Interviews with experts
How to Structure Teams Approaching M&A Diligence
Every company that does M&A has varying team sizes and many attributing factors as to how their deal team is currently constructed.
How to Negotiate and Structure NDAs
An NDA is not a routine document in an M&A deal. It is vital in setting up the relationship of both parties as they move forward. Discussing in-depth how to negotiate and structure NDAs in an M&A deal is Mark Khavkin, CFO at Pantheon Platform.
Buy or Build Considerations in M&A
Before you start making any acquisition, buy or build considerations should always be a part of your decision. In this interview, Cameron Weiner, VP of Strategic Development, Head of M&A at Shopko Optical, shares how he determines if you should buy or build.
Engineering Deals for Success
M&A deals are never easy and require rigorous planning. But despite its complexities. There is a way to increase your chances of success. According to Punit Micocha, EVP, Corporate Development at Zscaler, it's all about planning what the end state would look like right from the start.
How to Create a Successful GTM Strategy
A GTM strategy is one of the most critical parts of an integration plan. In this episode, Pragnya Kashinath, Director of M&A at Cognizant, talks about how to create a successful GTM strategy from the very beginning of the transaction and the challenges that go with it.
How to Manage Sourcing Diligence and Integration
Managing an entire acquisition is pretty daunting, especially if you are new to the process. This is probably why two people are leading the charge in any M&A deal; a deal lead and an integration lead. Each has its own roles and responsibilities but are equally important. Let's all learn how to manage sourcing, diligence, and integration from two of the industry's top minds: Sabeeh Khan, Director, Corporate Strategy & Development at Syniti, and Aaron Whiting, M&A Integration and Strategic Programs at ContinuumCloud.
Staying True To Your Culture in M&A
Culture can kill a deal, and Trish Mosconi, Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer & Corporate Development at Synchrony, proves it. They walked away from a deal due to massive cultural differences and could not see a way to integrate the business in their organization.
How to Commit to Integration from Start to Finish
Fully committing to integration starts with a deep partnership between corp dev and integration. Learn all about it, featuring Karen Ashley, Vice President of Corporate Development Integration at Cisco.
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Transformative M&A
We all know that M&A can transform a business overnight if the deal is done correctly. However, not everyone knows how to make transformative M&A successful. In this article, Duncan Painter, CEO at Ascential Plc, talks about transformational deals for their company and how they make it successful.
Managing Infrequent Acquisitions
Peter Linas, CPO & EVP Corporate Development at Bullhorn, talks about how his corporate development team looks like in an infrequent acquisition environment and how they hire external consultants to make their deals successful.
Executing a Divestiture without a Bank
Regardless of popular belief, a company can execute divestitures without a bank with the right amount of dedication and resources. Having done it multiple times, Russ Hartz, VP Corp Dev at Ansys, will be helping us understand the process and some of the best practices during this transaction.
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Hunting Deals in M&A
Finding the right deals is hard, especially if you're looking for companies that don't want to be found. In this episode, Dustin Intihar, Director, M&A, and Strategic Alliances at Lubrizol, talks about how to hunt deals in M&A the right way.
How to Preserve Value in M&A Post-Acquisition
Value often gets destroyed in M&A. Jay Dettling, CEO of Ansira, has been on both sides of the deal. In this episode, we're talking about preserving value post-acquisition, and his advice to CEOs getting acquired for the first time.
Buy and Build Strategy
PE firms have a very short term holding period and need to grow businesses fast. Adam Coffey, CEO at CoolSys, Refrigeration and HVAC Systems, is an expert on growing these companies using the buy and build strategy. In this article, he will share what it is and how to create sustainable success.
Evolving Your M&A Integration Function
Transitioning to fully remote M&A transactions is not easy but very doable. With the proper tools and proper techniques to manage your people across these technologies, your M&A process can run smoothly.
