Some Learnings from Recent Years
It is still 2025 Q1 and business confidence would suggest already that we are entering another year with few signs of meaningful sustained growth across all but a few sectors.
Throughout last year and currently, we have been collecting “lessons learnt” from conversations with Private Equity (PE) investors, with the goal of summarising them.
We present these as issues to “keep in mind”, based on our experience talking to potential and existing clients across a range of sectors. As will become clear, there are three main themes:
- Value for money.
- De-risking selection and development decisions.
- Sustainability (in various guises such as maintaining productivity, keeping morale up and further developing management capability).
Why bother to review and refresh?
In summary, the key triggers for these three themes are:
- Implementing changes to legal employment practices and the pressures of “getting it right” (of selection) alongside the new greater consequences of getting it wrong.
- Understanding how get the best from both new people (to the business) or those new in role while avoiding the trap of tweaking role descriptions but essentially managing them in the same way and expecting different results.
- Embracing the ongoing trends over the last few years of businesses needing to become better at making expectations and consequences more explicit, evidence-based and reasoned (along with less behind the scenes management “scrambling, fudging and ‘winging it’”).
- Developing sensible management activities to bolster the positives and address the negatives (i.e., understanding how to make the most of people’s potential and the things they are good at as well as addressing development “gaps”).
At MDC Advisory we would argue that there are some Management Due Diligence solutions to address these trends.
practical issues to keep in mind
However, keep in mind the following:
- The solutions are not typically “nice to have if you can afford them”. Their cost effectiveness can be easily demonstrated.
- These are not just the focus for large, developed businesses. We work across many diverse business models and sizes. In fact, it might be argued that it is within SMEs that the need and impact are greatest.
- They need not be too complicated, add huge cost or be “extra hassle we can do without right now”. On the contrary, there are many combinations of scale, depth, and approach.
In summary, the value-added by these solutions is clear and can be readily demonstrated to show how they add to default day-to-day management activities.
We have highlighted this in previous reviews along with some of the practical pitfalls to be avoided and important points to look out for.
pragmatic steps in refreshing Management Due Diligence
Given that the number of potential solutions and range of providers all purporting the add value it is easy to see how any business leader would dismiss these solutions are being just too much to get to grips with, in the light of the practical demands right here right now. Distilling our advice down in the light of the recurrent triggers and themes, there are three pieces of advice to keep in mind.
- Look around for the right provider and seek evidence-based practical data showing that the solutions work and that the providers are right for you.
- Set out your objectives for the solutions and the success criteria clearly, at the start and create (or seek help in creating) a “storyboard” that ties the Management Due Diligence outcomes of the solutions back into their commercial impact (implying a need to get the measures right). This is key and transcends any form of post-solution “feel-good” outcome.
- Agree a way of ensuring the value-added is isolated and expressed in terms all with understand.
In summary
- The implications of selection and development decisions are becoming more complicated for employers.
- Validated solutions exist that need not be a disproportionate burden on already heavily loaded managers.
- The potential solutions can add meaningful, (and de-risking) value beyond reliable on other traditional approaches.
As we suggested at the beginning of this simple review, there are few surprises here in the sense of the contents and conclusions of Management Due Diligence.
However, what is the surprise for us as we speak to a wide range of clients and potential clients across sectors, is how so many businesses would benefit meaningfully by taking some (relatively) simple steps and doing things differently i.e., avoid repeating the same thing and expecting a different result.
About The Author
Dr. Steve Sloan is an acknowledged leadership expert and consultant who has over 20 years’ experience advising clients globally.
He can be contacted via email or by calling 07585 548420
