Advisory & corporate finance
There is probably a spreadsheet somewhere in your business doing something important that one person built and nobody else fully understands. It works. It has always worked. It is still a house of cards.
Raising equity is no longer just about the “Hockey Stick” growth chart. It is about transparency. Investors—whether VCs or Angels—are demanding a level of data integrity and ESG compliance that most Series A companies simply don’t have. Richard Spilsbury discusses this shift with Marina Traversari. Having moved from scaling Spherics (a carbon accounting platform) to … Continue reading The “Glass Box” Business: Why Transparency (and ESG) is Your New Valuation Multiplier
Financial models are powerful tools used for a variety of purposes to assess forward looking financial information to overcome limitations of relying only historic information Some of the best uses for financial models are: We support clients build financial models for a range of business requirements, from simple forecasts to developed models to support decision-making. … Continue reading How financial modelling can help improve business decision-making
In short The wrong business model, lifted from earlier work Complexity nobody else can follow Assumptions with no reliable data behind them Inconsistent formatting and colour coding Broken links between sheets and files No error checks and no validation Six common mistakes people often make when performing financial modelling: We support clients build financial models … Continue reading Six common mistakes in financial modelling
In short Use consistent formatting and colour coding Document every assumption you make Build in error checks and test them Validate against benchmarks and history Design for flexibility, not for rebuilds Review and test on a schedule If you’ve planned your financial model and started to build it We support clients build financial models for … Continue reading Six tips to help you create strong financial models
In short Six things to settle before you build anything Fix the old model, or bin it and start again Understand what the model actually has to satisfy Choose the tool before you are locked into it Get the data structure right at the outset Plan who else will need access, and how Decide how … Continue reading Financial modelling: Don’t start yet
Build and buy strategies are where a business acquires other businesses, very often to help increase value ahead of an exit. They are not uncommon for private equity or companies trading on a public exchange and can also work for smaller businesses but are less common. Build and buy strategies can be an attractive way … Continue reading Thinking about Build and Buy?
In short 95% of executives are dissatisfied with innovation in their business A business focus on finding better ways to do things Engagement and the creative capacity of employees Infrastructure that supports collaboration and learning Deep contextual understanding of the marketplace Willingness to act, learn and fail fast safely The benefits of creating an innovative … Continue reading Five behaviours to promote innovation
If you are a scale up business, you know there is some market fit and you will have felt at times that “sales is working”, so it can be very frustrating when sales growth stalls. The Scale up Institute states that the “markets gap” is one of the key barriers to further growth, their focus … Continue reading Unleash Your Sales Potential: Overcoming Growth Hurdles in Scale-Up Businesses
If you are a scale up business, you know the challenges of aligning the development of talent and productivity. The Scale Up Institute lists access to talent as one of the key “significant pain points and barriers to scale further”. To resolve the issue they focus on the education system in lobbying the Government. Without … Continue reading Talent and productivity gap: Solving the challenges for scale up businesses