Auditing prior decisions can create new pathways to company worth
When the day comes you want to sell your company, your goal will be to maximize the value that a third party is willing to pay you. But getting a third party to buy your business and do so at a premium valuation doesn’t happen by chance. Have a plan and as part of that plan, build a learning organization.
A learning organization is one that identifies key decisions that its leadership team makes and periodically selects some of them to audit to identify the learnings. The learnings related to what was done well in making this decision, what was missed and what learnings can be gained to apply to the next time this type of decision arises.
Sit with your leadership team and discuss how to begin building this learning organization. Select a recent decision your team made (a decision to invest in a new system or piece of equipment, to open a new location, to launch a new product/service, to open a new customer, to hire for a key position) and ask these types of questions:
- Was this decision a one off or will we periodically face this again? If we will face it again, did we capture the learnings from this recent decision we made?
- In making the decision, what did we do well and should capture the learnings to apply to the next one?
- Where were we challenged in making this decision and could we minimize or avoid this challenge the next time?
- In retrospect, what did we not do well in making this decision and need to capture the learnings to apply to the next one?
- Did we include the right people in making the decision?
- Did we gather the right data to help us make a fact based decision?
- Did the decision align with our company mission, vision and values?
- Did we make the decision in a timely manner or are there steps we could have taken to be more efficient?
Unless you are periodically stepping back and evaluating key decisions that your company has made, there is a chance you’re missing a great opportunity for strengthening your culture. Learning organizations grow company worth at a faster rate and to higher levels than others. Ensure you’re on track to a future euphoric exit event and building a learning organization is a giant step in that direction.
