CMAS

Chairman's Message - August 2018

Charting Your Path – Let Your Experience Lead the Way
By Jim Jeffries, Chairman of the M&A Leadership Council

2018 is turning into a banner year for our M&A certification program. More and more companies are determined to garner success from their acquisitions, and they realize that – just like other capabilities in their organization – M&A’s require skills and expertise.

What Serial Acquirers Know

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.

Good, Fast, Cheap?

Balancing Competing Initiatives
By Bruce Fleming, EVP Strategy at Calumet Specialty Products and Member of the Board of M&A Standards

I’ve sometimes been asked what percentage of the deal price should be budgeted for diligence costs. Many deal costs do have a quick rule of thumb, but with respect to Due Diligence it’s safe to say “It depends.” Do you want the diligence to be good, fast, or cheap?