By Barbara Mitchell
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) were at an all-time high in 2015. There is some indication that they will slow down in 2016 because it is an election year, but probably not by much. However, just because there are a lot of mergers does not mean that they are successful. In fact, at least half of all mergers and acquisitions are not successful—which means, they don’t meet the long-term revenue goals set out that define success.
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What happens in a typical organization when someone has an idea that perhaps they should consider merging or acquiring one of their competitors? A team is put together to research next steps and the team usually is comprised of the CEO, the CFO, and maybe the Chief Marketing Officer.
So the focus is necessarily on the numbers—what is it going to cost us to make the deal? What new markets will we get from this transaction? How will this merger increase our revenue, our profits, and our shareholder value?
I am not saying those things aren’t important because they not only are important—they’re critical to making any kind of decision to acquire or merge. What I’m saying is that something is missing—the people who will make all the dreams come true!