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How to Realize Deal Value
Integration is where you realize deal value and you need to focus on it from the very start. In this episode, Michael Devita, Success Strategy Lead at Salesforce, is going to talk about lessons that he learned from executing successful integration and how to successfully realize deal value in M&A.
How to use Multiple Deal Structures to Make Partnerships Successful in India
Reliance Retail is one of the fastest-growing retailers in the world. Learn how they manage multiple deal structures to make their partnerships successful directly from their President and CEO, Darshan Mehta.
Executing Divestitures
Divestiture is not the reverse of an acquisition, and it takes more work and preparation. In this episode, Rhonda Rein, Director, Corporate Development at Thomson Reuters, helps us understand where divestiture starts, how TSA work and what happens after close.
The Truth About Change Management
Preserving the value of the acquired company should be the number one priority in any deal. Of course, any buyer would want to get what they paid for in the first place. But more often than not, value leaks post-close. Even though there are many reasons why this is happening, one could argue that it is mostly about people.
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How to Manage Multi-Vertical Strategies
Managing a multi-vertical M&A strategy requires a high performing team, full of perpetual learners and with a strong appetite for risk taking. In this episode, Ailene Holderness, Head of M&A at IAC, talks about how they manage their multi-vertical strategy and how to build a high performing M&A team.
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Managing M&A on a High Scale
Managing M&A on a high scale takes good governance and clear strategy. In this episode, Jeff Bender, CEO at Harris, explains their entire M&A process on how they are able to do massive volumes of deals every year.
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How To Successfully Execute Deals With a Small Team
You don't need a huge M&A team to do deals successfully. With the right strategy in a specialized industry, you can make your process more efficient. In this episode, Jason Lippert, CEO of LCI Industries, shares how they successfully execute deals with a small team.
Managing Internal Dynamics
One of the most critical roles as head of corporate development is managing your internal team and dynamics. In this episode, Randy Tinsley, Vice President of Strategy & Corporate Development at Synopsys, breaks down how to get internal alignment, build your team, and set them up for success.
Why You Need To Ask Less During Diligence
When conducting due diligence, you want to be as thorough as possible. But it can also take a lot of time, money and resources to complete. James Harris, Principal of Corporate Development Integration at Google shares why we need to take a different approach to due diligence and how it can help your company in the long run.
Why You Should Execute A Divestiture Without A Bank?
Most companies hire banks to help them prepare for the sale, but it's not a requirement. Russ Hartz, VP of Corporate Development at Ansys talks about the pros and cons here.
Deal Origination From a PE investors Perspective
PE firms source deals differently from strategic buyers. Jay Jester, Partner at Plexus Capital, LLC, breaks it down into three categories; Brand Building Exercise, Customer Focus, and Setting up a System.
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How to Approach Diligence
Due Diligence is a crucial process that sets the tone for an acquisition. But how do you perform due diligence? Before we can understand how diligence gets done, we have to understand the goals associated with due diligence.
How To Negotiate Like a Pro
Negotiating is part of our daily lives. In this episode, we will be discussing how to effectively negotiate like a pro by determining how much leverage we have with the other party. Also, what skills are required for you to improve your negotiation skills.
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Conducting M&A without a Dedicated Team
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need a dedicated M&A team to execute successful transactions. With proper team alignment and motivation, getting deals done is very much possible. In this episode, Alexi Venneri, founder and CEO of Digital Air Strike, shares her process as to why she thinks not having a dedicated team is actually better.
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How SS&C Conducts Acquisitions
Every acquirer has different strategies for their acquisitions. In this episode, we look at SS&C's system on how they look at deals, how they approach integration, and how they preserve the target company's value.
Behind the Scenes: Effective Deal Sourcing and Closing
Building out a brand new corporate development function can be challenging, especially if you don't know where to start.
How Empathy Makes Mergers and Acquisitions Successful
Why is it that some acquisitions are successful and some are not? Acquisitions can fail for reasons of strategy or execution. While no one can predict the future regarding market changes, an acquiring company can control how they execute on integrating the acquired company.
