Merry Christmas
Posted on December 18th, 2009 by admin in Uncategorized
By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth
With only a week until Christmas I thought it would be an appropriate time to thank all of the N2growth stakeholders for their contribution to our continued success. It is with the utmost gratitude and respect that I express my sincere appreciation for the loyal support of our clientele, the assistance provided to us by our vendors, suppliers, partners and investors, as well as the tireless efforts of our employees. For without these invaluable contributions we would most certainly not have experienced such a remarkable 2009. I want to personally thank all of you for your continued support. We wish you a very merry Christmas, and hope you have a happy, safe and prosperous New Year.
While my philosophy on valuations hasn’t changed in years, my feeling as to their importance has. Valuations are always a dicey proposition, but even more so given today’s business climate. I can’t think of a time in recent history where having third party validation for your valuation metrics has been more critical. Over the years I have particpated in the M&A process from virtually every angle possible. I have been a principal of a company being acquired, as well as a principal of a company conducting acquisitions. I have also served as an executive working on both acquisitions and dispositions teams, and as a professional advisor representing both the buy-side and the sell-side. Having sat on all sides of the acquisition table it has been my experience that regardless of approach, style, timing, culture, synergy, supply/demand drivers, or any other catalyzing factor, the transaction will eventually boil down to valuation metrics.
Do CEO Surveys constitute a reliable bellwether, or are they little more than well packaged corporate propaganda pieces? The answer is yes on both accounts. Not only does N2growth conduct CEO Surveys, but so do most other consultancies. It has been my experience that the determining factor in whether or not CEO surveys are reliable can be found solely in whether or not the data is being published for external consumption. In today’s post I’ll share some thoughts about how to discern the value (or lack thereof) of CEO surveys.
One of the requests I’ve had of late is to begin conducting interviews with Authors, CEO’s and other business personalities that would be of interest our readers. Well, ask and you shall receive….I first stumbled across Phil Gerbyshak on the blogosphere by posting a comment on an article he authored. An e-mail dialogue ensued, and a few weeks later Phil and I have learned that we have many things in common…A passion for personal development and learning, a love for baseball, and an admiration of Zig Ziglar among other things. My hope is that I will be the first one to put Phil Gerbyshak on your radar screen, and that you can follow along with what I believe is truly one of the rising stars in the personal develop business. May I introduce Phil Gerbyshak, author and speaker. On to the interview…