The Merger & Acquisition Leader's Playbook

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Those leading through a merger, acquisition, or the like do so to create more value faster. They look for revenues to double or more on the way to returning many times their initial investments. Maybe you're driving or leading the investment. Maybe you're leading the business itself or playing a supporting role. In any case, you need a leadership playbook for the merger or acquisition.

This is that playbook, the one we've used as investors, leaders, and supporters. It gives you the frameworks, tools, and sub-playbooks you need to create that value faster. Our overarching approach is to work through customers, capabilities, and costs—in that order. First, figure out how you're going to win with customers. Then build the leadership, team, and capabilities required for that. Fund those efforts by cutting less valuable efforts and their associated costs.

This is how we've created value faster against a backdrop of others failing to deliver the desired results 83 percent of the time. In a Harvard Business Review article, Kenny Graham noted that “between 70 and 90 percent of acquisitions fail.”¹ A KPMG M&A study found that 17 percent of deals added value, whereas 30 percent produced no discernible difference and 53 percent destroyed value.²

This book lays out the seven sub-playbooks and a prototypical order that comprise the M&A leader's complete playbook. We also include summaries of tools to help along the way, each of which has an editable download available ...