Chapter

1. Chapter 19 The Harvest and Beyond

2. Planning to Harvest? • 80% of tech business in 1980s had an “informal” harvest strategy, 15% had a harvest strategy in their business plan, and 5% had written a formal harvest plan after their business plan • Often founders don’t consider selling until experiencing some sort of panic about losing the business • This often leads to selling out at low valuations • Wiser to sell as a strategic window is opening rather than closing • Bernard Baruch “I made all my money by selling too early”

3. Harvest Strategy Guidelines • Patience • Ventures take at least 3 to 5 and as long as 7 to 10 years to build • Don’t panic and sell under duress • Realistic valuation • Don’t imagine your company is worth more than it is • Easy to delude yourself and hold out for the ‘better’ deal • Outside advice • Beware! Investment bankers and business brokers are like realtors – they want their commission • Often, a long term advisor is better placed to identify and time exits

4. Harvest Options • Six principle avenues • “Capital cow” • One highly successful venture throws out enough cash to start some new ventures for a serial entrepreneur • Employee stock ownership plan • The ESOP buys out the owner • Management buyout • Management buys out the founders (LBO or MBO) • In an LBO, debt has averaged about 60-70% of the purchase price • Why would someone lend you money to buy a business?

5. Harvest Options ctd. • Merger, acquisition, and strategic alliance • Strategic rationales for acquisitions • Issue of stock swaps versus cash • Outright sale • Seller financed transactions and earn outs may make it more attractive for buyers • Public offering • What’s so great about going public? • What actually happens? • How much does it cost? • About 7% of proceeds + fees and expenses

6. IPOs – pros and cons

7. IPO Performance 1990-2009 1990 110 10.8% 8.1% $0.34 billion $4.27 billion 1991 287 11.9% 9.7% $1.50 billion $15.36 billion 1992 412 10.3% 8.1% $1.82 billion $22.61 billion 1993 509 12.7% 11.3% $3.52 billion $31.28 billion 1994 404 9.8% 8.5% $1.47 billion $17.36 billion 1995 458 21.2% 14.5% $4.38 billion $30.16 billion 1996 675 17.2% 16.1% $6.80 billion $42.25 billion 1997 473 14.1% 14.4% $4.54 billion $31.58 billion 1998 284 21.7% 15.5% $5.25 billion $33.80 billion 1999 477 70.9% 57.0% $36.94 billion $64.79 billion 2000 381 56.3% 45.6% $29.69 billion $65.07 billion 2001 79 14.2% 8.7% $2.97 billion $34.24 billion 2002 66 9.1% 5.1% $1.13 billion $22.03 billion 2003 62 12.1% 10.5% $1.00 billion $9.53 billion 2004 174 12.3% 12.2% $3.86 billion $31.53 billion 2005 160 10.2% 9.3% $2.64 billion $28.27 billion 2006 157 12.1% 13.0% $3.95 billion $30.48 billion 2007 160 13.9% 13.9% $4.95 billion $35.69 billion 2008 21 6.4% 24.8% $5.65 billion $22.76 billion 2009 41 9.8% 11.1% $1.46 billion $13.17 billion Source: http://bear.warrington.ufl.edu/ritter/IPOs2009Factoids.pdf Year No. 1st Day Return Left on Table Amount Raised equalweighted

8. CONSULTING SKILLS RELATIONSHIPS & RESISTANCE

9. Resistance (Block) • Resistance is inherent in the consulting process (Why?) • To deal with it, you need to: • Identify when it is taking place • View resistance as a natural process • Support the client in expressing the resistance directly • Not take it personally

10. Handling resistance • The steps: • Identify the form the resistance is taking • Name the resistance in a neutral non-punishing way • Be quiet, let the client respond • Give two good faith responses to every question • The third time a question is asked, interpret it as a form of resistance

11. Forms of resistance • Details – give me more, or flood you with details • Time – no time to meet, interruptions, delaying implementation • Impracticality: • Your solution is impractical, they live in the Realworld™ • OR I already knew this stuff, I’m not surprised

12. Other forms of resistance • Verbal (or physical) attacks, incl. shoot the messenger • Ongoing confusion as to results or next step • Silence • Intellectualizing …these results suggest a theory… • Moralizing…this wouldn’t be a problem if “those people” were doing their job • Vicious compliance • Flight into health – things are better, we don’t need this solution anymore • NOTE – everything serves as a reason not to ACT.

13. Why resist? • “Resistance is discomfort that is expressed indirectly” • Difficult realities involve painful problems that seem to require painful solutions • Address the two underlying causes: • Control • Control is valued very highly in organizations, people dislike losing control/authority • Vulnerability • The client might be scared of being hurt – personal interests – financially, politically • Sometimes it is not resistance • “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar” – Freud

14. Weiss on Change/Resistance • Define the current state • Define the future state • Determine key sponsors and implementers • Adjust feedback and rewards to support desired change • Review progress against metrics with management • Establishing accountabilities in the most critical step • Change comes from enlightened self interest • Key people must be actively engaged on behalf of your plans • The more time you take with critical sponsors the better

15. Overcoming Resistance • Once accountabilities are in place (in writing), you can call someone out if they don’t deliver • use specific facts – “he missed his system implementation deadline by 30 days”, not “he’s sabotaging the implementation” • If they are not critical to implementation, bypass them • Conflicting priorities – get the buyer to clarify priorities in a meeting, bide your time if something is more serious • Something goes wrong – see if it is real or perceived, don’t find blame find cause so people will help you find a solution

16. CONSULTING TECHNIQUES MARKETING