AMA: I'm Darren Smith and I've just implemented a business succession plan, Ask Me Anything!

alex.burke  you are spot on in that you need to spend time understanding the various characteristics of any transaction. As we were selling the whole business we needed to ensure that cultural alignment was high as were passing over guardianship of 1400 plus clients and 30 plus team members... Given our strong connection with the purchaser over an 8 year period and involving some of their leadership team on our board by invitation we were well placed to assess this alignment. You dont always get this luxury in an external sale event as it is time pressured.  The more tangible factors were financial capacity, and operational capacity to integrate the business.