Performing Due Diligence: Trust But Verify!

Due diligence is a process of investigation leading to the identification, gathering, and verification of all relevant facts that figure into any major purchase decision.  It is completed before a deal closes to provide a buyer or investor with an assurance of what they are getting. Hence, due diligence enhances the quality of information available which, in turn, lends itself to informed decision-making, thus increasing the chances of success. This program demonstrates the need to be curious, creative, resourceful, and demanding in assembling and analyzing the facts in an M&A transaction.  “Trust but verify” as the saying goes.  Once the deal closes and the ink is dry, there is no turning back. Translation: Get it right the first time as there is no second chance! 

A familiar face with Lehigh MBAs, Larry Thomas is an adjunct professor with a solid record of accomplishment with technology-driven enterprises who are market disruptors.  He was an executive with three Fortune-size companies as well as served as the CEO of a VC-backed startup in the lithium battery space. Larry is currently Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal, a high profile diversified global consulting firm where he develops and executes diligence on behalf of client firms owned by private equity who are preparing for exit. Larry holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago [Booth School of Business] and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Virginia. 

Participants experience a fast-moving no holds-barred 2-day journey peppered with relevant and pressing topics that speak to performing due diligence from a decision-making perspective while utilizing best practices.  The program is built around six key questions:

 [1] How do I assess why the target company wishes to be acquired?

[2] How do I analyze the financial and market performance of the target?

[3] How do I evaluate the uniqueness and limitations of the target’s IP?

[4] How do I determine the synergies that may result from the purchase of the target?

[5] How do I gain insight on the quality of the target’s workforce and management team?

[6] How do I measure the impact of pending, threatened, or settled litigation on the target?

The format is 100% interactive.  This program spotlights an actual M&A transaction that is fresh and serves as the lens to unearth the many challenges and realities of performing due diligence – a creative process that engages both buyers and sellers as well as the business professionals they involve to represent them.

This program is designed for C-level executives, senior managers, and founders of growth enterprises who are engaged in the acquisition or sale of a business as part of the Executive Certificate in Corporate Entrepreneurship.