Goals of taking a company private

The cousin to window dressing is intentional distressing a business in order to take the company private and out of disinterested or hostile shareholders.  The motive here might be to actually do the opposite of good management!  Senior managers might actually want to depress sales, temper profitability, etc., in order to make the attractiveness of further involvement by investors untenable – or at least distasteful.

No, this doesn’t make sense from a practical standpoint and we can theorize or hypothesize over the moral soundness of this practice.  However, so long as the management adheres to otherwise sound and legal business practices this is just part of the game of getting the lowest price possible to take it private.

What does this means for marketers?  Don’t assume that your marketing programs should be directed at any goals not explicitly outlined by senior management.  You may be thinking you’re doing a great job trying to increase new sales revenue when management is trying to window dress the company for a sale that is far more dependent on profitability of current customers – not new sales revenue!  Don’t try to outguess the senior management – involve them to ensure you are going in the right strategic direction in their opinion!