9 Ownership Transition Issues Specific to Contractors

All businesses face challenges with an ownership transition.

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There are nine interrelated issues that heavily impact contractors. 

Succession: 9 Ownership Transition Issues Specific to Contractors.

We will dive deeper into each of these over the next week:

  1. Strength and alignment of the management team (post-deal)
  1. Culture of the company - Is it prepared for an ownership succession and compatible with the new owner? Seems “soft” but is very “hard” and can destroy value quickly.  
  1. Key relationship continuity with employees, customers, and others.
  1. Financial partner alignment with banking, surety, and possibly insurance.  
  1. Cash generation capabilities.
  1. Asset vs. stock sale - who owns past liabilities, how are they quantified, and what is the tax implication?
  1. Sustainable growth strategy and plan to ensure value is created for all stakeholders.  
  1. Future direction of the construction industry and ensuring you are neither selling nor buying the equivalent of a horseshoe manufacturer and installer in 1900.  
  1. Extremely low barriers to entry for new contractors can easily create competitors out of unaligned stakeholder groups, which often destroys value.  

9 Ownership Transition Issues Specific to Contractors
Continue building value in your business, yourself and your key team members with a good succession strategy....

9 Ownership Transition Issues Specific to Contractors
Continue building value in your business, yourself and your key team members with a good succession strategy....

Cash Flow and the 5Cs of Credit - Capital
The 2nd of the 5Cs of Credit is how much capital you are putting at risk, along with your financial partner. Contractors should design and follow their own capital management policies appropriate for their business.
Discipline = Agility
Far too many construction teams believe that standard processes, routines, training and disciplined execution will stifle their creativity. It is quite the opposite and when you flip that switch in thinking it begins to unlock amazing performance.
Observe, Hypothesize, and Experiment
Contractors would run much better, including improved field productivity, if they applied the simple lesson we all learned around middle-school science class: Stop debating and start experimenting.