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Hello M&A friends and Happy New Year!
To close out 2020, I want to share my top 10 M&A Science episodes of the year with you all. Each one has valuable takeaways and lessons learned from top practitioners you can apply to your own practices.
1. The HR Practitioner’s Guide to Mergers & Acquisitions Due Diligence
This interview features Klint Kendrick, Chair of HR M&A Roundtable. Klint was a former director of M&A, HR at Oracle, and HR M&A leader at Boeing. This episode was a discussion on topics such as bringing HR in early to the deal, the definition of due diligence, deal killers, and how to weigh risks.
Listen to Klint's interview here.
2. Working With Private Sellers
Isaac Lund sat down with me for this interview about how to get the best outcome when working with a private seller. Isaac is VP of Corporate Development and M&A at National Express LLC. We covered topics such as whether to work with a private seller or an advisor, what happens to the leadership of the seller, and finding good deal representation.
Listen to Isaac's interview here.
3. Structuring Talent Focused Acquisitions
On this episode of M&A Science, I interviewed Christina Ungaro, Head of Corporate Development at JLL, about how to structure a talent-focused acquisition. Christina breaks down what a talent-focused acquisition truly is, how to make that kind of acquisition successful, and all the necessary components your team needs to consider when executing this specific transaction.
Listen to Christina's interview here.
4. How Proactive Integration Engagement Can Differentiate Value in Deals
This interview features Johanna Tseng, M&A Integration Leader at Coinbase. She's an M&A expert with a demonstrated history of leading acquisitions through integration and high growth environments. In this discussion, we talked about how proactive integration engagement can differentiate value and deals. Learn how to position yourself to optimize integration planning, steps in developing an M&A integration program, and the benefits of building an integration process pre-diligence.
Listen to Johanna's interview here.
5. How to Build and Align a Corporate Development Team with Multiple Mandates
Jeremy Segal, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at Progress, sat down with me to discuss building and aligning a corporate development team with multiple mandates. Throughout this interview you'll learn about the ideal method of getting a prospect onboard and how to find the right people that can do all the various growth deal types.
Listen to Jeremy's interview here.
6. How to Build an M&A Center of Excellence from Scratch
On this episode of M&A Science, I interviewed Philip Pratt, Director, Acquisition Integration at Corning Incorporated, about building an M&A center of excellence from scratch. Philip has been at Corning for over eleven years, working in every aspect of M&A from being Director of M&A integration and even as Director of Acquisition Integration of Corning Glass Technologies in Japan.
Listen to Philip's interview here.
In this interview I spoke with Kimberly Baird, Corporate Development Integration Lead at Cisco. She’s responsible for driving the successful integration of acquired organizations into Cisco by implementing best practice methodology rooted in M&A-specific project and change management developed over 200+ acquisitions. Throughout the interview she shares tips on how to adjust your M&A practice to a virtual process.
Listen to Kimberly's interview here.
8. Building a Corporate Development Function From Scratch
Russ Hartz and I discussed the process of building a corporate development function from start to finish. Russ is VP of Corporate Development at ANSYS, Inc. and former VP of Corporate Development at SAP. In this interview Russ shares his opinion and lessons he's learned from his years of experience on the benefits of a corporate development function.
Listen to Russ's interview here.
9. Aligning People in M&A for a Better Outcome
In this episode, I spoke with Carlos Cesta, Vice President of Corporate Development at Presidio, about aligning leadership for greater deal success. Together we discussed leveraging employees to ensure deal success, when to start thinking about integration, and developing a joint integration plan.
Listen to Carlos's interview here.
10. Assimilating Unique Cultures in M&A
Kim Jones, Senior HR M&A Manager at Microsoft, and I discussed what company culture is, at what of the deal to consider it, and how to assess the company culture. Hear Kim’s advice on identifying the early signs of a bad fit, how to minimize fear, and how to accommodate the target company’s culture. She also gives insight as to what affects culture that you may not expect, the challenges that arise when assimilating different cultures, and what some non-negotiables are.
Listen to Kim's interview here.