The Good Keep Getting Better
By Jack Prouty, President of the M&A Leadership Council
Jim Jeffries and I founded the M&A Leadership Council eight years ago with the mission of helping companies grow their in-house M&A competencies and get better at M&A. At the time, we thought our target audience would be mid-size companies largely new to M&A. Instead we have found that most of our program attendees are from large, publicly traded companies that are serial acquirers. They are good at M&A, but they know that good is not good enough. If they are going to continue to be successful serial acquirers, then they need to be best of class.
These companies typically developed their M&A process, methodologies and playbooks internally and in isolation. By attending our training programs, they are able to assess how well they are doing compared to other successful acquirers, to network with other attendees (who, regardless of the industry, still grapple with similar issues and challenges) and to pursue continuous improvements. Many of them have sent (over time) 10-12 attendees to our various workshops and engaged us to come in-house and train a critical mass of their staff (5-40 people) at one time so everyone is operating from the same baseline. They have also taken advantage of our Certified M&A Specialist (CMAS) program to grow a core group that is qualified and trained to lead their diligence and integration teams. As in many other instances, the good get better and rich get richer.
Some other companies that have trailed behind in their development of M&A capabilities and competencies are now ramping up through aggressive development of staff training and better leveraging of outside M&A experts (such as those companies who are part of the M&A Council: BDO Willis Towers Watson and M&A Partners). In my 40 years in business working with over 200 companies, I have observed (whether we are talking about an individual or a corporation) that without continuous learning and improvement, you may go from today being leading edge to tomorrow being industry average and the next day, obsolete. The challenge is yours: get better at M&A or lag behind your competition.
Are you ready to equip your team for M&A? Secure their seats at The Art of M&A Integration in Orlando to take a deep dive into the integration process presented by experts with real-world experience. Or contact us about scheduling the on-site training best suited for your company. Whatever your M&A team needs for success, M&A Leadership Council is here to help.