The Ultimate Private Equity Playbook

Private Equity firms must have a clearly defined playbook containing value creation initiatives in order to succeed. This 40+ page playbook by Whiteark is the ultimate guide to realising value in your Private Equity transaction.

An asset’s full potential is realised through a holistic approach, that focuses on optimising operational performance, enhancing strategic capabilities and effective capital management.

Playbook Inclusions:

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✔️Overview
✔️Strategic Levers
✔️Operational Levers
✔️Identify Value Creation Initiatives
✔️Types of Value Creation Initiatives
✔️The M&A Benefits
✔️Strategic Pricing
✔️A Sharp Focus - where to target your efforts
✔️Distribution Strategy
✔️Types of Distribution Strategy
✔️Geographic Expansion
✔️Geographic Considerations: Entry to new markets, New sales, Access to local talent, Increased business growth, Competitive advantage, Operational efficiencies
✔️Product Strategy: Product Vision, Goals, Product Initiatives
✔️Product Innovation

✔️Digital Transformation Approach
✔️Digital Transformation
✔️Digital Strategy
✔️Customer Segmentation
✔️Aftermarket Service Strategy
✔️Data Strategy
✔️Data Strategy Principles
✔️Pricing Optimisation
✔️Approach to Pricing Optimisation
✔️Sales Force Effectiveness
✔️Procurement & Managing Suppliers
✔️Successful Procurement Management
✔️Pricing Optimisation
✔️Benefits of Product Portfolio
✔️Operational Efficiencies Focus Areas
✔️Cost to Serve

And more…

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Get your hands on the PE playbook

Want your copy of our 40-page Private Equity playbook? Click the button below to proceed.

Private Equity is our thing. Qualified, experienced, and connected, our team is on hand to help you exceed all expectations.

With extensive experience working with private equity firms, we have the ability to drive true value in portfolio investments. Globally, and locally, our team’s combined experience bridges the gap and fills in the blanks, so we’re ready to help - exactly when you need it.

Our approach is rooted in data, ensuring the right decisions are made – based on accurate information. Hands-on, we get into the trenches with you, working directly with the management team to realise outcomes expected by shareholders. We offer a range of transformation services which can be tailored to suit standard private equity options; always accompanied by a laser focus on profit optimisation of the business.

Advice for resetting strategic priorities

From a recent poll on LinkedIn, 50% of people responded that resetting strategic priorities was a key focus area for 2021.  It makes sense, 2020 was a very different year to what people had planned. Companies pivoted, reacted, and made decisions that were focused on survival.  Survival mode was the ultimate focus; do we have enough cash in the bank? Can we manage through this period of uncertainty and upheaval and survive to see the new world?

Everyone is excited to see the back of 2020 and focus on the new 2021. We are not back to normal and never will be, but it’s a chance for a clean slate, a chance to reset and a chance for companies to transition from survival to revival.  Resetting your strategic priorities is paramount and will ensure that you set your business up for success. Your employees are looking for leadership, vision, and a roadmap for the future. We have provided 5 key tips to resetting your strategic priorities.

5 Key Tips to Reset your Strategic Priorities

#1
Understand your customer and consumer behaviours

How has COVID changed the behaviour of your customer and consumers?  The purpose of your business is to deliver a product or service to a customer/consumer.  Understanding trends of their behaviours, expectations, wants and needs is critical.  We’ve published a range of articles on the impact of Covid, from reports to industry trends and tips on how to adapt and embrace agility - to get your hands on them, simple search our Thought Leadership articles for ‘Covid’ or click here to explore.

#2
Develop a roadmap focused on targeting the customer and consumer expectations

• A new product/offering

• A new go-to-market model

• A new pricing model

• A new service model

• A new operating model

Move quickly to get the best place in the market.  What do your customers and consumers expect, want, and need and how are you going to pivot your model to give this to them? If you are not sure, do some tests and trials to understand the reaction to some options and what gains the most traction. Explore more here.

#3
Find money to invest

This is the time to invest. If resetting your priorities is critical to ensure your business is successful, then you need to stop other things and find the money to invest for your desired future state.

