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Tip of the Spear Ventures

Venture Capital | Business Transformation Consulting

Leadership strategy

M&A: The New Rules of Mergers & Acquisitions – 5 Tips!

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The Point: As part of our Business Advisory Service for Sales/BizDev at Tip of the Spear Ventures, we’ve encountered a number of organizations that are considering selling/merging with another organization. As such, they’re great candidates for our M&A (Mergers & Acquisitions) advisory service. With each passing year where we offer M&A consulting, we find that the best plan is to prepare for the M&A activity, including putting together a team of professionals (In addition to consultants, attorneys, CPAs, etc.) But what if we don’t assemble a top-talent team to assist with Mergers & Acquisitions? In this post, we’ll explore the new rules of mergers and acquisitions, along with providing 5 tips… Enjoy!

New Rules of Mergers & Acquisitions 5 Tips

5 Tips (Rules?) to Follow in Mergers and Acquisition

Often essential for a company’s revenue column, mergers and acquisitions must be done in the right way to ensure that post-M&A creation is as profitable as pre-M&A activity. Why conduct the M&A after all if there would not be significant gains to be had? What follows are 5 tips (or rules) that should be contingency-planned in order to create successful mergers and acquisitions outcomes:

Rule #1: Establish a Dedicated Transaction Team

The timeline for completing a merger or acquisition is often very tight. The firms that will be used, the market specializes in transactions between listed companies and Legal services to reduce costs and since more and more transactions are cross-border, it is a good idea for a head of legal to build relationships with colleagues/consultants around the world.

Rule #2: Pay Special Attention to Regulatory Issues

In the new rules of merger and acquisition, one should pay special attention to regulatory issues. Rarely does a merger stumble because of a regulatory barrier, but if you wait too long before you evaluate that risk, it’s never a good strategy. The experts are unanimous: Legal counsel must ensure that no one in-house is committing a blunder causing a regulatory incident.

Rule #3: Think Team Integration Going In/Coming Out

If it is not necessary to put the cart before the horse and operate as a single entity before having accomplished all the mergers and acquisitions obstacles. It is nevertheless necessary to foresee potential blows from a lack of team integration well in advance of the M&A activity. An Integration Team is therefore responsible for identifying the departments whose operations will be merged and which departments will not be merged.

Rule #4: Do Not Be Afraid to Say “No”

Mergers and acquisitions transactions are relationships that grow and require companies to redefine themselves. If the transaction risks losing value rather than creating it, it may be better to retreat, pass, or say “No.” The fact is that the teams negotiating the transaction are so focused on the realization of the deal that they sometimes do not have the necessary distance to notice the problems that arise during due diligence. These problems are sometimes manageable by changing some of the terms of the initial agreement, but they are sometimes too important to ignore. If it’s not a good deal, regardless of ego/time involved thus far, you’re probably better off pulling the M&A plug!

Rule #5: Take Lessons from Each Transaction

The more we make, the better we are especially if you take the time to take stock after each M&A transaction. What worked well? What were the problems overcome? What were the problems we were unable to overcome? What did we not anticipate that we should anticipate next time? These “lessons” provide the “equipment” for creating lists of things to check for during the next transaction (In an effort to avoid repeating similar errors).

SUMMARY

In this post, we’ve looked at the new rules of mergers and acquisition along with 5 tips (rules?) Equipping yourself/your M&A Team with detailed information and new phases to be explored should allow for more fruitful future mergers and acquisitions activity.

 

Sam Palazzolo

Avoiding Epic Failure With Your Leadership Strategy – 6 Tips!

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The Point: As a leader, you probably believe that your thoughts lead to good strategies which lead to great execution and ensuing results. So we started thinking here at Tip of the Spear Ventures, what happens in those foundational leadership strategy moments where your thoughts aren’t as good as you think they are? Will you be able to clearly share with your stakeholders the vision of where you’re going? Will you be able to achieve optimum desired results? In this post we explore the topic of avoiding epic failure with your leadership strategy and provide 6 tips to do so… Enjoy!

Avoiding Epic Failure With Your Leadership Strategy 6 Tips

Leadership Strategy

Take a look at last year, and zoom into last month (perhaps even last week!) What went well for you/your stakeholders/your organization from a leadership strategy perspective? When you analyze the key performance indicators (or metrics to manage with), you probably recognize superior results (Greater revenue, optimal efficiency, appropriate expense control structures in place, etc.) Conduct an autopsy of these results and you will inevitably explore the leadership strategy that went into making them happen. Plans were drafted, goals were set, communication efforts conducted, implementation/execution moments occurred, and performance metrics measured.

So if leadership strategy takes place within your organization, just like it does within organizations all over the globe, why then do some strategies work while others fail? After all, it would appear that the business landscape is simply littered with strategies that have failed… and the reasons for epic failure can be just as prolific in quantity!

