What really makes a company tick? And more importantly, what makes it worth more? At this year’s Pittsburgh Smart Business Dealmakers Conference, a group of regional executives and investors dissect the art, and science, of creating serious company value. From scaling strategies that turn small wins into big exits, to the nuanced dance of acquisitions and sales, panelists John Lewis and Christopher Brodman of Metz Lewis Brodman Must O’Keefe, Rob Carskadden of 3 Rivers Capital, George Pilafas of Continuim Equity Partners and Patrick Patterson of Level Agency pull back the curtain on what drives growth in today’s deal-driven market. Here's an excerpt:
“When I think about value, it's all about growth and risk. Take a lower-middle-market company that's had a good track record of growth, that's well positioned to continue to grow, and that's done a decent job of identifying and mitigating the risk in its business, and I'll show you a company that is going to be among the most highly valued companies in its peer group,” says Christopher Brodman, president and founding member of Metz Lewis Brodman Must O’Keefe LLC. “I'll also show you a company that is the company that you want to own. Some people I talk to about this and they'll say, ‘Well, I'm not a seller,’ or, ‘I don't care about the enterprise value.’ It's a better company. It's got better long-term profitability prospects. It's more sustainable. It's more stable. And probably has a better culture. Everything's about culture, we all know that. Well, if you're running a company and you've positioned it to be a high-growth, low-risk business, that doesn't happen without being intentional about it. And people see that. They see that this thing is being run well, and people want to be associated with a winner. They want to be associated with something that's going places in the right way. So, I always tell my clients — business owners — I always urge them to critically examine their business through this growth and risk lens and then build the business from there.”