Conversations From the Frontlines
A strategic alliance can be a powerful tool that can help companies achieve specific goals. But what exactly is an alliance? And why do companies do it? To help us understand more about alliances, we've asked the expert Emma Barton, Director, Alliance and Integration Management at AstraZeneca, to help us in this discussion.
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Joint Ventures at Scale
Joint ventures are typically more complicated than traditional M&A because there are more parties involved, and everyone has to agree on many items. But with the right approach and model, a joint venture can run smoothly.
How to Prepare a Business for Private Equity Acquisition
Trade shows is an industry that is often underlooked. However, it is gaining more and more attention now from PE firms. Learn how to prepare your business for a private equity acquisition, featuring Philip Soar, Executive Chairman, and CEO of CloserStill Group PLC.
From Private to Public Company
Going from private company to public is a huge transition, especially from a CEO's perspective. It adds more responsibility and more reporting to more people. In this episode, Darren Lampert, CEO at GrowGeneration Corp, shares his good and bad experiences in this transition. He also talks about how this change affects their approach to M&A.
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How To Prevent International Deals From Failing
Have you ever wondered why international deals fail so often? Hear from AGCO Corporation's former CEO, Martin Richenhagen, about how leaders can prevent these types of deals from failing.
How to Build a Collaborative M&A Process Across the Deal Life Cycle
In this webinar, I discuss the common challenges that M&A practitioners face within their deals, and how project management software can solve these challenges and improve your overall process.
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Why Is M&A Integration So Hard?
If you ask any M&A practitioner, most will tell you the integration phase is the hardest. Learn why this is the case and how you can get through integration with ease.
Positive Employee Experience is Key to Successful M&A
When critical employees leave the company after the deal closes, the overall value of the deal can be destroyed. A positive employee experience will help a lot with employee retention and significantly increase the likelihood of achieving success for the deal.
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Effective M&A Deal Sourcing
An effective deal sourcing is all about relationships. This discussion talks about how to approach your target and get past gatekeepers.
Importance of Quality of Earnings
Quality of earnings is a crucial part of any company sale. It allows you to get a picture of the company's real value being sold and an overview of what it would look like on another ownership. Preparing a QofE analysis will help you negotiate better whether you are a buyer or a seller.
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How Diligence and Integration Planning Can Frame a Successful Valuation
Contrary to popular belief, Diligence and Integration actually frames the success of valuation. Valuation needs to be adjusted all the time as you discover more things in the process. The diligence and integration planning are the inputs and the valuation is the output.
What Successful Integration Looks Like
Why is it that some acquisitions are successful and some are not? Acquisitions can fail for reasons of strategy or execution. While no one can predict the future regarding market changes, an acquiring company can control how they execute on integrating the acquired company.
How to Build an M&A Center of Excellence from Scratch
These are the steps into building an M&A center of excellence from scratch. It's not going to be easy, but it will be a great tool for your company.
Aligning People For a Better Integration
The deal sponsor and the entrepreneur need to have a good relationship and alignment of the entire deal to succeed. Both parties need to understand and agree as to what will happen to the company post-close.
Conversations From the Frontlines
A strategic alliance can be a powerful tool that can help companies achieve specific goals. But what exactly is an alliance? And why do companies do it?
Career Paths in M&A
What role you come from is not as important as the skills and expertise that you offer. Different companies have different views of why M&A is valuable to them. In this discussion, Matt shares how you can navigate the different career paths in M&A.
Executing M&A from a Legal Perspective
Deals have become more complicated in the last 18 months from a legal perspective. But pandemic or not, you need to be aware of certain risks that can stop the entire deal altogether. Knowing how to mitigate them will help you close the deal faster and more efficiently.
Managing Communication Workstream
There are a lot of things that you should consider when building a communication strategy. Knowing how to manage your communication workstream is crucial in keeping the value of the business.
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