ACQUISITION MINI MBA

Better Process = Better Candidates
Better Transactions

* Acquire key tools to help your company effectively locate the right acquisition/joint venture candidates and complete the best transaction with the greatest efficiency.

* Discover the best strategy, resources, & process (learn where to find the biggest available pool of qualified candidates, how to attract them, & how to manage multiple candidates over time).

* Create a meaningful corporate criteria model (to measure candidates by).

* Get the best information management systems & learn the difference between golden information & useless data.

Negotiations, integration, and relationships (from beginning to end) successful acquisitions require financial and non financial understanding and monitoring.

Combine team building with effective methods, resources, and training.

Organize your team around a powerful approach to finding the best targets and completing successful acquisitions for your company.

On your site or at our location.

Contact; Mike@PackardAcquisitions.com

952-542-9318

PackardAcquisitions.com

Death By Acquisition

Death by Acquisition

 

Not knowing where the rocks are drowns many acquisition teams.  

Executing any step poorly increases the risk of failure.  

1.   Knowing what to look for and how to investigate target candidates is a process that needs to be made measurable.

A robust assumption challanging corporate exercise to determine the most important and least important attributes is critical piece of any acquisition.   This process should  include definable/measurable risk management questions, and core corporate strategies.

2.   A system for affordable mass contact and information gathering and data management insures a more useful information system and a higher number of qualified candidates with a higher measure of success.  Not knowing how to do this dooms us to the stone age practice of calling brokers and combing the yellow pages.

A recent client had investigated over one hundred poorly identified companies over four years with one small success.  Another company investigated fewer candidates, but they spent years pursuing companies located all over the world, with attendant costs, and no success.  Executive pay, travel, due diligence have been in the millions of dollars.

Fortunately neither company succumbed to the pressure of making a bad purchase (a very common problem), for that would have cost them many times more.

3.    Being smart in valuation in these difficult times demands having a finger on the pulse and the ability to make and defend the right offer.  This is no easy task without being tied in to professional organisation that monitors this information.  We are prone to hip shoot this process.  

Included in valuation is the snapshot integration financial and nonfinancial assumptions that must be predicted based on limited information that will be useful only if the process for information gathering is disciplined.  Without an accurate view of the combined entities, all valuations are at risk.

My experience points to extreme optimism about upside valuation and integration.

4.   Negotiation/deal structure/finance is of course the core of a deal.  Personalities, deal structure, math, and assumptions are either all right, or they are all wrong.  Any doubt in this area and now is the time to stop.  If the first three steps were executed wisely and well, this step is much easier.

5.  Acquisition integration chaos is more accurate terminology in many companies.  From CRM, HR, to the operations, integration professonals can save relationships, efficiencies, and businesses.  So often corporate branding, technology, and culture are shocked and damaged through an unprofessional, or inadequate approach brought in with the acquiring firm.  Valuations are negatively affected and it takes years to right the wrongs that occurred in a poorly executed integration.  

Only rarely have I seen mid market companies execute this step with any finesse or professionalism.  http://www.tx2systems.com/  can be helpful.

There are many distinct pieces to acquisition.  Companies that understand the process do well consistently.   Companies that fail to grasp the comlexities and learn the disciplines, seldom attempt a second acquisition.

Mike Tikkanen

www.packardacquisitions.com

 

 

 

Have something to add? 

Got a different point of view, want to play devil’s advocate, or just think we’re all wet? Post your experiences or examples.

 

Brand Management in an M & A Environment

         

Brand Management in an M&A Environment

In a solid and well-managed integration, prior planning of branding and transitioning customer loyalty and name recognition is a thoughtful and deliberate process. Leadership makes the time for careful consideration of how to maximize the brand equity and retention while removing ego from the equation.

Now lets talk reality. Have you ever seen the dominant player in a merger or acquisition impose their branding even when the product already has strong market share and loyalty? 

I’ll assert that the ego’s involved were bigger than the combined annual revenue of both companies.

There are too many variables for there to be one single solution or ‘best’ way to integrate brands. 

Consider the market – is it local, regional, national? (e.g. Micro-Brewery brand may not translate to a national market)

Consider the target demographic – are they fiercely loyal? (e.g. Apple Computer)

Consider the future – which brand is better positioned for the inevitable changes in the market place? (Sprint’s CDMA technology or Nextel’s iDEN technology)

In November of 1998, when Norwest Corp officially acquired Wells Fargo, the decision was made to use the Wells Fargo brand. As a native Minnesotan and Norwest customer, I had more affinity for the Norwest brand. But a dispassionate review of the facts shows that the right decision was made. Wells Fargo had a more extensive and storied past and was perceived to have better traction in a national market.

It might be that the driving force behind the merger or acquisition is about technology or distribution channels – but at some point, that technology or channel will be marketed to customers. So I’ll leave you with this:

No customers. No revenue.

Know customers. Know revenue.

Contributed by Damon Kocina, Owner, Strategic Graphics, Inc.

Strategic Graphics emphasizing an integrated design formula to tie Branding, Positioning, Print, Web, Trade Journal, and Trade Show events into a cohesive message and presentation.

 

Have something to add? 

Got a different point of view, want to play devil’s advocate, or just think we’re all wet? Post your experiences or examples.