Cash has been tight for businesses so you need to reassess your priorities and review all expenditure. Just because you have always spent money on something doesn’t mean it’s a good investment. It’s time to look at all expenditure and assess what is required to run the business and what can be repurposed to invest in the future.  The businesses that make this change/pivot will be the most successful. Find out more by watching our ZBB Video on YouTube or reading the Whiteark Zero Based Budgeting Guide here.

#4
Invest in your people

There are two main considerations:

• Do you need additional capability in your business with your change in approach/strategy?

• How do you retain your top talent with development opportunities within the business? Know your talent and maximise the value that the business gets from the talent.

There is a war on talent and it’s a good time to secure exceptional talent for your business. You need to understand your capability gaps and focus on getting the right people in the business to be the subject matter experts. It’s imperative that you focus on recruiting the right talent that you will need for the future, not just what you need today.

Companies spend money on recruitment but don’t invest enough money on development opportunities for their people.  This doesn’t mean formal training but internal development opportunities to work in different areas, work on projects and gain new experiences. It’s time to invest in your top talent to ensure you get the best out of them. Want to explore more? Read our article on The war on talent.

#5
Measure the metrics that matter

It’s true that what gets measured gets done.  Take time to understand the metrics that are aligned with the company’s strategic priorities – lead indicators are critical to ensure that the company is on track.  One scorecard that measures the top 10 metrics that are aligned to the strategic priorities is critical to monitoring your success. You also need to have clear ownership, roles and responsibilities for each metric. Want to explore more? Read our article on What gets measured gets done.

Resetting your Strategic priorities is critical to set your business up for success in 2021. 

Take time to reflect on what is working and what needs to change.  The 5 key focus areas above is a good structure to consider when updating your strategic priorities.

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Looking to reset your own strategic priorities? Let us help.

Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes. We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au

Ready, Set, Go... To Market

So your product department has designed a new product and you’re in charge of simply taking the product to market….. now what?

Here’s a simple cheat sheet of some critical milestones that you must be clear about before you launch the new product.

Who is your target market what are your unique customer personas?

A great product doesn’t fit perfectly in every market so being clear about who your ideal target market is will be crucial. It’s difficult to target every market as it will impact your ability to make money hence you want to be sure that you are targeting the markets you can win in and the markets that your research has identified have a strong connection to your product.

You must understand who your customers are, how they behave, and what they want to experience when they engage your product. The more you know about your customer the better you will be able to execute your go- to-market strategy.

What is your products story and what makes your product unique?

Being able to simply tell the story of why your product exists and being able to position it for your customers is critical as a product never just sells itself.

Now that you can explain why your product exists you need to be able to spell out some key features and benefits that your product will deliver to your target audience. It’s so important that these resonate for your customers from the perspective of what problems it’s solving for them and the benefits your product is creating for their lives.

What channels are you going to use to take your product to market?

Picking channels isn’t hard, the challenge in this step is ensuring that the channels you chose are all as integrated and connected with each other as possible. It is critically important that customer experience is aligned regardless of how your customer choses to engage your product.

What’s your budget?

We are now clear on who we are selling to and what channels we are going to use so it’s now time to build your budget. Establishing your product pricing has been your focus right up until you’ve tested it with potential customers so this step needs to ensure that you incorporate and estimate all the costs associated with your go-to-market strategy.

How are you going to market your product?

You are ready to go and all that’s left is to determine what marketing activities you will leverage to take your product to market. You will need to develop a unique marketing approach for each target market you’ve identified in the first stage of this process.

Leveraging your product story, the goal of your marketing approach is to create a unique voice for your product in each market that gives your product the competitive advantage it needs.

Now you’re ready, it’s time to go…………….to market!

Looking to build your own Go To Market strategy?

Let us help. To learn more about how to build a go-to-market strategy for your customers, contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au

Go To Who?

Recently a good friend approached me and shared this amazing idea they had to take a new product to market. They had built the concept, tested it and literally perfected the product to a point that it was time to go and share it with the masses. Easy right? Wrong…

I see this often, and whilst not wanting to dampen their enthusiasm because their product truly is remarkable my first question was, what’s your go to market strategy? Their response was reflective of something I’ve witnessed and heard so many times throughout my career, ‘Go to who?’

