It is reported that 70-90% of mergers & integrations don’t deliver the value that justified the acquisition. There are many reasons, but the primary ones that tank ROI are a lack of focus related to Strategy, Culture, Project Management, Customers and Sales. Post merger integration failures typically fall into what we call the 5th stage of M&A: Alignment and Optimization which completes the integration.   In order to help companies understand the depth of this challenge, Group50 has developed a post merger integration ( PMI ) playbook (more…)

February 11, 2019 – (Upland, CA) – Group50, a privately-held, full-service supply chain consultancy founded in 2004 is pleased to recap its 2018 results and announce the addition of Lara Abrams to its team of executives.  (more…)

Yankee Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra once said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll wind up somewhere else.” A business interpretation: strategy needs to guide your efforts and your company’s Strategic Execution™– how effectively you implement your strategy — distinguishes whether you’ll win or be an also-ran. One of the ways effective businesses stay on course is understanding in detail where they have been, what successes they have had in execution and where they have come up short. All too often companies (more…)

Earlier this week, SanDisk announced its latest M&A deal: the acquisition of Fusion-IO. In the company’s press release, the CEO made the following statement:

With its fifth enterprise-focused acquisition since 2011, the Milpitas company known for selling memory cards to consumers and gadget manufacturers is officially “a one-stop shop” for enterprise customers as well, CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said Monday, which he believes (more…)

During a recent meeting of 40 M&A professionals, I facilitated a discussion around the results of a 1999 KPMG study on the success of Mergers and Acquisitions in large companies. This study indicated that 83% of mergers and acquisitions fail to increase share holder value. The M&A professionals who participated in this discussion represented middle market mergers and acquisitions. Members of the group were asked three questions: (more…)

Large cash positions coupled with historically low interest rates make mergers and acquisitions an obvious strategic choice for companies to significantly improve their performance. As companies increase their Mergers and Acquisitions activity, there is a need for a well thought through program assure the successful integration of new companies with different cultures and business processes. It is reported by KPMG that (more…)

During a keynote address at IIR’s Balanced Scorecard Forum, Robert Kaplan, a leading international business management guru, revealed “that less than 10% of formulated strategies are executed effectively” and an international survey indicated that consistently executing strategic objectives were in the top three concerns of CEO’s and corporate boards. Kaplan also added “that it is a well know fact that organizations who have a formal strategy execution process dramatically outperform the rest”. Effectively and consistently implementing corporate strategy requires all stakeholders to be aligned to those objectives, understand their role in achieving them and be accountable for effective implementation. If your company doesn’t have a formal process, then the hard work is figuring out what one looks like. A strategic execution process must (more…)