We asked our employees, “What are you most thankful for in 2020?”
2020 has been a strange and challenging year, to say the least. This will no doubt be a very different Thanksgiving for a lot of people, with COVID restricting many of the large gatherings that usually mark the holiday and putting traditions on hold.
But in spite of 2020’s constant barrage of public health crises, business closures, political turmoil, civil unrest and economic uncertainty – people have found many reasons to be thankful. One could even argue, with all the high drama in the world, it’s brought gratitude to the forefront more than ever before.
For this year’s Thanksgiving blog, we decided to reach out to our people at EBM Software and MGMT3D with one question, “What are you most thankful for this year?”
“Above all else, I’m happy that my family and friends have been able to stay healthy, and I’m crossing my fingers that this continues. Secondly, I’m extremely grateful that our businesses are doing well and our team has been able to adjust to working remotely – when you see what has happened in other industries, it makes you feel incredibly lucky.”
– Dave Hanson, Senior Content & Engagement Manager
“2020 is certainly not cliché, but this year I find myself most thankful for the ‘cliché’ healthy/happy family and fulfilling career, more than ever. Together, they have allowed us to stay positive in the chaos of 2020.”
-Michael Steward, Vice President of Operations
“I’m thankful for my quarantine crew at home, my colleagues who stay positive, and the technology that enables us to keep on.”
-Emily Popp, Director of Organizational Effectiveness
“I’m thankful that our office has been able to stay safe for the most part from COVID, that in just 4 short weeks hopefully Cowboy Slims will open back up for wings and happy hour, and that after all of 2020’s craziness, we still have the best company culture in the world.”
-Tim Turensek, Staff Accountant
“I’m just incredibly grateful for a healthy and safe family.”
-Jessica Wink, Graphic Designer
“Ah, 2020. Hard to find bright spots at first glance, but I am actually grateful for this year in many ways. Top of mind: I’m very thankful for the opportunity to engage with new colleagues and develop great, meaningful relationships, despite the pandemic, social unrest, politics… I realize how much I was taking for granted pre-COVID, and now I realize what a gift each and every interaction is, virtual or physical, near or far. I’m very grateful for what we’ve all been able to preserve, despite the extraordinary challenges we’ve collectively faced this year. And I’m outrageously grateful for this year almost being over!”
– Julee Sung, Marketing Strategist
“I’m most thankful that my family is safe and healthy.”
-David Rodgers, Development Manager
“I’m thankful for healthy family and friends and feel fortunate to have a job that challenges me to grow every day.”
-Bennett Celichowski, Senior Financial Analyst
“Given the year, I am most thankful for my family’s good health (knock on wood).”
-Mary O’Neil, Director of FP&A Solutions
“I am most thankful for all of the people in my life (family, friends, coworkers), Cowboy Jack’s boneless wings, free guac coupons at Chipotle, and Rainforest Café’s margaritas. I am also thankful for the culture we have at MGMT3D.”
-Ryan Peterson, Financial Analyst
“Health and life.”
-Kevin Franck, VP of Application Development
“This year more than ever, I’m thankful my family is healthy!”
-Char Holmberg, Accounting Manager
“While COVID has brought on so many challenges for so many people it has brought my children home and together again. Kierstyn moved out and had her own apartment in Chicago. I never anticipated having both of my kids back together under the same roof again. Even with things shut down, I am so thankful for all the fun/laughing conversations we have had on my bed, making our own TikToks, raising our puppies, cooking together, movie nights, playing games, and more! It has been really wonderful and something very special!”
-Emily Callahan, SVP of Marketing and Operations
We want to extend a big ‘thank you’ to all of our clients and partners this Thanksgiving for another great year. May you have a happy and safe holiday weekend.
What are you most thankful for this year? We’d love to hear from you. Let us know on LinkedIn, and join the conversation!
Faster Diligence Prep
Tech-Enabled M&A, in its simplest form, combines people, processes and systems to get deeper diligence faster. The Diligent® next-gen analytics software is connected directly to the seller’s systems and dynamic data books are built with QofE-ready financials and sales analytics.
One great advantage of Tech-Enabled M&A is that these processes are easily repeatable inside the Diligent software, so every month when the company closes its books, all the schedules can be updated in a matter of minutes.
By using software automation to do the majority of the heavy lifting from a grunt work standpoint, your junior bankers are freed from time-consuming tasks like performing manual tie-outs and updating schedules. This allows them to focus on value generating activities like preparing clear, high-quality analysis for the deck or Q&A.
Field Buyer Q&A Better and Faster
Buyers today are looking to get deeper inside their acquisitions than ever before. They want the specifics, the trends, the profitability – they want to know exactly what they are getting. In many cases, Excel just isn’t equipped to handle it. The depth and variety of questions can make fielding buyer Q&A slow and clunky at times, and as a result, buyers will inevitably drop out of the running.
The Diligent software helps in a couple of key ways here. For one, the data is structured to be easy to query and analyze. Once the data is in the system, Diligent allows you to do much more than pull reports and basic analysis. It lets you quickly and easily query any data you have, and marry up multiple disparate data sets for sophisticated analysis that helps you and your buyers gain a deeper insight into the business.
Two, Diligent is purpose-built to allow an unlimited number of data points to be used, which in turn, allows for analysis that is impossible in Excel, such as analysis on profitability, point-of-sale data, Big Data, etc. If your buyer can think up a question, Diligent can answer it. This speed and flexibility ultimately allows you to take more buyers deeper into the process and generate more competitive tension that drives higher sales multiples.
Tell A Better Story with the Data
On the other side of the equation, Tech-Enabled M&A also allows you to be proactive in telling your story, not just reactive. In addition to being able to perform complex analysis on any aspect of the seller’s data and stitch together disparate data sets into a clean narrative, Diligent offers a brilliant suite of dashboards and visualization tools with embedded Microsoft Power BI.
With Tech-Enabled M&A you’re able to elegantly show models that visualize how the business works, rather than trying to work your way through a cumbersome and complex story. People will very rarely buy something they don’t understand. With Tech-Enabled M&A, your pitch will be more simple, straightforward and concise – easing your path to the sale and making it a more attractive package that keeps more buyers interested.
Triage Before Going to Market
One final and very important way Tech-Enabled M&A helps you drive greater deal value is through the immediate visibility it provides for you, as the seller. There’s nothing worse than watching a deal die when you’re deep into the process.
Problems that can kill the value of your deals (or even kill the deals altogether) often sit well below the surface. When the data is cumbersome and complex, deals can break down and die on the vine. With Tech-Enabled M&A, you can quickly triage and fix potential issues before you even go to market.
With the Diligent software, you’re looking at clean data, and it’s easy to slice, dice and drill down to get to the root of a problem and recommend a fix before it can damage the value of the sale. That insurance alone is worth the price of entry.
With so much uncertainty, sellers will need to work hard to drive maximum deal values as private markets open back up to the idea of traditional buyouts. Fortunately, Tech-Enabled M&A helps sell-side operators give the buy side more of what they want, with less heavy lifting. As we move on to the next chapter, looking deeper into Tech-Enabled M&A is a smart approach for those looking to drive the highest possible deal value.
How are you seeing buy-side requirements changing? How quickly do you think private markets will rebound from their current lull? We’d love to hear what you think. Sound off on social media now and join the conversation.