Avoiding Epic Failure with Leadership Strategy – 6 Tips!

So what exactly causes all of these epic failures in leadership strategy? What follows are 6 tips to consider when developing/executing leadership strategy: 

Tip #6 – Market Research

What will the market bear? If there is no problem, there is no need for a solution. In other words, conducting market research into what exactly the problems are, the scope/scale of them will lead to indications (projections?) of approximately how big of a problem there is for you/your stakeholders/your organization to solve. Market research not only helps identify scope/scale of problem, but also the context in which applied solution can be applied.

Tip #5 – Stakeholder Alignment

What if you conduct market research for your leadership strategy, only to have no one fall in line to support the initiative through implementation/execution? Having a strategy in and of itself will not guarantee successful results. Stakeholders not only need to have alignment for the initiative, but need to actually buy-in to the leadership strategy. While not every strategy requires maximum “skin in the game” for stakeholders, there does need to be consensus support for the leadership strategy.

Tip #4 – Accountability

Time and again we see otherwise brilliant leadership strategy achieve epic failure when accountability to results is not maintained. Consider it your #1 priority as a leader! Without holding stakeholder’s feet to the fire there can be no optimum results returned (PERIOD!)

Tip #3 – Beliefs/Opinions

We worked with a leader that would begin just about every conversation with the mantra “I believe…” or “My opinion is…” and the leadership strategy that he attempted to employ more times than not was unsuccessful. Why? He simply held a set of beliefs and opinions that were not shared with those around him (or more to the point realistic). Less beliefs/opinions and more facts would have served him/his stakeholders better.

Tip #2 – EQ over IQ

I’ve been fortunate to serve many a talented leader, where the majority of that talent was in the form of brainpower. However, some of the most intelligent people that I worked with also wouldn’t come out of the rain in a downpour! These same leaders were so out of touch with their emotional intelligence that they simply couldn’t/wouldn’t be able to trust their instincts. If your head tells you to “go” but your gut tells you “no go” you should probably listen to your gut (That is assuming you can hear your gut in the first place!)

Tip #1 – A/B Test + Contingency Plan

Las Vegas is a town filled with successful casinos, not successful gamblers. The reason why the airport here has 10x the quantity of flights compared with most other airports domestically in the USA is that everyone wants to come here to try their luck, and sooner or later they need to go back home. Typically this return home occurs after a loss in the casinos! Leadership strategy should be looked at as a Marketing A/B Test, or at the least with contingency plans in place. No need to put all your eggs in one basket, let’s divide them into two baskets and for goodness sake let’s plan for what might happen along the way!

SUMMARY

I love reading/seeing success play itself out firsthand as a result of leadership strategy just as much as the next leader (Even when it comes from one of our competitors!) In my mind, success breeds success. In this post, we explored avoiding epic failure with your leadership strategy as well as 6 tips to assist you in your leadership journey. Once you’ve tried one (or all six out), please take a minute and drop me a line letting me know how you did… I’ll wait to hear from you/your success!

Sam Palazzolo

Leading at the Tip of the Spear Lunch Offer

M&A: The New Rules of Mergers and Acquisition – 5 Tips!

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The Point: Considering mergers and acquisition is the general counsel of the company that has an advantage to identifying the players who will form his team in advance. Lawyers have a big role to play in M & A transactions, in which if it’s done badly it could be lower the value rather than to be high.

M&A The New Rules of Mergers and Acquisition 5 Tips!

5 Tips (or Rules) to Follow for Successful Mergers and Acquisitions

Often essential for a company’s revenue column, mergers and acquisitions must be done in the right way. Here are five rules to be verified for your mergers and acquisitions activity:

Tip #5: Establish a dedicated transaction team before even targeting one

The timeline for completing a merger or acquisition is often very tight. The firms that will be used, the market specializes in transactions between listed companies and Legal services to reduce costs and since more and more transactions are cross-border, it is a good idea for a head of legal build relationships with colleagues around the world.

Tip #4: Pay special attention to regulatory the issues

In the new rules of merger and acquisition once should pay the special attention to regulatory the issues. Rarely does a merger stumble because of a regulatory barrier, but if you wait too long before you evaluate that risk, it’s bad. The experts are unanimous: Advocates-General must ensure that no one in-house is committing a blunder causing a regulatory incident.

Tip #3: It is also necessary to have a team that will integrate the companies

If it is not necessary to put the cart before the oxen and operate as a single entity before having flattened all the obstacles, it is nevertheless necessary to foresee its blows in advance. A team is therefore responsible for identifying the departments whose operations will be merged and which departments will not be merged.

Tip #2: Do not be afraid to say no

Mergers and acquisition transactions are relationships that grow and require companies to redefine themselves. If the transaction risks losing value rather than creating it, it may be better to retreat.

