Winning at Mergers and Acquisitions : The Guide to Market-Focused Planning and Intergration

A comprehensive new framework for winning at Mfrom up-front planning to postmerger integration The challenges of mergers and acquisitions can be daunting-but the opportunities and benefits they offer forward-thinking companies can be tremendous. Winning at Mergers and Acquisitions offers a critical new approach to strategic M&A based on the authors' pioneering concept of marketing due diligenceSM. Covering every stage of market-driven M&A planning and integration, this book shows how to look beyond the quick hit to focus on long-term growth rather than short-term cost-cutting. Featuring dozens of real-life case studies-including both failures and extraordinary successes-plus inside comments from leading M&A specialists, this book contains crucial guidance on: * Predeal planning-how to identify your strategic needs and pinpoint the merger candidate(s) that will help you meet them * Sizing up targets for acquisition-how to examine the essential marketing, sales, and product issues that will determine a good company "fit,".strategically and culturally * Revenue enhancement planning-how to identify ways to drive top-line growth and develop action plans to generate near- and long-term revenues * Filling the pipeline-how to prioritize and actualize the critical steps necessary to drive shareholder value * Developing communication programs-how to design and execute communication strategies to garner support for the merger by employees, customers, and other stakeholders * Building a comprehensive postmerger integration plan-how to align diverse corporate cultures, develop training and reward programs, and move beyond the turf wars and lack of productivity that hamper the success of mergers and acquisitions. Last year more than 7,000 mergers and acquisitions were completed, with a collective price tag estimated at more than $800 billion. And although they are known as highly effective means of achieving corporate growth and strategic advantage, these transactions are fraught