For highly competitive deal environments, where deep assessments may disrupt the process, our Light Human Capital Diligence offers a low intervention approach while still providing meaningful insights. A Lodestone consultant acts as a “fly on the wall” during management team meetings, informally assessing individuals and team dynamics.

Additionally, we review Human Capital concerns within the data room and meet with the HR or CFO leader responsible for people processes. This enables us to understand capabilities, gaps, and immediate needs in critical areas like employee selection, HR technology (HRIS), performance management, and total rewards.

Time to deliverable: 6-10 weeks

Our most commonly selected option, Medium Human Capital Diligence adds individual interviews with each key member of the management team to all components of the Light assessment.

This deeper engagement allows us to identify key leadership themes, strengths, and risks associated with each executive. We position ourselves as part of the diligence team, building rapport with leadership while providing investors with a greater level of confidence in their decision-making.

Time to deliverable: 9-12 weeks

For a deeper level of analysis beyond individual interviews, Medium Plus Human Capital Diligence integrates leadership styles assessments to provide insight into how executives think, make decisions, and respond under stress. This additional layer of assessment helps investors understand how to motivate the management team to close the deal, anticipate potential derailers under pressure, and identify key leadership themes—such as whether the team leans strategic vs. tactical, ambitious vs. risk-averse, or highly collaborative vs. independent.

Additionally, enlightened private equity teams often participate in their own leadership styles assessments to better understand how their deal team and the target’s management team might work effectively together post-acquisition. Lodestone facilitates this mutual understanding through a dedicated session explaining assessment results, ensuring that both sides can align expectations and navigate leadership dynamics more effectively.

Time to deliverable: 10-15 weeks

For investors looking for the most thorough, predictive evaluation of a leadership team, Robust Human Capital Diligence builds on the Medium Plus level by incorporating a three-hour business simulation in addition to the Hogan Leadership Inventories and behavioral interviews.
Most often, firms prefer to approach this in two steps:

1. Pre-Close: Conducting Hogan assessments and individual interviews to assess
leadership strengths, derailers, and team dynamics.

2. Post-Close (First 100 Days): Implementing the three-hour business simulation, allowing leaders to demonstrate decision-making, strategic thinking, and leadership agility in a
controlled, high-pressure environment.

This approach ensures investor confidence pre-close, while also setting up the newly acquired leadership team for an in-depth developmental experience in the first 100 days. The simulation provides direct insight into how executives tackle operational and strategic challenges in real time, how they work under stress, and how they collaborate as a team.

Timeline to deliverable:  12-20 weeks