Enduring a business challenge often leads to critical self-discovery, process optimization, and future success.  Standing at the end of a fight not only implies you’ve won it, but it engenders confidence – a buyer knows they’re getting a prize fighter;  they’re acquiring a tough, winning, lasting asset.   

        If you’re not completely there yet, it’s ok, it’s an opportunity for a buyer to grow your legacy and create the next generation of a enduring, profitable company.  Future growth and the awesome opportunity that awaits is an exciting proposition for a motivated buyer.  Some thoughts (by J Byrnes and J Wass, Your Company Downsized During the Pandemic. Here’s How to Rebuild, Harvard Business Review ):

        When the pandemic caused the economy to crash, companies raced to stay solvent by reducing their costs to match their declining revenues. Most focused on slashing their personnel costs through downsizing or salary reductions, or both. For midsize companies without surplus resources or diversification, this was critical for survival. Time was of the essence, so most downsizing was largely implemented across the board.

        In the post-pandemic period, many managers’ strong instinct is to rebuild their organizations as they were pre-pandemic. This is a big mistake — they’re facing a different business environment and set of customer needs. During the pandemic, giant digital competitors grew rapidly in response to changes in buyer behavior (e.g., B2C online ordering and direct shipment), which drove many smaller companies to the brink of bankruptcy.

        The problem is that these changes aren’t going away. This means that companies, especially midsize firms, have to “skate to where the puck will be,” as hockey great Wayne Gretzky once observed.

Partner with your customers.  See Travenol.

       Hospital costs dropped by double digits, company costs dropped as well (because they could optimize the number of orders), and amazingly, their sales to even highly penetrated hospitals increased by double digits. The latter stemmed from the close relationships formed between the company’s in-hospital materials management coordinators and the head nurses as they worked together to find ways to improve the system.

But with any success, new challenges arise.

        …the company needed to decentralize planning and management into sets of multicapability teams, with specific teams specializing in each relationship. These teams required more and higher-skilled personnel than the functional organization did. They had to build personnel in order to rightsize these customer relationship teams, but this was a terrific investment.

        Further, understanding the new profit segmentation that these customer relationships drive is critical to applying your limited resources in the right place.  Place the majority of your effort where it pays off the most.  Run your business while we bring it to market.  Our focus, and our expertise, is confidentially selling your business.

“As companies emerge from the pandemic, they face a changed world. In the past, they could win by selling to a broad market in a one-size-fits-all way. Today, they have to understand their profit-based customer segments and organize to provide the right services to the right customers in the right way.”