Diligence should not just confirm the downside.
It should clearly define the upside.
That is where I focus.
Traditional diligence is built to confirm assumptions and identify downside risk. That is necessary — but it is not sufficient for a deal team that wants to underwrite value creation with conviction.
Traditional diligence focuses on
What it often misses
My focus during diligence is not just what the business is delivering today. It is what it could deliver under disciplined execution — and how quickly. That judgement comes from 25 years of P&L accountability in industrial businesses, not from a financial model.
Pricing Architecture Gaps
Customer-level margin analysis that reveals where pricing discipline has broken down — and what recovery is achievable.
SKU Complexity
Product tail analysis identifying where margin is being diluted by complexity — and the inventory release available from rationalisation.
Branch Inconsistency
Performance variance across sites that signals structural execution problems — not market conditions.
Operating Cadence
Management systems, reporting discipline and decision rights — and whether the business can execute consistently at scale.
Most deal teams see the business as it is.
I focus on what it becomes after intervention.
I embed with the deal team during diligence — assessing the operational reality of the business from the inside. Site visits, management interviews, commercial data and operational systems. Not a desktop review.
Outcome 01
Underwrite value creation with confidence
Specific, quantified upside — not generic assumptions. EBITDA improvement modelled from operational reality, not from comparable transactions.
Outcome 02
Move faster with operational conviction
Judgment on execution risk and management capability that accelerates IC decision-making with clarity, not just comfort.
Outcome 03
Identify risks others miss
Operational issues that don't appear in financial models — branch inconsistency, pricing fragility, management dependency — assessed from the inside.
Outcome 04
Build a clearer post-acquisition plan
A 100-day operating plan grounded in diligence findings — not built after close. The value creation thesis defined before the deal is signed.
Work Together
30-minute call. Scott will tell you directly whether the engagement makes sense and what it would look like.
Discuss a Deal →Related thinking: the five operational risks that kill deals quietly and pricing as the fastest EBITDA lever and why commercial forecasting fails in industrial businesses.
Applied during commercial due diligence to stress-test management assumptions on pricing and margin — turning theory into applied, quantified capability.