While the global consolidation trend continues across industries, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) continue to experience high rates of failure. Staying aware and proactive to avoid the most common pitfalls will prove essential to your company’s ability to survive and thrive.
5 best practices to succeed during an organizational time of transformation:
1. Bring in an experienced, trustworthy consultant. This person or firm will help provide objective insights to guide wise decisions and help all parties navigate the difficult conversations to a productive outcome
2. Target internal & external growth tactics: Begin by rooting yourself and your leadership team deeply in your company vision. Doing so will help organically guide external growth strategy be it geographical or product/service focused. Balance your planning to include focus on both external and internal needs by engaging players and tactics required to support the growth including regional competitors, disruptive technology, optimized customer loyalty and a strong product pipeline.
3. Proactively engage potential targets: Authenticity is key as you approach a prospective M&A target. Stay true to who you are and your company values, taking time to invest meaningfully in the relationship. Put yourself in their shoes to anticipate thoughts and feelings they may be experiencing as you meet with them. Consider “going first” in sharing of information as a demonstration of trust and transparency.
4. Focus your integration strategy well beyond day one: Engage an “integration czar” to guide the pre and post phases and help to stay focused on people & culture above all. A thoughtful integration must include people, processes, and systems, but should create focused planning around suppliers, customer experience, communication, digital integration, and brand integration for the first 100 days of the merger or acquisition.
5. Measure positive and negative synergies: The obvious metrics to track are revenue, EBITDA, GM and operating expenses. However, for an M&A to succeed, it is essential to model, execute and actively track key areas to ensure original assumptions do not veer into the negative which could end up costing the organization greatly including:
Cost of changing and/or integrating accounting policies & systems
New infrastructure, ERP, or other capital expenses
Expanded employee benefits, hybrid, or enhanced work environment
Lost revenue from B2B and/or B2C from overlapping or competing channels
Different pricing inputs from new/different supplier deals
Strategic planning, thoughtful integration and measured success is no longer simply an expectation but a requirement to avoid failure in M&A.
Transforming companies to achieve growth is the Nivalmi purpose. Developing leadership is our passion. Nivalmi is a carefully curated team of seasoned consultants helping unlock opportunity, improve efficiency and guide the change necessary to create measurable improvements in people, culture and bottom lines. For more information, visit www.nivalmi.com.
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