Effective diligence begins either with companies or advisors — or preferably both — who are familiar with the industry or actual business being invested in. A thorough understanding of the revenue sources, legal and business risks and key stakeholders is tremendously important to the short and long term success of the deal.
Great diligence focuses on providing client decision makers with highly usable information and not catalogs of unnecessary data. Generally, for each deal there are ten to fifteen issues that are extremely critical. An effective reviewer of diligence will deliver a practical and useful analysis of these key issues together with a broader summary of peripheral issues. Providing quality due diligence depends on possessing knowledge of the specific business and the industry, and an ability to effectively focus resources on the pertinent issues.
For a discussion of the seven key rules of diligence, download Effective Diligence in Health Care Transactions — Core Challenges and Key Steps (PDF).
