Today’s going to be a short entry, as I’m trying out the concept of sharing in near real-time any relevant materials and quotes which I stumble upon in my day-to-day activities.
This one is from “Post Capitalist Society” by Peter Drucker, the great management thinker. It goes as follows: “In knowledge work…the task is not given; it has to be determined. What are the expected results from this work ? (…) And it is a question that demands risky decisions. There is usually no right answer, there are choices instead.”
This very quote dramatically applies to strategic due diligence. Especially the part about the risky decisions. Because a key component of due diligence is the proper selection of areas in which to “go deep” (hence my blog’s title, deep diligence). This is necessary because in a due diligence assignment, you neither have the time nor the resources to fully explore all potential areas of concern. A bit like an upstream oil company, exploratory drilling choices have to be made. And these choices are key to the outcome.
As I once heard a management consultant tell me during the fact-gathering phase of an assignment, “we don’t have time to boil the ocean”.