Presenter: Tom McKaskill, CPA, Ph.D

Few owners prepare their business for sale and yet increasing the value of a conventional business by several times is highly achievable. For businesses which have assets or capabilities which a large corporation can exploit, a sales value of many times revenue is quite realistic. By properly preparing their business for sale, developing and protecting intellectual property or other strategic assets or capabilities and by identifying the right buyer, achieving 20 to 40 times a conventional value is highly probable.

Professor McKaskill has developed specific value creation strategy for enhancing the sale value of a business which can leverage strategic value. This group of businesses typically includes companies in information technology, telecommunications, scientific research, biotechnology and companies based on strong brands, intellectual property or deep expertise. Strategic buyers are typically large corporations who can rapidly exploit the underlying assets or capabilities of a business they purchase. So the strategy for increasing value works on risk reduction, building strategic assets and capabilities, improving scalability and replication and building relationships with the potential buyers. Any businesses with strategic assets or capabilities can significantly increase its sale value with the right preparation and by finding the right buyer who can properly exploit its revenue potential.

This intensive two day workshop examines the current business and its revenue potential to identify the strategic value in the business, it then selects those assets and capabilities which have the potential to be exploited by a large corporation, identifies potential buyers for them and then develops a strategy and operational plan to sell all or parts of the business to the potential buyers.

Duration: Two full days with breaks for coffee and lunch.

Attendees: Business owner and Directors, business advisors and the senior management team representing a single firm. The workshop provides an opportunity for a firm to examine its own operations and its industry to identify its strategic sale potential. The executive team will score themselves on a sale readiness planning worksheet which sets out the actions they need to take to enhance their preparation for sale to a strategic buyer. Each attendee needs to acquire the strategic sale book before the workshop and should read Part A before attending. The book provides the detailed questions for the worksheet. The workshop should be limited to senior executives, Directors and advisors of the firm who are trusted to work on a harvest strategy.

Format: The workshop is highly interactive in which the firm has extensive time to develop their own strategy.

Book: McKaskill, T, (2010), Ultimate Exits – The secret behind selling entrepreneurial ventures at staggering prices , Breakthrough Publications, Australia (available free at www.drexit.net)