‘Deal Ready’ Method

'Deal Ready' Method

M&A Deal Ready Method
M&A Fundamentals

Clarity and People Experience predict Deal Outcomes

Clarity and Leadership predict People Experience

Culture is perceived to be the greatest challenge

Capability and Execution are foundational

What we learned from our ground-breaking global research has inspired our M&A Fundamentals Framework. We bring this framework to life in a three stage ‘Deal Ready’ Method, designed to identify and address the people-related challenges dealmakers will face at each stage of the M&A cycle.

Get Insight

Know where you stand so you know what to do.

Amplify Essentials

20x your odds of meeting deal objectives.

Fix Foundation

Secure your table stakes.

Follow this research-based process and give laser-focus to your deal preparation investments.  Get your team and organization ‘deal ready’ ahead of upcoming M&A activity.   Or check progress and fine-tune your approach if your deal or integration is already underway.

Get Insight

We always begin with Insight, in either a small way or a big way, depending on circumstances and trade-offs. At it’s simplest, an individual ‘Deal Ready’ Snapshot Assessment will get a conversation rolling. At it’s most involved, an organization will undertake a full M&A Capability Audit. Whether you opt for a Team Assessment or a full M&A Capability Audit, either will give you the groundwork for creating and executing on your ‘Deal Ready’ Roadmap.

Amplify Essentials

To improve the probability of meeting deal objectives, we guide organizations to invest early and well in things that improve Leadership effectiveness and Clarity. Also to tackle the Culture challenge head on, beginning with their own culture.

If you are wondering where to start, you won’t be far off the mark if you:

  • Make sure that all business leaders and everyone who will work on your deal understands your business environment, purpose, business strategy and expected outcomes, business model and significant risks.
  • Get clear about why and how M&A fits into this context and work out how you will communicate about this going forward
  • Invest to build the capability and credibility of your leaders
  • Understand your current culture and come to a view about whether the culture you have is aligned to the culture you need to take your business forward.

Whatever you do, don’t delay. If you know you will be doing a deal in the future, it is never too early to focus on these essentials.

Fix Foundation

Capability and Execution are table stakes; the price of admission.

Anything that distracts from the main game is a risk to meeting deal objectives. Your investment in Capability and Execution will help you avoid the predictable pitfalls that come from not dealing with, or mishandling, people issues.  Strengthening this foundation will allow your deal and integration teams to conserve energy and focus resources on managing unpredictable risks, rather than struggling with issues that could have been avoided with foresight.

Putting It Together

One of the things that comes through strongly in our research is that it isn’t necessary to be perfect at Clarity and Leadership (and presumably other M&A Fundamentals) in order to improve the odds of meeting deal objectives. It is entirely possible to improve results by intervening with your key leaders in short, sharp, practical bursts to hit the high points of each element. And then to reinforce by circling back in your normal business rhythm to systematically build M&A awareness and capability through your organization.

M&A Deal Ready Method

If an organization is not deal ready, with these M&A Fundamentals covered, it will be an uphill battle to create expected value from deals. And when deal objectives are met in spite of ineffective practices, this usually is at the expense of people in some form. Organizations that take preparation short cuts will leave value on the table, whether or not official milestones are met, missing opportunities to further improve on deal outcomes.

The key is being systematic; preparing on purpose and with clear intention. When it comes to growth by M&A, don’t make it up as you go along. Our guiding model sets out the high point actions for each element so these can be built into your normal business rhythm. By preparing cleverly, you won’t have to add extra time to the days of your team – you just need to be sure you consider the impact of these M&A Fundamentals on your business as a whole, and on your deals specifically, when setting your priorities and focus.