As already mentioned, there are often non-financial considerations to valuing a company. A scoreboard that balances financial and non-financial measures can be used to help manage a company and also help us value one. Non-financial measures might include:
- Health, safety and environment - many companies have policies relating to these factors and would seek an acquisition that might enhance their position in these areas. This could include accident rates, environmental impact and energy usage.
- Production measures - these will vary from one industry to another but might include production efficiencies, output per worker, waste levels and how up to date the production processes are.
- Intellectual property - the potential value of patents, trademarks and brands.
- Employees - the skills, motivation, satisfaction levels, productivity and loyalty of the people who work in the company.
- Marketing - geographical coverage, customer satisfaction and loyalty, market share and potential fit with existing activities have a value that can be different for different purchasers. The outlook for future growth might lead to an expectation of a better performance in the future, as could the rate of product and process innovation, and percentage of sales from new products.
- Strategic fit - difficult to quantify, and used to justify high acquisition costs! Companies will also claim to be able to gain synergies and cost savings through merging the two organisations.
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