Strategic decision making

If your firm is considering a merger, acquisition or restructuring, it’s critical for everyone involved to be in full agreement. The best way to achieve this is to make sure a clear strategy is put in place right at the start.

This might sound simple in theory, but it doesn’t always work that way in practice. In real life, achieving an all-partner consensus can be anything but straightforward. We help firms like you to identify, develop and agree on your strategic aims for moving forward.

For acquirers, these strategic reasons could be based on:

  • Geographical growth.
  • Attracting new types of client.
  • Expanding existing niche services.
  • Acquiring new practice areas.
  • Benefitting from the economy of scale of a larger business.
  • Assuring succession plans if the existing owners are approaching retirement or considering alternative opportunities.

For sellers, the above reasons might be driven by additional concerns such as:

  • A lack of profitability.
  • Insufficient management skills.
  • Insufficient critical mass.
  • Partner disputes.

Whatever the reasons behind your firm’s decision to seek change, it’s vital to recognise and accept where you stand in the process. There are very few ‘true mergers’, where two firms of equal size and value come together. It’s far more typical for one party to effectively be the buyer and the other the seller. Working with this fact rather than against it can have a positive effect on the negotiation process.

The great value of working with an experienced mergers and acquisitions professional is that they can offer an outside perspective on these strategic decisions and help to identify the most appropriate merger partners. We can also empower firms to adopt a negotiation style that’s likely to reap the most benefits.

Questions such as where all parties stand in the merger process, how the value of each firm should be calculated and whether there’s a culture fit can be difficult to answer, especially for those who are heavily invested in the process. In these situations, a professional lead advisor or honest broker can make a world of difference.

If you’re looking for specialist help to plan strategically and move forward, please get in touch for a no-obligation chat about how we could help.