This article is brought to you by Grant Thornton LLP. It appears in full in the May/June 2016 issue of Middle Market Growth.
WHY DID IT MAKE SENSE FOR YOU TO JOIN GRANT THORNTON?
Brian Pitera: Grant Thornton’s acquisition of Blossom Growth Partners is in line with the firm’s strategy to provide clients a holistic approach through the entire transaction life cycle, including performance improvement. The Grant Thornton platform will allow us to scale our capabilities with the use of the firm’s 6,000 resources across the United States. And it makes perfect sense for Grant Thornton to expand its offering of performance-improvement solutions to existing and potential clients. We don’t tell clients what can happen with a business. We take them through what should happen and help them implement change. My team and I—who remain focused on value acceleration—are excited to have joined Grant Thornton.
HOW DOES YOUR TEAM HELP OWNERS CREATE VALUE?
BP: A transaction shouldn’t focus on where a company is today, but on how it can grow and what it can be in the future. At Grant Thornton we work with the owner and management team to help the business reach its full potential. It’s also important to note that everyone on our team has had a career on the company side, working within management and the executive team. We have all walked in management’s shoes.
We look for opportunities to drive quick wins and longer-term plays. Even the best management teams sometimes have a hard time stepping back from the day to day to assess the bigger picture, and they often begin to accept inefficiencies within the company. At Grant Thornton we have the ability to look at the company with a fresh perspective, correct inefficiencies, help the company run better and create new opportunities to add value.
Brian Pitera is a principal in Grant Thornton’s transaction services group. He focuses on operating services performance improvement and buy- and sell-side operations diligence.
