Value at the Core

Our experience with strategic advisory assignments is that they are at their core about value: discerning it, understanding it, sometimes creating it, unlocking it, and realizing it. Part of the process of realizing it is making certain it is fully evident. Translated into, for example, the sale of a company, that means positioning the business to show its attributes in the most favorable light to potential buyers. This should be an obvious point. What may not be so obvious is how to go about doing that, or how to use financial or other strategic tools to enhance the value.

Brands as Value Drivers

Frequently the value is inextricably tied to the company’s brand or image. Our affiliate, OceanGroup, a branding consultant and advertising agency, has professionals with over 30 years of experience in creating and massaging corporate images and brands – IBM, Panasonic, Lexmark, Fruit of the Loom, Silverstein Properties. We work with OceanGroup to refine, burnish or even create that brand or image as part of the thought process with clients in considering alternatives, or in ultimately selling a company. So when we sell a company, in addition to presenting a client’s historical and projected financials in their most advantageous light, and writing the most compelling description of the business’s competitive advantages and prospects, we counsel the client to groom its image and polish its brand. In it baldest form, you wouldn’t sell your house without sprucing it up, or your car without having it professionally detailed; you shouldn’t sell your company without doing a brand or image assessment.

Driving the Brand

And this doesn’t just pertain to selling the company or brand; it can also be part of the process of creating value in the first place, or as an intermediate term step toward a strategic event. A well orchestrated plan to launch new branded products, reposition tired old brands, or clearly define a muddy corporate image can be a potent creator of shareholder value. Visit OceanGroup at www.OceanGroup.tv.