The fact is that the teams negotiating the transaction are so focused on the realization of the deal that they sometimes do not have the necessary distance to notice the problems that arise during due diligence. These problems are sometimes manageable by changing some of the terms of the initial agreement, but they are sometimes too important to ignore.

Tip #1: Take lessons from each transaction

The more we make, the better we are especially if you take the time to take stock after each transaction. What worked well? What were the problems? Why? This provides equipment for creating lists of things to check during the next transaction. And one avoids repeating the errors.

SUMMARY

In this post, we’ve explored mergers and acquisitions and what I consider to be the new rules of therein that can provide detailed information and new phases to consider along with 5 tips (or rules). Success often comes from repeating successful processes, but can also come from conducting autopsies of failed activities.

Sam Palazzolo

PS – If you or your organization are challenged as a result of M&A activity, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line and request future post titles! Here are a few of the other M&A titles previously published/in the works:

– Will Your M&A be a Success of Failure?

– The Importance of a M&A Strategic Plan – 3 Tips!

– Mergers & Acquisitions – Six Diversification Questions

– M&A: Is Leadership Transparency the Key to Success? – 6 Tips!

– How to Successfully Survive Mergers & Acquisitions

– M&A: Creating Shareholder Value

– M&A: Should You Go For Stock or Cash?

 

M&A: Is Leadership Transparency the Key to Success? – 6 Tips!

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The Point: Transparency is the buzzword of leadership gurus du jour… But rather than being just another of the leadership programs of the month, I challenged a client to think of the benefits that leadership transparency brings to the leader/their organization. After all, the success of the company is greatly dependent on the commitment and motivation levels therein. This is especially true in organizations going through Mergers and Acquisitions. So in this post, we’ll attempt to answer “Is Leadership Transparency the Key to Success?” along with 6 Tips… Enjoy!

M&A: Is Leadership Transparency the Key to Success? – 6 Tips!

Leadership Transparency

The leadership transparency could be defined succinctly as communicating, mobilizing, sharing and delegating.

Consider that leaders have clients within the company: their collaborators on one-side and their co-leaders on the other.

  • To their hierarchical superiors/peers, they deliver performance.
  • To their collaborators, they provide strategic vision and support to achieve their goals.
  • To maximize the motivation of the clients, it is necessary to optimize the leadership transparency.

From the Mergers and Acquisition Leader’s perspective, these transparency moments almost entirely involve the leading/managing of people. Having great ideas and a strategic vision will not take you very far if your employees are not willing to follow you. I’ve often said that if no one is following you, are you really a leader?

Here then are 6 Tips presented as basic factors for leadership transparency success:

Tip #6 – Strategic Vision

Passion and a great business idea are not enough to succeed in business, especially during mergers and acquisitions. Your business needs a leadership strategy. Plan where you want to get it in five years and how you will do it.

Tip #5 – Identify and Retain Top Talent

The success of your business reflects the people who work there. The great leaders who have created successful businesses have in common the fact that they have surrounded themselves with talented, courageous and loyal employees. After recruiting them, invest in their development by providing them with training and coaching. Leadership transparency is seen as a service that builds a successful business.

Tip #4 – Delegation

Leaders in Mergers and Acquisitions, by nature, have a thought pattern when it comes to their business that they are convinced that no one can do better than them. Those who succeed are those who recognize leadership transparency moments, in that they are unable to fulfill the duties of President and/or C-Suite Leader by themselves. They share, delegate and reinforce the autonomy of their teams.

Tip #3 – Leading by Example

Be honest and ethical in everything. Have strong values. Set the tone. By all means lead the way by example!

Tip #2 – Ask for advice

Even if you know your industry well, mergers and acquisitions challenges change transformations in business so fast that even the most skilled leaders get bogged down in the details. Develop the leadership transparency to know the best transparent result, which sometimes comes from others through asking for their input/perspective. Unfortunately, most leaders during M&A are afraid to ask!?!

Tip #1 – Develop Tomorrows Leaders Today!

Leadership transparency should start at the top of the business, but leaders do not necessarily come from positions of power/title. Leadership mentality come from all levels of an organization. M&A activity almost forces leaders to Identify those future leaders and help them develop their leadership skills through training/coaching/mentoring/etc.

SUMMARY

In this post, we’ve explored the Mergers and Acquisition topic of “Is Leadership Transparency the Key to Success?” along with providing 6 Tips! If leadership transparency could be identified as the root cause of M&A success and/or failure, then a transparent leadership strategy could make for a successful path forward.

Sam Palazzolo

PS – If you or your organization are challenged as a result of M&A activity, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line and request future post titles! Here are a few of the other M&A titles previously published/in the works:

– Will Your M&A be a Success of Failure?

– The Importance of a M&A Strategic Plan – 3 Tips!

– Mergers & Acquisitions – Six Diversification Questions

– How to Successfully Survive Mergers & Acquisitions

– M&A: Creating Shareholder Value

– M&A: Should You Go For Stock or Cash?