Family Owners and Shareholder Groups of private and family-owned enterprises are inherently focused on continuous growth. However, as evidenced by our TARKA PROBE™ Spheres of Advantage research, the expansion of markets, brands, and revenues is not always accompanied by a commensurate increase in profit. It is precisely this metric that is of paramount importance to the Value of the business, which becomes a fundamental issue when deciding on the potential sale of all or part of the company. Enterprise value is gaining prominence in light of Investors’ sustained interest in the Polish market, representing a fundamental consideration for Founders and Owners when deciding whether to sell all or part of their business.
The option to sell is increasingly being considered by Polish Entrepreneurs, and the underlying reasons—as our research and practice indicate—vary considerably. Often, this is due to a lack of successors coupled with fatigue among Generation X Founders, or the inability and difficulty in building autonomous Management Teams capable of genuinely relieving the Partners. Sometimes, the deciding factors are market shifts that traditionally managed businesses struggle to keep pace with, or the fact that the business was built from the outset with a view to an eventual sale at the opportune moment.
TARKA EXECUTIVE boasts years of experience working with Partners contemplating the sale of their business. The founder of our firm successfully sold his previous consultancy business to a global leader listed on the NYSE – Mercer (MMC). We understand that selling a company is a long-term undertaking, akin to building a relationship, encompassing successive stages: from “dressing the company in new robes”, through “mutual courtship” and “saying no/saying yes”, up to “both parties aligning” and the ultimate “consummation of the relationship”. We support our Clients at every stage of this journey.
Polish Family Owners and Shareholder Groups generally adopt a broad and long-term perspective, which underpins their success. Therefore, it is vital to understand now precisely what Investors look for in a company. Their perspective differs from what our Managers focus on. A financial Investor approaches the business quite differently from a strategic one. Beyond revenues and EBITDA, Polish enterprises have additional, less obvious benefits to offer. These must be accurately identified and nurtured within the organisation, and subsequently communicated consistently to the Investor market—precisely as we do towards the Client/Consumer market. Such action significantly enhances the Value of the company and leads to the ultimate success of the Partners.
