Acquisition Workshop Learnings

Hello friends, I’ve just returned from the Acquisition.com workshop and have had a few days to reflect on what I’ve learned. It was enlightening to get an external perspective on my business, and I’m excited to share some insights with you.

Do Our Goals Influence How We Approach Our Business?

During the workshop, Neil, the head of Business Strategy, posed a thought-provoking question: if you intend to sell your business or operate it indefinitely, would that influence how you build it? The audience was divided on this. Neil discussed how building a business with a sale in mind often involves strategies to maximize its valuation in the final sale year. However, he emphasized that the principles of building a strong business apply regardless of our intentions. Interestingly, he mentioned that once a business is structured to be saleable, the owner may decide to keep it due to the satisfaction it brings, much like renovating a home.

What Defines a Good Business CEO?

Next, Neil focused on the qualities of an effective CEO. We discussed honesty, transparency, empathy, and visionary leadership as crucial traits. However, Neil highlighted a consensus among sources like Harvard Business Review, Forbes, and McKinsey: the most critical role of a CEO is effective resource allocation. This involves making strategic decisions on where to allocate time, money, effort, and personnel. Understanding which problem to tackle first can exponentially benefit the business.

Neil shared two illustrative examples:

1. The Misguided Solution: A team member spent four hours a week manually entering data into a CRM. While automating this task would save time, the cost of $70k, a week of developer's time, and a payback period of ten years made it an inefficient solution. This example demonstrated poor problem selection and solution mismatch.

2. The Correct Problem, Wrong Approach: In another case, a company recognized the need to expand its sales force. The sales director was tasked with increasing headcount, but progress was slow. It was later discovered that HR was not scheduling enough interviews. Once this was addressed, the sales team expanded rapidly, leading to a threefold increase in revenue.

Reflections on My Own Experience

This workshop made me reflect on my own business decisions. At my dental office, we have a basic but functional system for managing supplies. I once considered developing an advanced automated system involving developers and new technologies. However, I realized that the current system, requiring just 20 minutes a week, was not worth overhauling at great expense. This was not the right problem to solve.

Another situation involved a decline in patient treatment acceptance rates. Initially, I focused on training our doctors in better patient interaction techniques. When this didn't work, a personal experience revealed that the issue was actually the unfriendly demeanor of our front desk staff. Correcting this quickly turned our numbers around.

Conclusion

The lessons from the workshop are clear: identifying the right problems, solving them effectively, and smart resource allocation are more crucial than ever. These insights have changed the way I approach business challenges. If you've ever invested resources in solving the wrong problems or misjudged the right solutions, know that you're not alone.

I hope this article inspires and helps you, just as the workshop did for me. Feel free to pass it along to someone who might benefit from these insights. Thank you!