Abstract
M&A projects comprise all activities necessary to execute a transaction in which companies merge or another company is acquired. M&A deals have become an important strategic option for companies, although the risk of failure is high, as empirical evidence shows. The efficient management of an M&A project proves to be one of the key success factors for such transactions. Surprisingly this factor is neglected in most academic texts and empirical studies concerning the success of M&A. Based on the differentiation of three main phases of an M&A deal the paper derives recommendations for an explicit M&A project management approach. The structuring of the project, the selection of staff and the assignment of responsibilities are identified as the most important issues. Thus a process-oriented model for successfully managing M&A projects is developed. The model may be used as a reference for managing projects similar in complexity and content to M&A deals.
2003 Elsevier Ltd and IPMA. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Managing projects; Processes and procedures; Organisation resources; Organisation design
The Idea
The powerful CUBE platform is used during all three of the M&A phases and by using the CUBE Approach to model and depict both enterprises engaged in the M&A one could visualise two CUBEs (i.e., two digital twin copies for enterprise A & B) to be understood, integrated and solved post merger or acquisition.
The Outcome
- Holistic understanding and deep knowledge of both enterprises in rapid time
- Efficiency in both pre and post merger project activities
- Deep understanding of effort required to integrate or create synergies between the enterprises
- Faster realisation of business value post merger due to robustness of enterprise transformation activities
- Entrenched knowledge management enabled on cloud de-risking the overall investment
Andreas de Boer
