Due Diligence
Your due diligence is probably wrongGlobal Advisors: a consulting leader in defining quantified strategy, decreasing uncertainty, improving decisions, achieving measureable results.
Our latest perspective - What's behind under-performing listed companies?
Outperform through the downturn
Experienced hires
We are hiring experienced top-tier strategy consultants
Quantified Strategy
Decreased uncertainty, improved decisions
Global Advisors is a leader in defining quantified strategies, decreasing uncertainty, improving decisions and achieving measureable results.
We specialise in providing highly-analytical data-driven recommendations in the face of significant uncertainty.
We utilise advanced predictive analytics to build robust strategies and enable our clients to make calculated decisions.
We support implementation of adaptive capability and capacity.
Our latest
Thoughts

Global Advisors’ Thoughts: Leading a deliberate life
By Marc Wilson
Marc is a partner at Global Advisors and based in Johannesburg, South Africa
Download this article at https://globaladvisors.biz/blog/2018/06/26/leading-a-deliberate-life/.
Picket fences. Family of four. Management position.
Mid-life crisis. Meaning. Purpose.
Someone once said that, “At 18, I had all the answers. At 35, I realised I didn’t know the question.”
Serendipity has a lot going for it. Many people might sail through life taking what comes and enjoying the moment. Others might be open to chance and have nothing go right for them.
Some people might strive to achieve, realise rare successes and be bitterly unhappy. Others might be driven and enjoy incredible success and fulfilment.
Perhaps the majority of us become beholden to the momentum of our lives.
We might study, start a career, marry, buy a dream house, have children, send them to a top school. Those steps make up components of many of our dreams. They are steps that may define each subsequent choice. As I discussed this with a friend recently, he remarked that few of these steps had been subject of deliberations in his life – increasingly these steps were the outcome of momentum. Each will shape every step he takes for the rest of his life. He would not have things any other way, but if he knew what he knows now, he might have been more deliberate about choice and consequence…..
Read more at https://globaladvisors.biz/blog/2018/06/26/leading-a-deliberate-life/
.
Strategy Tools

PODCAST: Your Due Diligence is Most Likely Wrong
Our Spotify podcast explores why most mergers and acquisitions fail to create value and provides a practical guide to performing a strategic due diligence process.
The hosts The hosts highlight common pitfalls like overpaying for acquisitions, failing to understand the true value of a deal, and neglecting to account for future uncertainties. They emphasize that a successful deal depends on a clear strategic rationale, a thorough understanding of the target’s competitive position, and a comprehensive assessment of potential risks. They then present a four-stage approach to strategic due diligence that incorporates scenario planning and probabilistic simulations to quantify uncertainty and guide decision-making. Finally, they discuss how to navigate deal-making during economic downturns and stress the importance of securing existing businesses, revisiting return measures, prioritizing potential targets, and factoring in potential delays.
Read more from the original article.
Fast Facts

Fast fact: A quick change in Covid-19 plots shows when countries turn the tide
Aatish Bhatia – in collaboration with Minute Physics – did an amazing job of visualizing the Covid 19 data. His logarithmaic juxtaposition of total versus new cases shows when the virus growth begins to slow.
- Logarithmic plotting of new vs total cases shows when infection rates (as measured) slow
- When plotted in this way, exponential growth is represented as a straight line that slopes upwards
- The x-axis of this graph is not time, but is instead the total number of cases or deaths
- Notice that almost all countries follow a very similar path of exponential growth
You can choose the numbers to plot at Covid trends
Selected News

Quote: Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Laureate
“AI is great at multitasking: it can misunderstand five tasks at once.” — Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Laureate
This wry observation from Daniel Kahneman highlights the persistent gap between expectation and reality in the deployment of artificial intelligence. As AI systems increasingly promise to perform multiple complex tasks—ranging from analyzing data and interpreting language to making recommendations—there remains a tendency to overestimate their capacity for genuine understanding. Kahneman’s quote playfully underscores how, far from being infallible, AI can compound misunderstandings when juggling several challenges simultaneously.
The context for this insight is rooted in Kahneman’s lifelong exploration of the limits of decision-making—first in humans, and, by extension, in the systems designed to emulate or augment human judgment. AI’s appeal often stems from its speed and apparent ability to handle many tasks at once. However, as with human cognition, multitasking can amplify errors if the underlying comprehension is lacking or the input data is ambiguous. Kahneman’s expertise in uncovering the predictable errors and cognitive biases that affect human reasoning makes his skepticism toward AI’s supposed multitasking prowess particularly telling. The remark serves as a reminder to remain critical and measured in evaluating AI’s true capabilities, especially in contexts where precision and nuance are essential.
About Daniel Kahneman
Daniel Kahneman (1934–2024) was an Israeli-American psychologist whose groundbreaking work revolutionized the understanding of human judgment, decision-making, and the psychology of risk. Awarded the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, he was recognized “for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty”.
Together with collaborator Amos Tversky, Kahneman identified a series of cognitive heuristics and biases—systematic errors in thinking that affect the way people judge probabilities and make decisions. Their work led to the development of prospect theory, which challenged the traditional economic view that humans are rational actors, and established the foundation of behavioral economics.
Kahneman’s research illuminated how individuals routinely overgeneralize from small samples, fall prey to stereotyping, and exhibit overconfidence—even when handling simple probabilities. His influential book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, distilled decades of research into a compelling narrative about how the mind works, the pitfalls of intuition, and the enduring role of error in human reasoning.
In his later years, Kahneman continued to comment on the limitations of decision-making processes, increasingly turning his attention to how these limits inform the development and evaluation of artificial intelligence. His characteristic blend of humor and rigor, as exemplified in the quoted observation about AI multitasking, continues to inspire thoughtful scrutiny of technology and its role in society.
Polls
No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
Services
Global Advisors is different
We help clients to measurably improve strategic decision-making and the results they achieve through defining clearly prioritised choices, reducing uncertainty, winning hearts and minds and partnering to deliver.
Our difference is embodied in our team. Our values define us.
Corporate portfolio strategy
Define optimal business portfolios aligned with investor expectations
BUSINESS UNIT STRATEGY
Define how to win against competitors
Reach full potential
Understand your business’ core, reach full potential and grow into optimal adjacencies
Deal advisory
M&A, due diligence, deal structuring, balance sheet optimisation
Global Advisors Digital Data Analytics
14 years of quantitative and data science experience
An enabler to delivering quantified strategy and accelerated implementation
Digital enablement, acceleration and data science
Leading-edge data science and digital skills
Experts in large data processing, analytics and data visualisation
Developers of digital proof-of-concepts
An accelerator for Global Advisors and our clients
Join Global Advisors
We hire and grow amazing people
Consultants join our firm based on a fit with our values, culture and vision. They believe in and are excited by our differentiated approach. They realise that working on our clients’ most important projects is a privilege. While the problems we solve are strategic to clients, consultants recognise that solutions primarily require hard work – rigorous and thorough analysis, partnering with client team members to overcome political and emotional obstacles, and a large investment in knowledge development and self-growth.
Get In Touch
16th Floor, The Forum, 2 Maude Street, Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa
+27114616371