Your business is successful and the next step for growth is to buy other businesses. This is a great opportunity for your company to get to the next level, but be aware that an acquisition can be risky. About 6 out of 10 acquisitions fail to deliver the expected results.
Buy wisely!
Do not rush and do your due diligence to know what you are buying, what the value is of the company you are interested in. Know about the history of the company, how many times it has changed owners and the reasons why.
A cheap company is not necessarily a good deal. If the current owner is selling at a discount, he must have a good reason and you’d better find out.
The best takeovers are acquisitions of well-run companies with a good track record. They have the least amount of potential trouble entering your business and their staff have a positive attitude. Only drawback for the short-term for you is that such good businesses are not cheap. However the return on the investment is likely to be quite good. Poorly performing companies sold cheaply, on the contrary… Should you choose to go for such wrecks, make sure you know how to fix up a business and first of all, get rid of all the managers that have brought that company in its current state, they only would undermine your company.
Manage efficiently!
Once, you have bought your takeover target, make sure things go very fast.
Although you might have not yet decided who should get which position in the new company, you must have already decided how the final organization chart should look like. Move toward this structure as quickly as possible, but do not rush into that either. Make sure you know the potential of all the staff you will now have. Do not lose talents, but find ways of making a good use of it; this is easier than having to go look for them again in the future as they might not be available anymore.
The key for a successful merger is intensive communication, a very hands-on and practical approach. Tell everyone what your vision is, how you see it getting executed and be open to challenging remarks, as there will be many of them. Intensive communication prevents insecurity, gossip and politics. On this last point, have a zero tolerance policy: do not allow politics of any kind, especially when you risk to have a poisonous conflict between newcomers and existing employees from your original company.
Do not spend much time on philosophical and intellectual activities about company cultures, the theory of mergers, hollow slogans such as “mergers of equals”. You need the right structure with position filled by the right people to execute the strategy and that is all.
When you hire new people, you do not waste time telling them about the theory of job hunting or treat them with false compassion. You just do it.
If you have to figure out the strategy after the merger, clearly you bought without a plan. Remember that the failure of preparation is the preparation of failure.
Good luck with your next acquisition!
Copyright 2009 The Happy Future Group Consulting Ltd.
Christophe Pelletier
Sheryl Hunter
The Happy Future Group 