MEC

Empowerment

Assessment

The Initial Assessment

1. The Client Dialogue

The first order of business is to spend time with the client, usually an investor or group of capitalizing partners, to understand the apparent needs and concerns, or objectives of the client to be accomplished. Our client may also be the president or manager of a business seeking a more focused plan of action to remedy certain problems already identified, in which case, Section 2 below, The Management Dialogue, would be a more applicable outline of specific topics and questions. Of course, the characteristcis of a large, public company are very different than the issues regarding a smaller, private firm, and the needs of a product manufacturing operation have little in common with the concerns of a software or technology developer or those of a service-based business. But, in every case, MEC begins the assessment process with the Client Dialogue to gain a clear understanding of the Client's perspective of a number of key areas. For the sake of example, we will use the Investor as the Client here to outline the general areas we would explore in this dialogue which might usually include (but are not necessarily limted to) the following topics:

  • The History of the business, from the Investor's perspective, including:
    • How the original business concept was presented,
    • How the investor became involved
    • How much was invested, and when
    • The suggested terms,
    • The Investor's expectations
    • Milestone projections and goals actually accomplished
    • What has actually taken place up to this present point in time
  • Current Status of the business
    • Trends that may be developing
    • Differences from initial expectations
    • Concerns with the present status
    • Strengths to be more capitalized upon
    • Weaknesses or areas needing improvement
    • Fears about the current direction of the company
    • Hunches of issues that may not be apparent
    • Personal opinions regarding the company
  • Future Potential of the Company
    • What he/she actually believes the company has
    • What is probably most needed to succeed
    • Possible scenarios for growth
    • Possible scenarios of demise and probable causes
    • Personal Ideas and strategies for optimization
  • Questions Investor would like to have answered
  • Objectives Investor would like to have accomplished by MEC

Assessment - Overview

The Initial Assessment

1. The Client Dialogue
2. The Management Dialogue
3. Technology Evaluation
4. The Financials
5. Contracts Review
6. Operations & Profitability
7. Marketing
8. Industry Relations
9. Investment Strategies
10. The Report

Optimization

NEXT: The Management Dialogue