Whitepaper: optimising business results
Forvis Mazars has helped medium-sized enterprises attain their growth objectives for years, addressing the question of what the drivers for this key market segment are. To obtain a better insight, we analysed the financial data of 72,000 EU-based medium-sized enterprises over a four-year period.
Our main findings:
In this study, we looked at both the business model of these enterprises as well as four key performance indicators (KPIs) that determined their long-term viability and shareholder value: profitability, rate of return, liquidity position and solvency.
- There were considerable differences in performance between EU-based medium-sized enterprises, as well as between the enterprises with the best and worst performance.
- The liquidity position of most medium-sized enterprises – even of the ones that performed best – was extremely low.
- An enterprise’s performance is affected to a significant degree by its business model and market position.
- An enterprise’s performance can be significantly improved even in just four years. Nearly half of the enterprises that performed the worst shot up one or two performance levels in the course of the four-year study period.
This is indicative of two things. First, medium-sized enterprises at all levels are capable of improving their performance. Second, the factors that prevent enterprises with a certain business model from obtaining better results are mainly internal rather than external. Although entrepreneurs often highlight the external factors that impede further growth, such as the impact of national economic factors, our study shows that the real success factors are often ones that enterprises can address themselves, meaning that entrepreneurs and management teams themselves can improve performance. Optimize can help with this.
Read the entire report here:
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