While holding a variety of M&A workshops over the past three years, we’ve welcomed a host of delightful, fascinating and intriguing people from around the world. So who attends our events? And why?
I’ve met more than 500 executives with varying M&A positions, and they’ve come in all shapes, sizes and responsibilities, craving to know more about creating value when acquiring other companies:
- CEOs and CFOs ranging from their 20’s to over 70 years of age…. they’ve come from old-line, well established companies, to early stage organizations led by millennials.
- I’ve seen a balance between men and women who attend…. some with deep experience in M&A who want to simply validate their practices but most who want to learn the nuances.
- Several companies have decided to send their entire M&A teams to our training programs…. in shifts and by matching topics to the various responsibilities in the organization. In our most recent workshop in Scottsdale, Jeff Foster, SVP, told me his strategy is to get everyone through our training (Diligence, Integration, International) so all are operating from a common understanding and grounded in best practices. As a matter of fact, one company has already booked seven attendees from the EU to attend our April workshop in Orlando after their domestic counterparts attended the January workshop this year.
- Depending on which coast we host events, we usually get numerous registrants from off-shore (West Coast events – Asia; East Coast events – EU)….. our friends in South America and particularly Brazil will show up at any event. All of our visitors to the U.S. make the workshops more interesting and new cross-border relationships are created among peers.
Last month we had a great event at the oldest and most popular resort in the Marriott family, “The Camelback Inn” in Scottsdale, Arizona. This resort is the favorite location of Bill Marriott, who, I’m told, stays at the property each year. Toward the end of the program, one of the participants asked, “Do you always hold these workshops in places like this”? And the answer is yes. Location and venue has become an overarching requirement for the Leadership Council. We no longer hold events at stodgy high-paced city hotels, as over time our attendees and valued teaching partners have actually learned more and been far more pleased by attending at our “destination” locations (Scottsdale, Orlando, San Francisco and San Diego). Each time we have an event, we find that many of the attendees will extend their stay over the weekend and make it a family affair or when they bring a group from their company, a business meeting will occur prior to or after the workshop. Destination locations also give us the chance to engage in additional social activities to break-up the intensity of the training:
- Evening Receptions for relationship building
- Extended lunch breaks
- Our famous putting contests at our golfing venues
- Key note speakers
The Art of M&A series continues to evolve and we are excited about the high ratings given by our alumni. I want to thank our alumni who continue to send their company peers to our events. I also want to thank our Board of Advisors, Expert Trainers and Council Partners for all you are contributing to the M&A community. We look forward to the upcoming events and meeting more of you who are reading this message.
Best to you,
Jim