Topic:  Why Good Companies Disappoint in Due Diligence: What CFOs Can Do Now to Strengthen Value, Reduce Transition Risk, and Build Strategic Options

Speakers: Lorraine McGregor, Founder, Spirit West Management, and Nick Anderson, CEO, OneAccord

Topic Overview:

Most CFOs know how to improve EBITDA. Fewer are encouraged to lead the broader conversations that determine whether those earnings will be seen as durable, transferable, and worth paying more for.
 

This session is not about selling a company tomorrow. It is about the CFO’s role in helping leadership teams build value before timing becomes a problem, whether the company is preparing for growth capital, acquisition, succession, ownership transition, or sale.

Good companies do not disappoint in due diligence because they lack effort or results. They disappoint because important risks, dependencies, and value drivers have not been made visible, transferable, or credible enough to withstand outside scrutiny. The numbers may look solid, but the business itself may be more dependent, less scalable, or less transferable than leadership realizes.

Nick Anderson of OneAccord and Lorraine McGregor of Spirit West Management bring two complementary sides of this challenge. Nick is focused on helping companies systemize and automate the collection, organization, and visibility of the information required to support due diligence well. Lorraine works with founders and C-suite teams on the value proposition, profit drivers, and strategic positioning that make a company more attractive for growth, investment, and sale. Together, they help leadership teams address both the business value that must be built and the discipline required to demonstrate it credibly when outside scrutiny begins.

Using practical examples and case-based discussion, this session will show CFOs how to help leadership teams:

- Strengthen the credibility of the company’s value story

- Identify issues that weaken buyer, investor, or successor confidence

- Reduce transition risk before it affects timing, valuation, or deal options

- Improve readiness through better cross-functional decisions

- Build a business that is not only profitable, but more investable, transferable, and resilient

Audience Takeaways: Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of why good companies can still underperform in due diligence, a practical view of the CFO’s role in building strategic value before a transaction is on the table, and a due diligence checklist and timeline to help assess and strengthen preparedness over time.

Speakers' bios:

Lorraine McGregor is a growth and valuation strategist and founder of Spirit West Management. She works with CEOs, CFOs, and private equity sponsors to improve gross margin, unlock hidden profit drivers, and build businesses that are valuable and saleable at all times.
 

Nick Anderson is CEO of OneAccord, a firm focused on helping founder-led companies unlock greater business value. At OneAccord, Nick brings both advisor and owner perspective to the work of building enterprise value and preparing a company for strategic opportunity. He is currently building OneAccord’s own due diligence data room as part of its investment readiness process, giving him direct, current insight into the discipline required to systemize information, improve visibility, and support a more credible diligence story. Nick draws on a 25-year career in financial services and is the author of Six-Word Lessons for Middle Managers and two additional books published in 2025 for executives, founders, and owners.