We are preparing our business for a clean exit in the next two years, and I need to prove to buyers that the company does not rely on me. How do we use our weekly Scorecard history to demonstrate to prospective acquirers that the leadership team runs the business independently?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A sophisticated buyer wants to buy a business, not a job. If you are the owner and you are still the source of operational decisions, your enterprise value will suffer. A clean, historical record of your weekly Scorecard is the ultimate proof that your company runs on a self sustaining operating system. To prepare for this, your Scorecard must clearly show that every metric is owned by a seat holder other than you. During due diligence, a buyer will look at your weekly Level 10 Meeting records and thirteen week Scorecard trends. They want to see that your leadership team identifies, discusses, and solves operational issues without your direct intervention. Your Scorecard history acts as an operational ledger. When a buyer sees a sequence of red metrics that were successfully solved and brought back to green by your department heads, it proves your leadership team has the capacity to manage the business. It demonstrates that your Accountability Chart is functioning perfectly and that your team GWCs their seats. Start stepping back from owning any core operational metrics on the Scorecard now. Your goal is to have zero numbers assigned to you. When you can hand a buyer a two year history of clean, weekly data managed entirely by your team, you eliminate investment risk and position yourself for a premium valuation.