Analyse a company

CONSULTING METHODOLOGIES

You will frequently need to research a company, whether it is a potential partner, customer, supplier or competitor. Following this methodology will ensure you cover all angles.

I Executive Summary

[Summarise the facts that are most relevant to the purpose of this analysis]

II What do they do?

• Where do they compete?
  • Products/Services/Divisions?
  • Customers/Markets/Geographies?
  • Channels/Partners?
• What are their key numbers?
• What is their organisation?
  • What is their management structure? [Tool: Organisation chart]
  • What is their leadership background? [Tool: Bio on the CEO]
  • What is their culture?
  • Location of assets/offices?

III What is their strategy?

• Does this company have enduring purpose/values?
• What is their competitive advantage? [Tool: RPV Framework]
  • What are their core competences?
  • What advantaged assets do they control?
  • What is special about their organisation?
• How strong is their strategic position?
  • Value Proposition compared to competitors
  • Products/Markets/Segments strategic position, growth, share etc [Tool: BCG/GE Matrix]
  • Trends in market share, top line growth
• What is their strategic history?
  • What have been their major business development moves over the last 5 years? Were they successful? [Tool: M&A/JV/Alliance history]
  • How has their strategy changed over time? [Tool: Strategic Era Analysis]
• What are their current Strategic Initiatives?

III What are the financials of this company?

• Where do they make money? Portfolio by business, product, customer, channel
• What is their historic financial performance? [Tool: 5 year margin/cash/P&L trends] 
• What factors have driven their performance? [Tool: 5 year Profit Tree]
• How are they generating and using their cash? [Tool: 5 year Cashflow Source and Uses]
• Have they successfully created value? [Tool: Economic Value Added/Total Shareholder Return analysis]
• What major events have driven their shareprice? (Annotated shareprice history)
• How does their performance compare with their industry? [Tool: Benchmarking financial ratio analysis]
• What is their expected future financial performance? [Tool: Analyst Reports]

IV What is  their current top management agenda?

• What has been the most recent news over the last 12 months?
• What are their top 5 current issues?