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Know-your-investee due diligence

How well do you know the team you’re investing in? 

If you are an institutional investor in private equity, being able to size up the fund management team accurately during your due diligence is the foundation for your investment decision-making process and a critical driver of generating attractive returns later on. 

 

If you are a venture capitalist or angel investor, deeply understanding the start-up team you will work with and whose fortunes you are tying yourself to with a sizable financial commitment is essential. 

 

If you are a corporation acquiring another firm, gauging the qualities of the existing leadership team allows you to make decisions about the composition of the future team that will make or break the acquisition. 

 

It may make the difference between success or failure, between profit or loss, between an attractive return on investment or a write-off, between a fruitful working relationship or endless conflict. 

There are two ways investors can get to know the teams leading their possible investees, whether it is a private equity fund, venture capital fund, start-up, or corporate acquisition target: 

 

Spend 24 hours a day with them for an extended period, observe them in all manner of circumstances, including in their office, during presentations, in social settings, on your boat or golf course, with their families, friends and colleagues, during ordinary course of business and at times of stress. ​

Qualify them through the HBM Investee Team Evaluation™ and know within 24 hours whether you should be working with them or not, or what areas of your relationship require special attention. 

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Introducing: the HBM Investee Team Evaluation™ 

Through our proprietary methodology we provide you with insights into ten characteristics of successful investee team members: 

 

  1. Strong business builder and entrepreneurial mindset 

  2. Ability to think strategically 

  3. Ability to execute 

  4. Strong team builder  

  5. Strong people-centric leader 

  6. Detail-oriented, balancing against the bigger picture 

  7. Astute decision maker 

  8. Highly competent negotiator in different settings and cultures 

  9. Highly compelling communicator, especially including any bad news 

  10. Strong sense of long-term stewardship of the business and your money 

 

In addition, investors can customize the weighting given to categories 1-10, so you receive both the normalized and your customized score. 

 

Investors also receive qualitative guidance about the investee team's: 

 

  1. Strengths 

  2. Areas of weakness 

  3. Areas of potential conflict 

Get started today

1

You invite your investee team to take part in the program as part of your due diligence process 

2

Team members take the market-proven Gallup CliftonStrengths® online assessment, which takes 20 minutes of their time

3

We provide you with a proprietary dossier with a qualitative and quantitative assessment of each team member, and the team as a whole. Team members are not interviewed by us. 

NEXT

You will know within 24 hours whether you really want to invest in that team – or not. 

 

It also reveals grey areas, so you might still decide to invest with no illusions about the weaknesses of the team, to understand where more nurturing and guidance will be required, and where shortcomings need to be augmented with additional hires. 

 

Have you already made the investment? The HBM Investee Team Evaluation™ still allows you to make, or ask for, changes to teams on an informed basis.  

  • How is the HBM Investee Team Evaluation™ different from a regular CliftonStrengths® assessment?
    Gallup CliftonStrengths® is a market-proven psychometric assessment with a strong multi-decade track record. It is primarily used for personal development and career coaching. The HBM Investee Team Evaluation™ translates it in a new, proprietary way through the lens of experienced institutional investors. It is finely tuned to provide stunningly accurate and predictive insights into the likely conduct of the individuals and teams that you invest in.
  • What am I going to receive?
    The HBM Investee Team Evaluation™ includes a report containing: A graphic overview of the team’s strengths and gaps Summary of the team’s strengths, from the perspective of investors Summary of the team’s weaknesses, from the perspective of investors Summary of the team’s blind spots, and what remedial action might be required Depending on specific weightings you provide, an adjusted report on the above three elements Individual report on each team members strengths, weaknesses and blind spots in accordance with our proprietary evaluation
  • We already know our investees
    Most people think they are good at sizing people up. They think they are good at reading them, making a judgment call. And it's true that some people have a special knack for understanding the unique characteristics and personality traits of people they meet. But not everybody does, and while this ability is clearly valuable in personal relationships, it is essential in business relationships – especially where your or your organization’s money is involved, and a fiduciary duty comes into play. The HBM Investee Team Evaluation™ makes the intangible tangible, the subjective objective, it gives you, the investor, the ability to communicate clearly to your board or investment committee the relative strengths of a team, as well as areas that need to be watched or remedied. Moreover, making the HBM Investee Team Evaluation™ an integral part of your due diligence process allows you to compare different teams in your investment portfolio using objective measures, and over time allows you to correlate certain team qualities to top-quartile or top-decile investment success.
  • What can I do with the HBM Investee Team Evaluation™?
    You can use the HBM Investee Team Evaluation™ in five ways: Receive: It is sent to you – not the team you are evaluating Resolve: You can decide whether to invest in the team or not Refine: You can have a granular, honest conversation with the investee team about your expectations, where potential shortfalls are, and what strengths they need to apply to meet them. This conversation can be conducted by you in private, or expertly facilitated by us Remediate: During your annual investment review the HBM Investee Team Evaluation™ helps you measure the team’s progress, with remedial action taken where required Revise: The Evaluation can be updated as existing team members leave and new members join
  • Has this been done before?
    Psychological evaluations of various kinds are of course not uncommon in hiring senior professionals. However, the use of psychometric evaluations of teams and individuals within teams in the investment management industry, as part of the pre-investment due diligence toolkit, is less common because they tended to be expensive, cumbersome to interpret, and required expertise in investing beyond the realm of psychologists. In contrast, the HBM Investee Team Evaluation™ is fast, easy, objective, cost-effective, and spot on. About the facilitators Facilitated by: Robert van Zwieten, immediate past CEO & President of the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (now known as the Global Private Capital Association), the global industry association for private capital investors in emerging markets, and a former Director at Asian Development Bank responsible for its USD 1 billion portfolio of private equity fund investments; and Mark Laudi, CEO of Hong Bao Media, a Gallup-certified Advanced CliftonStrengths coach, and former CNBC television anchor
Robert van Zwieten
Robert van Zwieten, immediate past President & CEO of the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (now known as the Global Private Capital Association), the global industry association for private capital investors in emerging markets, and a former Director at Asian Development Bank responsible for its USD 1 billion portfolio of private equity fund investments; and 
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Mark Laudi, CEO of Hong Bao Media, a Gallup-certified Advanced CliftonStrengths® coach, and former CNBC television anchor 
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Contact Us

For further information:

Mark Laudi

mark.laudi@hongbaomedia.com

(+65) 9017 3534

138 Robinson Road

#21-02 Oxley Tower

Singapore 068906

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