Rock Pine Partners
From Uncertainty to Clarity: A Company Makes Their Intellectual Property Payoff in a Big Way
Who
Benefits, Insurance and Risk Management Company
Why
The company had experienced significant growth and success, but appeared to be massively undervaluing and not capitalizing on some key assets and intellectual property they had purchased or developed. Many were not even on the books or siloed in departments. They needed to understand what was valuable, a risk or issue, and how best to maximize and exploit asset value and minimize or eliminate those assets not producing value or creating risk.
How
We separated the project into two main problems:
What is the universe of company assets and IP?
How could the company best optimize or de-risk IP and assets to their benefit?
The team rolled up their shirt sleeves and dove deep into the business to locate, document (inventory), categorize and learn about all significant business processes, intellectual property (IP), business, and technology assets.
Each item was classified into groupings and attributes (30+). These included the type of asset, tangible or intangible, investment type (capex, opex), useful life remaining, variable or fixed cost, annual maintenance and support cost, useful life remaining, licensing term, business value, users (internal and external), business process association, dependencies (operations, revenue generation), location, business owner, compliance requirements and status, marketplace alternatives, etc.
This provided a clear answer to problem one. The client now knew the complete company universe of assets and IP.
To solve problem number two and help the company optimize or de-risk IP and assets to their benefit, the problem was disaggregated following a mutually exclusive (ME) and collectively exhaustive (CE) logic tree approach into several sub-problems. Highlighted examples of high-level branches included:
What assets increase or decrease the overall company value (book value and market value)?
What assets could drive an increase in net income?
What assets could drive an increase in revenue?
What assets could drive a cost reduction?
What asset is a risk?
What is the potential impact of the risk?
Does the risk require immediate action?
Results
The final executive presentation demonstrated significant previously unrealized IP and asset value, making numerous positive bottom-line and risk mitigation recommendations. All of this was supported by prioritized actions the company could execute to meet its goals.
Designed as a living process that the company could maintain, the framework and many recommendations helped it grow and establish itself as the market leader and an attractive acquisition.
Later, when acquired, the inventory and detailed attributes significantly reduced and expedited the due diligence period and ensured all assets and IP were fully accounted for and communicated to maximize purchase value.
Post-acquisition and merger, the results of this solution helped expedite and served as a foundational framework and tool for post-merger integration, consolidation, and execution.