Expert thinking on productivity, intangible asset valuation, growth strategy, and building more valuable businesses.
A multiple of earnings is where a valuation starts, not where it ends. Here is how a UK acquirer prices a target — normalising the earnings, testing the intangibles that produce them, checking comparables, and modelling the allocation before completion.
Read more →
A buyer prices your business through its intangible assets whether they name them or not. Here are the ones that earn a premium in a sale — and how to evidence them before diligence goes looking.
Read more →
The balance sheet shows you plant, stock and cash. It barely shows the brand, the customers, the people and the contracts — the intangible assets that produce most of a target's earnings. Here is the buyer's lens for seeing them.
Read more →
The deal closes and the real work begins. The first 100 days decide whether the synergies you paid for are realised or lost. Here is the operator's 100-day integration plan for retaining people, customers and the intangible assets underneath the price.
Read more →
A seller wants a share sale. A buyer usually wants an asset sale. The structure you land on decides your tax, your risk and how the intangibles are valued. Here is the UK trade-off.
Read more →
Diligence is not a box-ticking exercise you run after you agree a price. It is how you decide what the business is worth — and what to do about the risks you find. Here is the operator's checklist.
Read more →
Organic growth compounds slowly. Acquisition adds revenue, capability and scale in a single step — and a larger group often re-rates. Here is how UK operators build a buy-and-build strategy that survives diligence.
Read more →
Few acquisitions are paid for in cash. The deals that get done are assembled from a stack of funding sources — and the stronger the target's intangible base, the wider your options.
Read more →
Most first-time acquirers wait for a broker to send them a deal. The operators who buy well go and find one. Here is how to source acquisition targets and build deal flow of your own.
Read more →
A buyer's diligence is designed to find the weaknesses you left too late to fix. This is the owner's checklist for getting a business ready to sell — and ready to survive that scrutiny.
Read more →
A business that cannot run without its founder is a business a buyer will not pay full price for. Here is the programme to fix that in the 12–24 months before you sell.
Read more →
Exit planning is the work that sets your sale price. Most owners start three months before they go to market; the ones who get the best price start twenty-four. Here is the plan, window by window.
Read more →Get the latest insights on intangible asset growth and productivity delivered to your inbox.
Take the free intangible asset assessment and discover where your biggest growth opportunities lie.