Do the earnings convert into cash after working capital and reinvestment?
The value creation mandate
Make the business worth owning, whether you decide to sell, seek investment or pass it on.
STRATIGeX takes responsibility for the operating work that determines cash, management control, return on capital and buyer confidence, while there is still time to change the evidence.
London New York Toronto Working discreetly across North America and Europe
The unassigned responsibility
Your advisers can all be excellent. The value of the whole business can still belong to nobody.
Your accountant accounts. Your lawyer protects. Your management team operates. Your transaction adviser sells. STRATIGeX takes responsibility for the company they will eventually be asked to defend.
What buyers actually test
A buyer pays for the future it believes it can own.
History earns attention. Evidence determines whether the forecast, the management team and the business model deserve belief.
Does additional revenue earn an adequate return on the capital it consumes?
Can management make consequential decisions after the owner steps away?
Can every material forecast and adjustment survive independent scrutiny?
Which buyers can do more with this company than its current owner can?
Two situations One standard
The mandate changes with the company.
The promise does not stretch beyond the work STRATIGeX can control.
Founder or family owner
Preparing for exit within two to five years
You have built a valuable company. Earnings quality, management independence or buyer evidence may still prevent that value surviving scrutiny.
What you buy
An owned Value Creation and Exit Readiness Programme from diagnosis through execution oversight.
Board or professional management
Facing a defined ownership or capital decision
The company has systems and management. The board needs an independent answer on a specific value risk before the event controls the timetable.
What you buy
A bounded review of growth quality, value at risk, buyer relevance or transaction evidence.
The work
Change the business before anyone has a reason to make it look good.
Diagnose
Find where value is created, lost or dependent.
Prioritise
Direct time and capital toward the issues that move the outcome.
Change
Give management clear ownership of the operating work.
Evidence
Build history a buyer or investor can verify.
Test
Challenge the company through the eyes of the right buyer.
Selected client work
What changed, why it mattered and what survived scrutiny.
Client names and identifying details remain confidential.
Growth was destroying value
Position
Revenue grew by almost a third while gross profit and profit before tax deteriorated.
Intervention
Customer contribution and pricing decisions were exposed. Destructive volume was repriced or removed.
Result
Gross margin recovered six points. Revenue reduced by 7.7 per cent while operating profit and cash generation strengthened.
Profit was trapped in working capital
Position
A business with more than £80 million of revenue carried more than £17 million of debtors.
Intervention
Collection behaviour, commercial terms and operating history were connected to the cash requirement.
Result
Debtor days fell by ten days, releasing approximately £2.2 million of cash. Normal working capital of approximately £5 million was established and defended.
The earnings story required belief
Position
Management information and forecasts showed materially higher earnings than the statutory accounts.
Intervention
The accounts, management information and forecast were reconciled into one evidence trail. Unsupported adjustments were removed before diligence.
Result
Eighty to ninety per cent of proposed maintainable earnings survived buyer review.
The STRATIGeX philosophy
What the market will not forgive.
- 01A valuation is not an offer.
- 02Growth must earn more than the capital it consumes.
- 03Profit that does not become cash will be questioned.
- 04An indispensable founder remains a transfer risk.
- 05Diligence exposes unsupported stories.
- 06The market does not reimburse sacrifice.
The STRATIGeX study
What Buyers Actually Buy
Why transaction value depends on economic performance, transfer confidence and the buyer's purpose.
Read the ten questions every owner should answer before a buyer asks them.
The owner assessment
Would the business survive without your explanation?
Ten questions. Two minutes. A directional view of the evidence a sceptical buyer would test.
A confidential first conversation
Find out what could still change before the buyer decides for you.
The first conversation establishes the intended event, timing and principal concern. It does not end with an automatic proposal.
Where STRATIGeX works
One firm. The markets that matter.
Business value growth and exit readiness for owners and boards preparing for sale, succession or strategic investment.
North America
New York · Boston · Chicago · Miami and South Florida · Dallas · Houston · San Francisco and the Bay Area · Los Angeles · Minneapolis · Toronto · Montreal · Vancouver
Europe
London and the United Kingdom · France · Germany
Core work
Enterprise value creation · Exit readiness · Founder dependency reduction · Cash conversion · Management independence · Buyer evidence