I have seen great products and ideas that are truly brilliant that only lack one small ingredient, a go to market plan.

Here’s a simple approach and more importantly thoughts and questions I would typically ask at the moment you are ready to go-to-market.

What is a go to market plan?

A go to market plan is a more of an immediate delivery plan. It’s a short term roadmap that is focused on taking the product, service or idea to the target audience in the most effective way.  

Why do I need a go to market Plan when I have a marketing plan?

A marketing plan typically has more of a long term focus compared to a go to market plan which is very short term orientated. So much success in any business in the long term is driven by the foundations and the approach to the very first steps hence it goes without saying that this part of the planning process is one of the most critical.

Typically creating something new generates so much excitement and enthusiasm and this positive energy can often lead us to miss some of the important elements and requirements that are needed when we think we are ready to go.  This is the point of the go to market plan; it  helps you create a short term check-list that will drive execution and delivery and give you a guide on what step comes next for your launch.  

The framework that a go to market plan creates will ensure you have specific goals and milestones that you can track in the early days to ensure you are on track and more importantly will help you to understand and address issues and challenges as they arise early in the journey before they set in and create challenges for the business down the line. 

A go to market strategy is as important to a start-up business as what it is to a mature seasoned company as the principles and pitfalls of delivery are exactly the same for whatever the maturity of the company.

How do I build a go to market plan? 

The process of building a go to market plan does not need to be complex and needs to be simple enough so that you can alter it as you learn more as you start learning and delivery.

Assemble the Data you need.

A great starting point for any go to market plan is to assemble as much data as is practical so as you can use this to validate the idea, service, product etc. with the appropriate facts.  This data can be obtained by research, industry reports, talking to experts in the appropriate area you are working in, competitors and by generally asking as many questions as possible prior to writing your go to market plan.

By using data to answer questions you will eliminate the temptation of answering all the questions yourself and this can be a risk as your ability to remain objective may be challenged because of your emotional attachment.

Assess the feasibility.

It’s imperative to establish as early as possible whether your initiative is feasible and is something that will create enough value in market to potential customers as well as delivering the commercial outcomes you require commercially.

Doing this will give you confidence that has been validated by fact (data) and more importantly will start to give you a broader perspective on some of the key success factors your plan will require. 

Asking questions throughout this phase are critical as they will help you to start validating the ‘value’ that is going to underpin the idea you are putting forward, this will continue to build confidence for you, your organisation and very importantly your investors.

Questions could be clustered by categories or themes:

What is the problem my idea/product is solving?

• What problem does the idea/product solve?

• Why is this problem so important to solve?

• What impact would solving this problem have?

• How does my idea/product help solve this product?

• How does solving the problem help the community more broadly?

Who specifically is your target audience?

• Who are you targeting, specifically?

• What are the characteristics of these targets? Are there similarities?

• Who will make the final decision in purchasing your offering? Are you aiming at targeting a specific level of decision maker (i.e. CFO), or are there multiple points of engagement?

• What pain could you resolve specifically to the potential decision maker b approaching them with your idea/product?

• Is there a broader community or industry body that could benefit from solving this problem and could potentially help you educate your target market to solve this problem? 

What is the demand for your idea/product? 

• Who is already in market trying to solve the same problem that you’ve identified?

• What do your target market think of these alternatives? These alternatives are going to be your competitors so understanding their strengths and weaknesses will be critical to articulating how you are different.

• What would your target market need from your idea/product so as to have their problem completely resolved?

• What barriers exist that would stop your idea/product being used by your target market?

Does your idea/product need any technology for it to work?

If the answer is yes then you’ll need to:

• Establish whether you need to build the technology to drive the product? How much will it cost in both time and finances?

• Once you’ve built the technology how much will  it cost you ongoing?

• Is there an alternative to use someone else’s platform to build your idea/product/ If so what the cost? Is it more or less?

