The term “ Due Diligence ” does not have an exact translation into Spanish, “due diligence” is the closest thing, but what is it? Basically, it is an investigation or audit carried out by a company or external consultants whose objective is to examine the different areas of a company’s operation, in order to corroborate that it complies with its obligations and to identify those areas that are not working well and that could cause problems and/or entail legal risks. We could say that it is a voluntary investigation to which a company is subjected, which increases transparency and responsibility at the management levels of the company.
As we said, due diligence can be applied to any area of the company, which is why below we will review some of the most recurrent areas of application where this research is carried out.
Cultural due diligence: This focuses on the “Corporate Culture”, a concept that usually singapore phone number list describes how people live in the company, the philosophy that surrounds it from the board of directors to the last employee. Although it is not a very measurable area, it can be analyzed through interviews with employees, reviewing protocols, newsletters and corporate social networks, which allows us to see what the company is transmitting.
Fiscal due diligence: This studies the company's fiscal viability in the future. It is completely linked to the analysis of the company's tax returns and to ensure that they match the accounting presented.
Human Resources or Labor Due Diligence: This is the one that looks after the “human” component of the company: the people or, in this case, employees. This type of analysis seeks to identify the leadership within the company that, in some cases, are not necessarily the heads. This “decisive human capital”, as defined by experts, is very influential within the culture and decision-making of their colleagues within a company. The auditors in charge of this analysis study the functions of each employee and the importance in the development and internal flow. It is usually done at the same time as the legal analysis , since contracts and other documents of this nature can be reviewed.
Legal due diligence : As the name suggests, this audit addresses all legal aspects of a company, from intellectual and industrial property rights to the employment contracts of all employees. This type of audit can reveal whether there is false or misleading information related to contracts or other legal areas.
Commercial due diligence : This type of research studies the commercial viability of the company. It focuses on all the stages and actors involved in the purchasing and distribution chain processes: product, customer, staff, production, etc. The contracts negotiated with both suppliers and customers are evaluated to check how efficient and effective the delivery chain is.
Environmental due diligence : The environmental audit evaluates whether the company is complying with national and international environmental protection regulations and analyses the impact that this has on the environment. This type of management is growing every day in the world due to the awareness that companies are having due to the environmental crisis that we are experiencing and where communities are increasingly attentive to the actions of companies in this area.
Technological due diligence: This analysis has had the most progressive growth because most companies today manage and/or carry out their processes through the Internet, both internally with what would be the intranet, and externally, which would be the website and social networks, which today are the company's showcases to the community.
There are many different types of due diligence, such as financial, strategic, merger, market entry, intellectual property, among others. The important thing is to identify which areas require improvement or further analysis in your company and apply the most optimal analysis, all with the aim of improving processes and management.