Where a responsibility policy describes what your business stands for, the responsibility check is the tool that helps you find out whether you actually live up to it — and where there are gaps. It's a structured self-assessment, not a certification or a legal requirement, and it builds on a recognized international method for how businesses work systematically with responsibility.

Why does it matter when selling a business?

The responsibility check isn't just about doing good for the world around you — it's very much also about how your business is perceived when it's one day sold. More and more professional buyers, including private equity funds, industrial buyers and larger companies, incorporate ESG matters as a standard part of their due diligence before bidding on a business. If unresolved risks are found along the way in that process — for example poor documentation of working conditions, lack of oversight of the supply chain, or the absence of any responsibility thinking at all — it can both delay a deal and push the price down.

Conversely, a business that has itself carried out a thorough responsibility check and can document the result can come across as far more professionally run. It gives a buyer confidence that no unpleasant surprises are hiding after the handover, and it can in practice make a sale process both faster and smoother. If you already have a responsibility policy in place, the check is the natural next step: the policy says what you want to do, the check shows whether you're doing it.

The 6 steps of the responsibility check

The method is built on six steps that together form an ongoing process rather than a one-off task. We've reorganized and simplified the steps to make them easier for a small or medium-sized business to approach:

  • 1. Embedding: Is responsibility written into your policies and anchored with management — or does it only exist as good intentions?
  • 2. Risk mapping: Have you identified where the real risks lie — in your own operations, with suppliers, or in other business relationships?
  • 3. Handling: Do you have concrete initiatives that prevent, limit or stop the problems you've found?
  • 4. Follow-up: Do you systematically follow up on whether the initiatives actually work?
  • 5. Communication: Can you document and communicate your responsibility work to customers, partners and any buyer?
  • 6. Remediation: Do you have a way to correct things if you discover something has gone wrong?

The six steps connect as a cycle: once you've corrected something under step 6, the process returns to steps 1 and 2 to ensure the embedding and risk picture are still up to date. It's exactly this ongoing nature that makes it a "check" rather than something you do once and close down again.

What do you get from carrying it out?

Beyond the immediate value of better control over your own risks, a completed responsibility check gives you a concrete, documented foundation you can present in a sale process — and a compass for where you can most usefully focus, before you start the sale itself. It's one of the preparations that's often overlooked, because it's not legally required for most, but which professional buyers increasingly notice.

Frequently asked questions

Is the responsibility check a certification?

No. It's a self-assessment you use internally to get an overview — not a certificate you can present as proof issued by a third party.

Should I do the responsibility check before making the responsibility policy?

It can be done in either order, but many find it easiest to do the check first — it gives a picture of where you actually stand, which you can then build the responsibility policy around.

Can a responsibility check affect what I can sell my business for?

Indirectly, yes. It's rarely the only factor, but with professional buyers carrying out ESG due diligence, a documented, thorough responsibility check can make a real difference to how smoothly and confidently a sale proceeds.

Want to review your business step by step yourself? Download our free responsibility check as PDF or Word (currently in Danish), or book a no-obligation call if you'd like sparring along the way.

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