Mandate

A mandate is a firm's formal authorization to act on a specific transaction — the engagement itself, once won.

Winning mandates is the business. A mandate is defined by the engagement letter and shaped long before it is signed, through relationships, reputation, and the sector credibility a firm can demonstrate. It is the unit of work most boutiques measure themselves by.

This is where the web presence earns its place. A site that reads like a thesis rather than a service menu helps a firm win the sell-side and buy-side mandates it wants and quietly filter out the ones it does not. For investment banks and M&A advisors alike, that filtering is the point — a theme running through best PE and M&A firm websites.