Kalle Kilpi 
Introduction This article showcases how ChatGPT can serve as an effective M&A consultant by demonstrating how it can be used to help develop a best practices-based M&A playbook. An M&A playbook is a comprehensive framework that guides an organization’s M&A activities from start to finish. Developing an M&A playbook is typically a challenging and time-consuming … Read more
The introduction of ChatGPT and GPT-4 marks a significant transformation in the way all types of ‘knowledge work’, including M&A and corporate development, will be carried out. As someone who has been thinking about how to develop specialized software for M&A every day for the last 10 years, I have never been more excited about … Read more
Programmatic deal sourcing starts with determining what you want to acquire. That is often easier said than done. Different stakeholders have various urgent strategic priorities, attractive target companies, views about market changes, and other inputs that all make compelling arguments towards going in different directions. To bring clarity to the M&A Program (and everyone on the … Read more
McKinsey’s study of 2,000 US public companies over 20 years showed that the shareholder value of companies relying on a Programmatic M&A approach performed better than comparable companies relying on Opportunistic Deals, big-bang Mega Deals or an Organic approach (doing little to no M&A at all). Programmatic M&A involves following a disciplined approach to making many similar, smaller deals that accrue to … Read more
Our newest platform, Pipeline+ is a CRM purpose-built for M&A. We have been busy adding exciting new features into this centralized, intuitive tool that helps M&A professionals manage relationships, build a pipeline of opportunities, and report on real progress.
Note: There is a link to the live Synergy Planner at the end of this page. M&A due diligence has traditionally focused on skimming through countless legal agreements, financial documents, board meeting minutes, and other materials to spot red flags that might reduce the value of the acquired company. This due diligence is often performed by … Read more
Traditional M&A reporting – on your pipeline, on the progress of acquisitions, or on the status of integrations – is typically tedious and time-consuming. The deliverables are static, short-lived, crowded with irrelevant information and are often missing the right pipeline metrics or progress information. Preparing for weekly meetings or presentations to leadership turns into lengthy … Read more
Not too long ago, corporate development departments were focused almost exclusively on acquisitions. Now, these teams run a whole spectrum of deal types including corporate venturing, divestments, joint ventures, alliances and partnerships. Additionally, companies have started to systematize key processes beyond the core deal sourcing, M&A due diligence and central integration management. Now, key value capture and … Read more
In looking to establish an M&A process, it’s important to start with the basics and add detail gradually. A common mistake is to “copy & paste” a sophisticated best practice process and to attempt layering it upon your organization. While the process might look great on paper, in reality there are likely to be too … Read more
People usually love the idea of standardizing their M&A playbook and building an “M&A machine” or an “acquisition factory.” However, the immediate follow-up questions are: How much you can really standardize the M&A process? Does it depend on whether I do many smaller deals or a large mega deal? Smaller deals typically follow a more standard … Read more