Increasing Value Through Operations

Buyout firms create value by finding, assessing, and closing good opportunities and then working with management to make companies more valuable. In that light, we thought you might benefit from taking a look at some data reflecting where our clients have been active using our services. Here is a summary of ProAction’s 2007 business, highlighting the most common types of projects.

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Spotting Opportunities for New Products and Services

by Robert Sherlock and Chris Broxon
Reprinted from ACG Network Newsletter, October 2004

Does your company (or a portfolio company) need to develop new products or services to generate growth, but you aren’t sure how to go about doing it? We recommend a couple of proven methods. Market Back starts with taking a comprehensive look at target customers or groups of customers, probing for problems that they need solved, or other ways that they can be made better off. This is followed by organizing a creative effort to come up with ways that your company can make those customers’ businesses or daily lives better.

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Tips to improve your company: Protecting Profitability

Condensed summary of remarks to the annual meeting of National Association of Small Business Investment Companies (NASBIC), Palm Beach, Florida, October 17, 2006

Bob Sherlock, The ProAction Group, Chicago

Not long ago, we worked with a well-positioned, private equity-owned manufacturer whose innovative products had grown revenues significantly in the past few years. The company had been profitable until the prior year, when it ran into what management called “The Perfect Storm.” In the same year, they encountered three

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Logistics Challenges and Opportunities in 2007

2007 Logistics Trends

Private equity firms that invest in logistics businesses face some significant market challenges in 2007.

Following several strong years of conditions favoring logistics providers, several key segments of the logistics market are shifting to the buyers’ advantage in 2007. Demand is softening for many modes of transportation, following recent capacity increases. Furthermore, fuel prices continue to be a major cost for logistics providers and have not stabilized.

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