
Risks of Collaboration 67
Little Chance of Signi cant
Improvements or Achievements
Collaboration isn’t free; if there will be no results, don’t bother. Consider
one of the biggest possible collaborative arrangements a company can
pursue—mergers and acquisitions. Failed M&A are often the result of an
attempt to collaborate to reach goals that are unrealistic, too large, too ill-
conceived, and too time-constrained. Dozens of studies covering hundreds
of companies across all industries show that although management wants
the gains that consolidation and economies of scale should bring, the great
majority of mergers and acquisitions—across all ...