M&A Project Management & Governance: The M&A Playbook

M&A initiatives are typically highly complex: Internal capabilities might be supplemented by external expertise, for example, by insourcing consulting or investment banking services. Cross-border deals involve multi-country settings with the risk of culture clashes. Besides, the combination of two companies with different origins is per se an endeavour. Nevertheless, transactions are in the end also simply projects: The starting point of a dedicated M&A project within the Enbedded M&A Strategy phase is as soon as a specific target is chosen to be in detail investigated, typically triggering an indicative offer. The end point is the post-mortem report of the Integration Management. Each transaction has to be orchestrated by a fast, robust and high quality M&A Process Management. On a higher, tacit knowledge level, the M&A Process Management builds a bridge between the early stage diagnostics of M&A capabilities up to the institutionalized fostering of the in-house M&A knowledge after every transaction. As discussed in Chap. 3 , transactions have foremost a significant impact on the acquirer’s financials, valuation and strategy. This triggers a significant C-level exposure. Project Governance, Compliance and an orchestrated Process Management with clear-cut milestones and board approvals are therefore mandatory. New vibrant ecosystems and business strategies revitalizing corporate portfolios will challenge the M&A department environment of the 20s. A canvas of likely necessary M&A capabilities and potential designs of the future M&A organization is therefore part of this chapter. Additionally, digital solutions and new technologies, like big data, machine-learning algorithms or AI will revolutionize the M&A market, capabilities and tools. The final subchapter tries to give an outlook on how these technologies might be applied to improve speed, quality, robustness and efficiency of M&A transactions in the 20s.