Finances

As the news about the unprecedented fraud conducted by Jérôme Kerviel at Société Générale continues to unfold before our eyes, it’s easy to chalk this up as perhaps interesting reading but something irrelevant to most of us. But the unfortunate truth is fraud is happening every day, to companies of all sizes, and in every industry.

The 2006 Report to the Nation on Occupational Fraud and Abuse is a sobering read. In it, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) has compiled data from over 1,000 fraud cases covering every imaginable company. From it, I thought the following figures were particularly relevant to our industry: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Nicolai Kolding

Prior to joining the BH&G RE team, I spent my entire career at Realogy being a part of, and eventually running, the company’s M&A group. I had the privilege of meeting some of the industry’s best minds and getting a chance to study how they built great companies. Every deal I worked on was an invitation to learn something new that could be applied elsewhere.

Over the past decade, I reviewed thousands of companies across the globe (I’m not kidding, we talked to companies on five continents). I discovered early and often that, despite what some people may want to believe, this is a very difficult business; even the best companies barely exceed a 10% return.

Read the rest of this entry »