Management Due Diligence

Are you considering a merger or acquisition? The security of your investment and likely return depend on the quality of due diligence audits that you carry out before taking the final decision.

OPS is a consultancy of chartered business psychologists whose specialist area is the identification of strengths and risks in acquiring or merging organisations. We work alongside your legal, financial, marketing and quality teams to provide a detailed review and analysis of the Management Due Diligence areas.

An OPS management audit gives you a systematic assessment of the strengths and likely derailers in a firm's top management, together with predictions as to the likely impact on your investment. If you plan to evaluate the risks of your investment, and so need to take advantage of these crucial aspects of Management Due Diligence, we will provide you with a personalised service at competitive rates.
As business psychologists, we at OPS are able to incorporate rigorous statistical comparisons and predictions, using world class research to determine the criteria for achieving maximum success in terms of profit and long term capital growth.

The way a business is managed has a fundamental impact on success and failure. A strong, committed management team with the skill to drive goals and inspire others is what every business needs.

Management audit is sometimes used as a catch-all phrase to include basic reference checks and an assessment interview, often conducted by an executive search specialist or management consultant. We have close relationships with high calibre individuals from both professions, but our clients have the benefit in addition of our world class professional team of chartered psychologists. All have many years of international experience at board level, and use a raft of cutting edge techniques and tools to assess would-be stellar players in the global marketplace. These are only available to qualified business psychologists giving you the security of a safe and growing ROI in the people and the businesses in which you are risking your capital.

Our expertise in the field makes us the partner of choice for private equity houses. Our exhaustive analysis finds the positives, the negatives, the intelligence and the information you need, equipping you to make strong commercial decisions with reduced risk and greater confidence  

The OPS management audit elements:

Leadership: Is there a cohesive, strong Board and management team?
• OPS use leading edge techniques to assess Board strengths, leadership pitfalls and the strategic capacity essential in safeguarding ROI
• We scrutinise their abilities, strategies and competencies against best practice models of management to identify their precise calibre

Resilience: How will current leaders react to change and future pressures?
• The OPS Derailers /Resilience gauge highlights areas of greatest risk
• This helps us predict individual and Board capacity to weather the high seas of mergers and acquisitions

Incoming Talent: How effectively will your key appointments increase your profits?
• Reference checking and skill set probes are still essential to success
• Track record and self report questionnaires are unreliable predictors of performance against profit. Our expert assessment team has a strong pedigree of cutting edge performance in developing and using superlative tools for assessing the leaders you are trusting to grow your investment

Change Management: This affects change /speeding up of a company’s growth trajectory
• OPS have the techniques to predict reliably whether the target company has these skills, and the expertise to provide guidance throughout the change cycle

Culture: What are the cultural and strategic elements of your investment target?
• Our cultural measures cover a vast range of differences, from country of origin to preferred strategic /leadership styles
• Identifying and addressing cultural pitfalls requires expertise in the methodology

Case study
OPS was invited to provide a management audit of a multinational and multicultural organisation based in Austria with a view to making fundamental changes to its Board and its financial structure. The audit covered organisational structure, power and influence; processes, procedures and guidelines; management of change; key values and leadership strengths and derailers, internal and external communications and future development. The final report on the process contained some tough recommendations but their implementation helped shape the future team and improved relationships between the Board and Chair as well as leading to measurably higher employee wellbeing

OPS Partnerships in Other Areas of Due Diligence

Legal: Are there any legal risks such as lawsuits, substantial regulatory non compliance, contractual burdens or corporate fraud? How is IP (intellectual property) protected?

Financial: What is the company’s overall debt burden and debt/equity ratio? What about availability of working capital?

Marketing: This should focus on the company’s marketing plan, the competition, and the potential for new competition to enter the market

Technical: What technical expertise, systems and processes exist in the company?

OPS has strong partnership arrangements with experts in law, quality processes and company finance to provide a complete audit for clients who want a one stop shop for the entire Due Diligence process.

Our guarantee to you
We take pride in meeting and exceeding our clients’ expectations. However, if you are not entirely happy with our service, we will guarantee to provide you with a further review without charge