We were invited to train a cross-functional team in Due Diligence Methodology and Skills.
Our client was a global telecom service provider with over 1200 employees locally and more than 150,000 employees globally.
Challenge
The client was preparing to perform a due-diligence evaluation of another company before entering into a performance-based managed services contract. The pre-contract verification team was required to assess every aspect of the target company’s operations to set a base line against which the performance improvements would be measured. They realized that this would be quite difficult, especially without the complete cooperation of the target company’s staff, which was not guaranteed. Various methods of verification and evaluation were planned, but the client’s verification team had no experience doing such work and no documented due diligence methodology. The project had a very aggressive timeline. This highly sensitive type of investigation requires excellent soft skills in order to uncover the true situation in the target company.
Solution:
The Innova Solutions team met with the client’s contract verification team to determine what assets they had and what were missing. The solution ultimately included a training program on data collection and verification, an onsite consultant to work with the verification project team, and complete procedural documentation.
Due Diligence Methodology and Skills (Training Program)
- General Procedure for Conducting Due Diligence Investigations.
- Planning and Preparing.
- Data Collection Methods:
- Preliminary Verification.
- Document Analysis.
- Observation.
- Meetings, Focus Groups.
- Face to Face Interviews.
- Telephone Interviews.
- Surveys (questionnaires, checklists, etc.).
- Data Collection and Verification Tools.
- Documentation and Analysis Procedures.
- Data Quality Verification Procedures.
In-sourcing
The consultant wrote complete procedural documents for conducting this type of evaluation. These procedural documents have become valuable assets for the client company. Interviewing, focus group and job shadowing workflow guides were also produced to support the team during execution.
Performance Support
The consultant wrote complete procedural documents for conducting this type of evaluation. These procedural documents have become valuable assets for the client company. Interviewing, focus group and job shadowing workflow guides were also produced to support the team during execution.
Results
The planning stages of the project proceeded smoothly as a result of having an experienced consultant on site, working with the PMT (project management team).
The verification team was able to quickly ramp up their activities as a result of the clarity of the project plan.
The verification team was able to plan and execute their work with confidence as a result of the training, documentation, and performance support tools.
Conclusion (and Lessons Learned)
Urgent projects executed by short-staffed and inexperienced teams are extremely high risk. Bringing on board experienced consultants early, before things start to go wrong, is the best way to avoid trouble.
The best learning and development solutions are holistic in nature – this means long duration, starting from the planning stages and wrapping up as the project is closed down. And they work best when they provide multiple levels of support – training, on-site expertise, documentation, and performance support tools.