Financial statements can tell you if a business is profitable, but they can't tell you if it's healthy. At Adduco, we believe that the most critical risks—and the greatest opportunities—are found not in the ledger, but in the lunchroom.
Culture as a Leading Indicator
A toxic culture is a liability that doesn't show up on the balance sheet until it's too late. High turnover, siloed communication, and lack of psychological safety are precursors to operational failure. Conversely, a culture of trust and accountability is a leading indicator of long-term resilience.
During our due diligence process, we spend as much time with people as we do with data. We look for:
- Founder Dependency: Can the business function without the owner's daily intervention? If not, we aren't buying a business; we're buying a job.
- Employee Tenure: Long tenure suggests fair treatment and a positive environment. It also means deep institutional memory.
- Customer Relationships: Do customers buy from the company because of a contract, or because they genuinely like and trust the people they deal with?
Preserving the Soul of the Business
Many acquisitions fail because the buyer destroys the very thing that made the company successful in the first place. They impose rigid corporate structures on a flexible, family-run operation. They replace personal relationships with automated systems.
Our goal is to professionalize, not sterilize. We bring resources and best practices, but we are careful to preserve the "soul" of the business—the unique quirks and values that define its identity.