GRAPH Papers^® Commercial Diligence Best Practices

Competitive Position

Taking Price Seriously in Commercial Due Diligence (CDD) Mandates

By Jeff Merkle

Using pricing as a lever is massively powerful, yet pricing is an often overlooked and underappreciated part of diligence. Several years back, one of the large corporate finance consultancies did some modeling using income statements from the top 1000 firms – they found that a 1% increase in average price with an “inelastic” customer base (i.e., no resulting change in demand) resulted in a…

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Diligence Considerations for Healthcare Provider Investments

By Lynt Johnson, MD, MBA

Private equity interest and deal activity for healthcare providers has certainly accelerated over the past decade. Platform acquisitions are particularly targeted as opportunities for back-office efficiency and revenue growth – and to address pricing power imbalances with the ever-focused payers.

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By Nature, it’s the Channel (and a Leading Value Gen Lever)

By Mark Stein

The Target Co. is playing in a great space (e.g., strong tailwinds, right segment(s), etc.), has product(s) that attract valuable customers, the diligence indicates that the product line is differentiated, and the management team is presenting a very good, if not great, growth case. Unit economics are strong, and the IC can reasonably conclude that this might be a great opportunity. A nice find…

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COVID-19: How to Prepare a B2(B2)C Business for the ‘New Normal’

By Ania Camilla Dulnik

COVID-19 has, in just a few months, shaken and radically disrupted governments, economies and societies alike (even the publication of our GRAPH Papers was disrupted – but we are glad to be back at it).

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Dig into the Buzzwords…Early

By Phil Craig

Effective commercial diligence processes don’t boil the ocean - they focus on the most critical issues in a timely manner, and in an optimal order. One of the biggest barriers to doing so is the pitch’s use of buzzwords. I put together five examples of costly, non-obvious, buzzwords often presented by management and bankers - and my suggestions for what you should probe for early, in response…

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Avoiding Asymmetric Competitors in Technology Investing

By Jeff Merkle

In a recent conversation with a leading technology-focused sponsor, I was asked an interesting question: if [insert hyperscale technology company name] is getting into everything, then how do I know what’s safe? In this case, we were talking about Amazon, but the same could have applied to Microsoft, Google, Apple, Salesforce, Adobe, and more.

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Logo Inflation

By James Tetherton

In virtually every CIM and VDD doc that I read recently (for B2B business, at least), an early page highlights a set of corporate logos of the target company’s key customers. Logos for large, well-known businesses are great; logos for significant and “cool” customers – those that are recognized as movers and shakers – are expressed boldly to help create “lift.”

GRAPH Papers® Commercial Diligence Best Practices