In addition to the above is there any other potential issues, legal obstacles or roadblocks that might need to be factored.

Develop a GTM Blueprint. 

Now that you have established through data and common sense that your idea/product is feasible it’s time to start building your actual plan. The blueprint is aimed at being step by step guide on how you are going to deliver your idea/product to market or to your target audience. You will leverage some of the learnings and insights you gained in the first few steps, however this is now the opportunity to get more detailed as you are now getting ready to launch.

What is your marketing strategy?

• Recap on who is your target market?

• How are your competitors reaching this market (i.e. Social media, search marketing, sales force etc)?

• Who are the customers you are going to target specifically?

• What are their personal goals, their issues and or pains?

• What are their beliefs, personal values, social status, digital competence, income levels, budgets etc?

• Are there any groups and or clusters that become apparent as a result of investigating your customers?

• What are your competitors doing to right now to serve these groups? What is and isn’t working with these competitor strategies?

• What are the strengths and weaknesses that your competitors have?

• How are your competitors communicating with customers through marketing, selling etc?

If you establish that you will have more than one type of customer it will be beneficial for you to create some simple customer personas so that your customer story/value proposition isn’t limiting your potential for reach and growth. Give these persona’s a name so that you can refine them and continue to be focused on understanding them when you are in market.

Map your customer journey.

This is the time to walk in the shoes of your customer from the moment they are exposed to your idea/product  right through all the steps ending in you actually purchasing and then continuing to engage with the company ongoing.

In this phase you are thinking about process, it needs to be as simple as possible. Consider this in the context of your customers and be sure that you can clearly answer the following questions in establishing this process:

• Is your customer aware that they have a problem? If they’re not how will you make them aware?

• Where will the customer need to look to find your product? Are there multiple places that they might look and how can you be sure your product is found?

• How can you stand out from your competitors when they find you?

• Once your customer has made the purchase how can you keep engaging them? Is there an opportunity to use your customer to become an advocate for your idea or product in the future?

Given the different channels and technologies available to customers there will be so many different ways in which they can engage and buy your idea or product.  Mapping every possible touchpoint in as many channels as possible will be critical in understanding the customer journey but will also be important at ensuring there are consistencies and synergies across the entire value stream.

Establish your pricing strategy.

This is typically a great time to engage your financial advisors as the key to long term success will depend on your idea/product being profitable.

Understanding the price point of your competitors, your customer personas, the different pricing strategies that may apply to different types of customer journeys will be essential when you are considering how to process your offering.

You will need to consider the following questions in establishing your pricing framework:

• Is there a one-time cost for your idea/product?

• Is there a cost associated with every time your customer engages your product?

• Is the service ongoing and will you charge a subscription fee?

• Are there multiple variations of your product that mean you might offer the basic elements for free or at a lower cost so as to grow sales?

• Will you offer discounts or promotions to help fund sales?

The value story and how to communicate it.

• What problem are you solving for your customers? How?

• How can you leverage the customers biggest problems to create a gravitation towards your offering? What makes your product stand out from all the others? What language or tone will you use to help you stand out?

• What channels do you ideally to use for communicating this message? (Note: you will need to include this in your commercial and pricing modelling)

• Check that your channels reach as many personas and prospects across the customer journey you mapped out in the earlier phase.

Acquiring customers seamlessly.

This is the opportunity to start converting your idea into sales and as such the first moment where you formally take the idea/product to market.

This seems like the easiest part of the journey however can be the most complex and confusing given the number of avenues and potential channels you have in your go-to-market strategy.

 This is the time to answer the following types of questions:

• Can your idea/product be sold exclusively online?

• Will you need a venue and/or salespeople to sell your idea/product? What type of training will your sales team/s need to sell your idea or product?

• Will you need to establish sales tools to help sell your product (website, software, technical applications, presentations, merchandisers etc)

• How will you measure and report on the various sales channel’s performance, effectiveness, cost?

• How will you talk to customers before and after a successful or unsuccessful conversation so as they remain ‘fans’ or ‘pipeline’ opportunities?

Managing customer service.

