Intentional Growth #184: Agile M&A: Master the Process of Buying or Selling a Company to Close Faster and Maximize Value
If the "project" of acquiring a company is managed correctly, due diligence will be easier, closing the transaction will be faster and integration will be more fruitful for both the buyer and the seller.
Kison Patel is on the show today to share stories about billion dollar acquisitions being done on spreadsheets and why the Merger and Acquisition industry needs to catch up to the 21st century.
Kison is the founder of DealRoom (an M&A project management software) and has been through countless transactions himself that add up top hundreds of millions of dollars over his tenure, and it showed him how inefficient the actual process of acquiring and integrating a company is.
He explains how AGILE (a project management methodology that originated from the software industry) can help close deals faster and maximize the value post closing by getting all the stakeholders on both sides (executives teams, advisors, etc.) on the same page.
An AGILE approach can help keep the deal on track as things change, more people get involved and information flows (and tee up post closing integration to hit the ground running).
What you will learn:
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Why the M&A industry is falling behind and how technology and innovation can help
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Why the traditional selling/acquisition process isn’t always a smooth process
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The evolution of managing the project of acquiring / selling a business
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How to get all the stakeholders involved in selling/buying a business on the same page
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Why the post-closing integration team should be involved in due diligence
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How the software industry and the AGILE method of project management can be applied to M&A
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How to close deals faster and maximize the value post-closing for both the buyer and seller
Resources/Links:
The Agile M&A Practitioner’s Guide, Kison Patel, website
Kison Patel, email: kison@agilema.com
Reach out to me if you have questions about the boot camp!
You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.com, on my LinkedIn, or you can call me at 612-720-6530.
About Kison:
Kison Patel is the developer of Agile M&A as well as CEO and Founder of DealRoom, a project management solution for complex financial transactions. With nearly a decade of experience as an M&A advisor, he devoted his time to realizing and building solutions for more innovative, efficient and people-driven M&A. Through developing technology, educational content and industry training, He aims to bring better process management and methods to an industry with growing market pressures, transaction values, and competition.
Quotes:
19:57 – “The thing that I see a real lack of is, a real definition of what an operating framework is. Because we just go pursue an M&A deal and we don’t have a formal project management methodology in place. And that’s where a lot of these friction points happen. Thinking of that early on is probably one of the first and foremost things to do.” - Kison Patel
24:17 – “An easy way to look at AGILE is ‘adapting to what’s actually happening as it occurs.’ And if you look at the traditional way of doing things, you tend to map everything out all upfront and create this detailed plan. And then you basically follow the plan, which works when you know all the steps are there and you know what the end state looks like and everything is very predictable. ” - Kison Patel
01:12 – “One thing that I’ve learned after three and a half years of doing this podcast, in all of the education that I’ve had--consumed, honestly-- since we’ve sold the business, the whole mission was to learn everything I wish I would have known before we sold.” - Ryan Tansom
57:03 – “If you’re a seller or a buyer, you’re probably very excited about the transaction. Seller, you’re looking forward to some money while reducing some responsibility and getting some chips off the table. As a buyer, you’re looking forward to propelling your company and your professional career into the next level and through the infrastructure, or the clients, or the rate of return that you’re going to get on the sale. But the reality is, this is where the rubber hits the road.” - Ryan Tansom