It is one of those
stories that the old days come back to haunt you. I started my career as a
Banker and am no stranger to due diligence lists. I have been both on the
receiving end and in the creative end of those. I have created data rooms to
respond, massive excel spreadsheets, and have trolled through data rooms to
find more information. I have mention this before, I am always data hungry.
For those paying
attention you might ask - but aren't you done with your banking years and off
due diligence lists? Well, not really. First, I was never entirely out of due
diligence. In fact, I apply due diligence as a modus operandi for challenging
the status quo. I just start looking at the numbers, and then ask question #1,
which inevitably leads to #2 and is inevitably linked to #3. It does not take a
form of an excel spreadsheet and I don't get answers back via data rooms, but
the concept is constant - a truly inquisitive nature with the purpose of
understand and evaluate a business and seek where it can be changed, improved
or let be! I find that the (too?) many sell sides I have been part of showed me
there are endless ways of inquiring into a business and each different pieces
of data will bring about more. You only have to be interested. Again, another
concept I thought permanent. I came to find through the years that true
interest and curiosity is one of my core attributes and certainly enhances my
challenging skills. I am just naturally interested in finding out why things
are done in certain ways, what numbers back up our assumptions, what is the
market doing on the other side? I did not know interest and curiosity were not
on everyone's list. But moving on!
After spending so
many years asking questions and debating the true north of businesses and
products, when not divisions and the Firm, I find myself again writing the
original due diligence questions.
Earlier in the year I have been given a role to engage further in the
Fintech space and get to know the businesses, figure out how we can fit, work
or partner. In one of our first projects, it is like someone woke up the
monster as I opened an excel file to go through the company's projections. All
these questions popped in my mind (and quickly into excel) and unraveled gazed
looks from my team. "How would you come up with those like that?". I
wish I can say "cause I am that smart". Indeed, the answer is only
because I am that curious. I tried to come up with projections for the company
myself, and there were too many things I did not know, too many variables I
needed to understand, too many risks I needed to get my arms around, too many
plans I had no idea about. It is just how my brain works. At that moment in time is like the screen becomes
blurred and thirst for knowledge takes place. It probably sounds way nerdier
than it really is. Or maybe it is, who knows.
I find that due
diligence is a state of mind. And if you really want to embrace a business and
help it grow, there is no other way to start other than to ask questions. I had
this discussion with a mentee the other day. She has been told multiple times she
requires more strategic thought and was wondering how to nurture it. I gave her
some tactics. If you wake up tomorrow and you are now the CEO of this business,
what do you worry about? And what can inform your worries, what data? Do you
have that data? If not why? If you do, do you understand it? Have you
considered what it means? Do you look at it regularly? And that is only for
worry #1 alone. She is still due to come back to me on her CEO thoughts, but I
am certain she will come back with it. Due diligence can be thought, it is a
process like any other. Show me a business, and then sit for questions please!
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