Polaris Excellence Model

To support value creation in our portfolio companies, we have developed the Polaris Excellence Model. This is our way of working together with portfolio companies and is based on experience and expertise in developing Nordic mid-sized companies since our foundation in 1998.

Dedicated members of Polaris team continously develop a range of value creation themes to make them accessible for the management teams of our companies. Our knowledge is developed and communicated through workshops led by industry specialists, who provide hands-on expertise to support management teams to develop concrete skillsets, which can be applied in their business. The material from all our workshops is made available to our portfolio companies online for easy access. Since 2008, we have conducted over 40 workshops with more than 1,000 participants which has generated more than 250 documents and 6,000 pages on key value creation topics.

In addition to the workshops the Polaris Excellence Model includes standards, tools and best practices as well as a developed network of consultants and specialized experts ready to support the Management teams on specific topics such as: Pricing, Sales Efficiency and Procurement.

Polaris Excellence Model is available to the portfolio companies in all investment strategies and support our ambition to be able to actively contribute to the positive development of our companies irrespective of our type of involvement.

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The Polaris Excellence Model at a glance

The Polaris Excellence Model at a glance

Our Polaris Excellence Model consist of a toolbox of selected modules covering areas of potential value creation for our portfolio companies in three phases of their development:

Getting started with a momentum
Strengthen the Platform
Focus support for the business plan

Each module is supported by a dedicated team in Polaris acting as a centre of excellence supported by a network of external industry specialists and consultants – Polaris Resource Group.

They can provide hands-on expertise to support the management teams in our different portfolio companies.

A toolbox for each of the Excellence Model’s three phases is also made available online to our portfolio companies and complemented by quarterly Excellence Workshops. The online toolbox includes introductions to theory and concepts, standards, tools, templates and best practices and the material from all previous workshops.

The Polaris Excellence Model online toolbox includes, for example, extensive material on the following areas:

Sales Efficiency

Polaris help our management teams by getting the most from their current products and services by development of their sales and marketing processes to be more efficient and effective.

Pricing

Pricing is one of the focus areas in the Polaris Excellence Model as it is very often a large opportunity for companies to improve both their sales and their profitability in an efficient way.

Digitalization

Digitalization offers many opportunities for today’s businesses but addressing this vast area for mid-market companies is a challenge. Polaris works with senior executives from among others, Volvo Cars, Falck Group and McKinsey & Co, to share experiences and best practice on current approaches to digitalization, and how this is best applied to mid-sized companies.

Innovation

The Polaris Excellence Model emphasizes the importance of innovation and has long been a part of business growth. It helps companies to stay ahead of the curve, create new products and services, and improve their operations.

Procurement

Procurement can support businesses growth journey by streamlining the process of finding, acquiring, and negotiating these necessary goods and services. At Polaris we support businesses with this through our Excellence Model.

Growth from M&A

M&A growth can provide access to new markets, technology, and customers. Additionally, it can help businesses to improve their operations, and improve their competitive positions. M&A is a key value driver and our portfolio companies, on average, complete 2 add-on acquisitions together with us. Over the years, we have supported our management teams in making more than 90 add-on acquisitions.

Net Working Capital

At Polaris we support our companies to reduce their net working capital, which releases cash-flow for growth and expansion.

Exit Preperation

All value created by our companies is realized in the Exit process where the full value of the company will need to be communicated and proven to an outside party. We support our companies on how they can prepare for this process already during the journey together with Polaris.

Cost Leadership

To continuously work to improve efficiency and minimize cost is critical for all companies to ensure long-term competitiveness and we work to provide our management teams with easily accessible tools and methods to support this effort.

The Polaris Excellence Model consists of

more than

250

business documents of analysis, insights and best practices

a minimum of

4

annual workshops with experts and business leaders of other portfolio companies.

More than

25

expert advisors and consultancy firms available to support our management teams with execution.