An Effective Acquisition Process Requires Both
By Kalle Kilpi, Founder, Products & BD for Midaxo
M&A capability is built around people, processes and tools. Good people are, of course, the most important thing to have, but a good process and good tools can significantly increase the success rate.
A good M&A process helps people focus on the right things and follow best practices. Good M&A tools help run the process with discipline, transparency and good collaboration. Having every deal go through a standard set of considerations reduces deal risks and helps the organization learn from mistakes. New stakeholders are productive with less training and consultants can be used more efficiently.
The steps for creating a systematic acquisition process:
- Set clear stages and decision gates that all deals have to follow
- Define key considerations and deliverable for each stage
- Institutionalize an M&A platform that provides top-down visibility to the pipeline and individual deals.
Every VP of M&A has a slightly different preference for the phasing. Here’s one example, at right.