The goal of every new idea, product or organisations is to ensure your customers enjoy a magnificent experience. In order to ensure that this ambition is a reality for your idea/product you will need to consider:

• Will you need resources to manage this experience?

• Will you offer customers ongoing communication channels/services to engage with you?

• Will you need to consider producing materials that support your offering? How will you maintain and produce these?

The objective of any process is not to add complexity and this point where you believe you are ready to go it is imperative to ensure you have checked through as many possible scenarios so as you can be confident your idea or product has every chance of being successful.

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Looking to build your own Go To Market strategy? Let us help.

To learn more about how to build a go-to-market strategy for your customers, contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au

Resetting your Go-To-Market Strategy during this Pandemic

There isn’t a business in the world, big or small that hasn’t been impacted by the COVID pandemic.

For some the impacts will have been catastrophic, for others they actually have been positive, but for all of us there has been a change and there will continue to be changes both good and bad that we must confront.

The reality is that regardless of where your business finds itself right at this moment, good or bad, you can’t just sit idle, you need to respond to the voice of your customers and to the messages the market is sending you.

The measures businesses on both sides of the impact equation have taken to protect staff, ensuring they are safely working from home, standing up processes that allow this to happen whilst continuing to serve customers, and most importantly ensuring that their mental wellbeing is front of mind has been critical in giving businesses the chance to reset.

Unfortunately, this reset in its own right won’t be enough to ensure that businesses survive or continue to thrive beyond this pandemic.  In order to achieve this your businesses will need to redefine it’s go-to-market strategy to (a) match the market conditions and opportunities right now and (b) to predict what market conditions might look like on the other side.

Here are some thoughts on where you might start and some of the activities that might help you pivot accordingly:

Stay close to your customers

In times of crisis we naturally retreat and seek to protect our own, our staff, our revenues which is natural. Our customers are being impacted as much as we ae and we must continue to engage them to understand what their situation is, not with a view to selling them but with a view to being genuinely customer centric and showing that value is real. Having this frame of reference will help you to continue to engage with your customers through this pandemic with the trust you’ve built over time, empathy and most importantly on their terms. Engaging customers now will only enhance your customer experience, focus on this as a personal activity, not  as a commercial one.

Be clear on the value you deliver to your customers

Now is not the time to sell aggressively, it’s the right time however to reaffirm the reason and purpose for why your company/product exists. Have your sales and marketing team remind you of this narrative, why your company and/or product exists? Remember you exist because there is a problem or a pain point that you are serving in the market that your customers can’t do without. In this current environment your goal is to be so closely connected to your customers that you understand their pain as it stands in this pandemic and more importantly how you and your team can help them solve them. Now more than ever, your customers are looking to be more than just buyers, they want to partner with people who are partners. There is no better time than now to re-assess your sales and GTM process and establish new targets and goals that are helping address the gaps to your customers problems.

Engage your local community

This pandemic has made life hard for every community, they are all suffering from the lack of connection with family, friends and the even the businesses they love. This is the time to support those businesses who are supporting their communities to get through this, do this because you care about these communities not because you are seeking better sales results or higher profits. This is an opportunity for us to be leaders in our actions, to show goodwill, compassion, lend support to our customers without expecting anything in return. Yours customers will become even greater beacons for your brand and or your product and they will become the community champions for you.

It’s clear that there is no definitive timeframe for how long this pandemic will go on, however it is imperative that you can’t just sit in hope.

Adapting your go-to-market strategy to the reality of this pandemic situation is an action that with deliver returns both now and also for the other side.

We are living with the reality in Australia that each state is responding to this pandemic slightly differently and as a consequence we need to ensure that our response is reflective of these variables and the fact that our customers realities and emotions will all be different.

There’s no better time than right now for your business to check in on your go-to-market approach, reaffirm or perhaps even reshape it so as to help you maintain the advantage you have or reignite the values as to why you exist.

Here’s to a post pandemic reality for your business that shines brighter than the reality of yesterday and today.

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Looking to build your own Go To Market strategy?

Let us help. To learn more about how to build a go-to-market strategy for your customers, contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au