Mr. Merger & Miss Acquisition: The Time is Imminent

By Rahul Goswami

The time is imminent – to fall in love, for Mr Merger and Miss Acquisition! The view, that can be synthesised with greater concur, is the genesis of a new transition that we all been smitten by. In the light of a large number of corporate takeovers, the diminishing thin line between the leaders and the laggards has led to a new meaning for the economic characteristics of an organisation. Which success drivers are of paramount significance? Answers could be manifold – competitive advantage, brand valuation, economies of scale, pricing parities or pricing disparities, or “Winner-takes-it-all” attitude in operational excellence.

[su_pullquote]The subsequent synergies out of these processes have the potential to uproot anomalies in business growth. [/su_pullquote]

But the judgment stands out from the crowd. The proliferation of standardising services and technology commoditization has been strongly reverberated by the current numbers in the frenzied market to up the ante.

With consumer experience yearning for lightspeed innovations, archaic business models of productization may not hold their ground for much longer. This holds true for all the inorganic business growth needs that are now revolutionising the Current Mode of Operations (CMO) by moving to Future Mode of Operations (FMO).

My Poetic Proposition towards Global Transformations says it all,

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The Time is Imminent

The time is imminent,
To press the panic button
To disarray the structured path,
To let the disruption return.

The victories of the past
Will proffer as the forgotten heroes
Basking in the old glories
Will offer you nothing, but zeroes.

The Gloomy and insane,
Ignored ideas looking in pain
The unstructured thoughts
will be asked to revive
The changing era will test you
To perish or survive.

Check your mind and heart,
For if, they are in unison
For if, the fledgling soul
Has found its meaning, its position.

‘Old habits die hard’ will be impasse,
Every moment will yearn for inclusion
The path you have traversed so far,
Will be asked to forgo, for succession.

For years, for ages,
Even from the time of sages
The man has progressed on ‘Competition’
Now the order of the time is-
‘Collaborate’ – for genesis of a new mission.

Oh dear, don’t fret,
This is delicacy, don’t neglect,
I am asking not more than handfu(l),
I am the change, ‘I’ am the new ‘you’

*I = Innovation[/su_quote][/su_column]

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Evidential Changes in Business Service Execution

Global business strategies rely heavily on stakeholders’ management and spiralling expectations. The dynamicity of the industry calls for a continuous effort to re-engineer or realign existing business processes and business policies.

Consider the stories of TCS-CMC, Capgemini-iGATE, Dell-Perot, HCL-CSC, Dell-EMC, and more recently, the HPE-CSC spin-off. We may even feel the thin air of something brewing between Yahoo and Twitter. These companies have learnt very poignant lessons about globalisation sourcing and innovative execution across functions and business units. As a result, they enjoy large benefits from enterprise-wide process improvements. That’s why, to build an unprecedented customer traction, organisations must effectively evolve within themselves.

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Trending Measures for Mr and Miss Success

This leaves us with two very important questions to ponder over. How successful are Merger & Acquisition (M&A) transactions? And which success drivers determine the transaction success?

Performance variations are far-sighted barometers; if the more imminent and intriguing challenges such as workforce integration, value proposition coverage/communication, client-base rationalisation and R&R (Roles & Responsibilities) democratisation fail to anchor at the safest shores.

Will Innovation Do the Trick?

Innovation and dynamic efficiencies carve out a leaf of prolonged discussions which limit the rise of parochial attitudes. Whether such attempts to gain market share have been made through the introduction of new or improved products (product innovation) or through service-dynamic competition (service/process innovation), hope for long-lasting leadership is established.

Innovation & Technology: A key to successful business | Photo Courtesy: Visualhunt

Million Dollar Question: An Outlook

Will we continue to see the transformations happening in the technology world? Absolutely.

[su_pullquote align=”right”]Racing ahead, the deal numbers should increase as the global economy and industrial landscape continues to imagine, innovate and improve. [/su_pullquote]

Strong growth in emerging markets, a rebound in equity prices and stronger company margins (driven, in part, by extremely minimal integration lapses) should fuel deals as well.

However, large and mega deals may be constrained by investors’ caution. Hesitation also arises from their aspiration to engage in deals that provide strong synergies and strategic benefits, rather than just global diversification. Consolidation in the developed world should be driven by firms’ exercise to grow in a mature and saturated industry. Emerging markets, on the other hand, should spur M&A activity since strong growth is expected in these regions. 

Based on these factors, we should be cautiously optimistic that the M&A environment will continue to grow drastically, sans any significant shock to the economy.

Hopefully, we will continue to witness more love affairs between Mr Mergers & Miss Acquisitions.

Wish them a happy marriage & an eternal honeymoon!

Editor’s note – This column was finalised and submitted for publication before Microsoft-LinkedIn M&A news.

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Rahul Goswami is a Bangalore based columnist and works in the areas of Sales & Solution Support Consulting to deliver technology solutions.