Here’s a thought that keeps me up at night:
Most business decisions that go wrong weren’t made with bad intentions. They were made with incomplete information.
A company looked solid on the surface. Decent revenue, familiar brand, credible-sounding pitch. But nobody checked the filing history. Nobody noticed the director had been through three dissolved companies in four years. Nobody asked why the accounts were consistently six months late.
Then something breaks, and everyone acts surprised.
Here’s my question for the room: What’s the one piece of information you wish you’d had before a business relationship went sideways?
Was it ownership structure that turned out to be murkier than expected? A financial trend that was obvious in hindsight but invisible at the time? A director connection you only discovered after signing?
I ask because there’s a real divide in how professionals approach this. Some run deep due diligence on everything — arguably overkill for low-stakes decisions. Others rely almost entirely on gut and reputation — which works until it spectacularly doesn’t.
The uncomfortable middle ground is where most people actually operate: doing some research, but not always knowing what they’re missing.
With 5.68 million UK companies on record, the data exists. The question is whether people are actually looking at it before they commit.
Drop your answer below — I’m genuinely curious whether this varies by industry or role. The compliance folks and the BD folks probably have very different war stories here.
And if you want to start looking harder before the next decision, borsch.ai is a good place to start.