Just spotted this article on LinkedIn and we are being asked about this a lot.
The key seems to be from IP to talent, how can organisations maximize value while minimizing the risk?
The first thing we find companies look at is digital maturity. This may sound like I'm stating the bleeding obvious but companies are now asking just "how digital a company is"? It's leadership team, it's people and the digital processes beneath this.
In the past, companies got "ready" for M&A b y buying new IT systems, as the acquirer will probably dump these systems in terms of economies of scale, this isn't a driver anymore. What companies are looking for are the underlying absorption of digital within the business. At both the leadership level and the acceptance of digital by the staff.
We all know that the success of M&A is about the people and the process, rather than the systems. But how do you measure "digital"?
Simple, you can measure a business, it's leadership team, the employees and their competition in terms of digital competency. The acquirer can do this as part of the due-diligence process as a companies digital footprint, or lack of it, is available online. As one of my team said to me recently "there is no hiding with social".
If a management team, it's staff isn't digital, you have the challenge to move them in that direction and that effort and cost, has to be taken into account as part of that mergers and acquisition process.
If you are in the mergers and acquisitions business, that could be acquiring companies, looking to be acquired or even looking for venture capital or angel investment. Your active and passive social media presence is now central to your success. Both that of your management team as well as your staff.
Being able to measure that with publicly available data hasn't been available until today. The ability to measure social media impact, especially talent, is central to a M&A strategy today. Worth a chat maybe?
Faced with increasing volatility, organizations may find organic growth harder to achieve – merging with or acquiring another company is one way to expand. This past year has seen little to no slowdown in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity, which hit record levels in the first half of 2018.
