It was a real joy to attend the recent Art of M&A Integration workshop in San Francisco, not from the eyes of a presenter, but from a participant’s viewpoint. As usual, I opened and closed the session, but this time I took the chance to really observe our great presenters and take in the unique combination of experience, talent and rich content the Council brings to training in the niche of M&A. In just three days the workshop attendees received the best information, tools, case studies and raw opinions one could hope to receive in a training environment.
You see, in the vast majority of cases, people receive training from a single source of information with a strong bias for “the way we do it”. That’s why training isn’t being offered by the big consultants or accounting firms. Workshop attendees in San Francisco heard from and interacted with five different companies who are clearly expert in their respective fields:
- Baker and McKenzie – Legal and Regulatory
- Cognizant – Information Systems
- Ketchum – Internal and External Communications
- M&A Partners – Post-Merger Integration
- Mercer – Human Resources
Imagine five of the top firms in their field speaking with one voice while contributing their time, talent and content to benefit the M&A community. I have been amazed and blessed by the way the Leadership Council has grown over the last two years, training over 400 executives from more than 250 companies in the best practices to be found for due diligence and integration. And now, internal custom training programs for companies have become a full-time extension of the public workshops.
This fall we embark on a whole new series of individual M&A workshops and programs and the highest rated presenters, content and tools will continue to get better and better:
- “ The Art of IT Integration” by Cognizant and M&A Partners - September
- “The Art of Cross Border M&A” by Baker & McKenzie and Mercer – September
- “The Art of M&A Due Diligence” by Crowe Horwath – October
- “The Art of M&A Integration” by All Partners – October
- And of course, we endorse “M&A Ready Workshops for HR” by Mercer
So, the purpose of this note from me today is to thank our partner companies, the advisory board and the people behind this success. And, a special thanks to Jack Prouty for his insights and leadership from the beginning.
Onward,
Jim