Strategic Mergers & Acquisitions Can Be A Fast Path To Growth If Only Navigated Correctly
The drive for mergers and acquisitions more often comes less from sound reasoning and more from the fact that doing deals is a much more exciting way to spend your day than doing actual work.
Like change, M&A deals continue to fail at rates somewhere between 70% and 90% identified in various research studies.
The main reasons cited vary and include overpaying, overestimating synergies, poor due diligence, misunderstanding the other company, poor strategy and change management leading to improper cultural fits, overextending company resources, poor timing, weak analysis that fails to recognise the external factors at play and a lack of involvement from management.
Acquiring or merging with other businesses isn’t just for big corporates. Although, for many, it does conjure up stories, like those told in Barbarians At the Gate, of industrial titans embroiled in a battle that exploits fear and greed to almost financial ruin. It doesn’t have to be like that.
Done correctly it can transform an SME by increasing its sales revenue and profitability whilst simultaneously bringing in new capabilities like improved marketing expertise in one giant leap.
Despite what the name suggests, the process consists of primarily a reverse sales and marketing programme followed by creative financial engineering performed in a lean and agile way.
More to come ……
M&A is so powerful I even created my own vehicle to acquire businesses from owners looking to sell their business