluate the competence, leadership style and motivations, and high-level referencing to validate credentials, record, reputation and capabilities. We benchmark against best practice and analyse this information to predict future performance of individuals as focus of strategy changes over time and to identify when potential changes to the Team may be required. Finally, we provide a comprehensive report which critically presents the strengths, issues and the individual and team dynamics.

In summary Board Evaluation Limited will:

• make clear recommendations.
• provide an independent and critical insight into the capability of the Management Team.
• scrutinise their ability, competence and effectiveness against best practice.
• evaluate and predict the potential performance of the Team, their ability to deliver the strategy and to be flexible and resilient as markets change.
• provide a range of other services (recruitment, training, coaching, mentoring etc) that will help the client to optimise the performance of the Management Team.