Book Description
Financial planning is a young industry. The International Association of Financial Planning - one of the predecessors to the Financial Planning Association - was formed less than forty years ago. But as the profession's first tier of advisers reaches maturity, the decisions that may be part of transition planning for their firms loom large. A sale? A partner buyout? A merger? No matter what the choice, its viability hinges on one critical issue - the value of the firm. Unfortunately, many advisers - whether veteran or novice - simply don't know the worth of their practice or how to influence it. That's why "How to Value, Buy, or Sell a Financial-Advisory Practice" is such an important book. It takes advisers carefully through the logic and the legwork of coming to a true assessment of one of their most important personal assets?their business. Renowned for their years of experience helping advisers tackle the daunting challenges related to the valuation, sale, and purchase of adviso
Customer Reviews:
A must by for financial advisors.......2007-01-09
Comprehensive and clear. If you own a finacial advisory practice, this is must read.
Hits the nail on the head!.......2007-01-05
A clear and concise volume. I used it to successfully substantiate my expert witness testimony.
Book Description
An indispensable guide to strategic best practices for business mergers
Thirteen years ago, the experts at A. T. Kearney embarked on a landmark, worldwide study of business mergers. Encompassing 25,000 companies across 24 industries in 53 countries, the study revealed much crucial information that was previously unknown about business consolidation. This book shares those revelations and insights with senior executives, consultants, and industry analysts involved in the merger process.
More important, it builds on those findings to present readers with a solid game plan for winning the consolidation game.
Readers learn about the consolidation cycles through which industries pass, how to identify where in the cycle their industry currently lies, how to leverage that knowledge in determining which organizational changes they need to make and when they need to make them, and how to develop and deploy the most successful merger strategies.
Download Description
"An indispensable guide to strategic best practices for business mergers. "
Customer Reviews:
Original thinking on M&A.......2003-02-12
This is the first original thinking on M&A that I've seen recently. Most of the M&A books go on and on about why mergers work or don't work. Winning the Merger Endgame talks about M&A in terms of its effect on industries and how they consolidate and change over time. The endgames model is intriguingly displayed as an S curve. I would only quibble slightly over the horizontal time axis, which makes the time span for each stage seem more specific than it probably is. But the research is solid and long-term.
Great book, compelling paradigm.......2003-02-07
In a glut of milquetoast business books, "Winning the Merger Endgame" stands out as a gem. The combination of solid research, analysis and writing style results in a credible, useful book that anyone interested in business should read. The heart of the book is a model that describes and predicts how industries consolidate. It's a compelling discovery that will undoubtedly change--and chart--business strategies for years. Bottom line: read it and use it.
Consolidation rules discovered.......2002-12-22
I read this book with great interest. Working in retail for more than 10 years now, this book matched my experience and helps me to forecast what might happen in my industry over the next couple of years. Although I - as well as many other readers - have an idea of what could happen or what is probably, this book with the underlying research of thousands of companies over more than 10 years and the expertise of a consulting powerhouse brings the findings to the point and quantifies them. The only small disadvantage is the title: as the book is not only focusing on mergers, but on consolidation trends as a whole (therefore also valid in times where consolidation trends are fought via price wars and organic growth).
I would already speculate that this book will become a real classic and I recommend it to any strategist, CEO or CFO interested in the mechanics of consolidation trends and finding long term survival strategies.
to the point.......2002-12-10
Finally a book that is "to the point". Simple, short, with new ideas and interesting examples.
Book Description
A comprehensive new framework for winning at Mfrom up-front planning to postmerger integration
The challenges of mergers and acquisitions can be daunting-but the opportunities and benefits they offer forward-thinking companies can be tremendous. Winning at Mergers and Acquisitions offers a critical new approach to strategic M&A based on the authors' pioneering concept of marketing due diligenceSM. Covering every stage of market-driven M&A planning and integration, this book shows how to look beyond the quick hit to focus on long-term growth rather than short-term cost-cutting. Featuring dozens of real-life case studies-including both failures and extraordinary successes-plus inside comments from leading M&A specialists, this book contains crucial guidance on:
* Predeal planning-how to identify your strategic needs and pinpoint the merger candidate(s) that will help you meet them
* Sizing up targets for acquisition-how to examine the essential marketing, sales, and product issues that will determine a good company "fit,".strategically and culturally
* Revenue enhancement planning-how to identify ways to drive top-line growth and develop action plans to generate near- and long-term revenues
* Filling the pipeline-how to prioritize and actualize the critical steps necessary to drive shareholder value
* Developing communication programs-how to design and execute communication strategies to garner support for the merger by employees, customers, and other stakeholders
* Building a comprehensive postmerger integration plan-how to align diverse corporate cultures, develop training and reward programs, and move beyond the turf wars and lack of productivity that hamper the success of mergers and acquisitions.
Last year more than 7,000 mergers and acquisitions were completed, with a collective price tag estimated at more than $800 billion. And although they are known as highly effective means of achieving corporate growth and strategic advantage, these transactions are fraught with pitfalls: Statistics indicate that a third of these deals will fail and another third will not bear out the expectations of the merger partners. What can businesses looking to undertake strategic mergers and acquisitions do to ensure that they do not fall victim to confusion, multimillion-dollar losses, declining market share and profits, or any number of other negative results of failed transactions?
The answers are in Winning at Mergers and Acquisitions, a pioneering step-by-step guide to growth-driven planning and swift, effective post-merger integration. Challenging the conventional emphasis on cost-reduction synergies, this book presents the authors' groundbreaking blueprint for mergers that yield strategic synergies and high returns in meeting long-term growth, increased market share, and revenue generation objectives.
Mark Clemente and David Greenspan explore in detail the marketing, sales, and organizational issues that are vital aspects of successful M&A ventures. They take executives through the entire strategic M&A process-from setting objectives, to evaluating target companies, to aligning corporate cultures in an effort to ensure problem-free integration. They show how to maintain a sharp focus on the markets that will be reached by the merger-and they offer invaluable advice on charting a steady course through the often tumultuous period of integration, when organizational chaos can cause the merged company to lose momentum, market share, and the backing of customers, prospects, and shareholders.
Winning at Mergers and Acquisitions is essential reading for CEOs, managers, deal makers, and others looking to capitalize on one of the most important methods of effecting corporate growth in business today-while staying focused on the people, product, and process issues that power that growth.
Customer Reviews:
Gave me the advantage i needed........2003-12-13
Several years ago I was in a class at Cornell Law School that Drs. Clemente & Greenspan taught. Winning at M&A was a required text and their insights from working on several high profile deals were inspiring. Just a few years later, I am a successful in-house counsel to many recent acquisitions of a relatively high profile multi-national corporation. I have had the opportunity to share the finer lessons from Winning at M&A with our COO, director of Corporate Development, and our head of HR. Drs. Clemente & Greenspan have written an important book whose lessons seem to transcend time or circumstance. Just like Peter Drucker's management wisdom seems to apply to every company, economic environment, and business circumstance over the last 50 years, the work and guidance of Clemente & Greenspan in Winning at Mergers seems to be timeless and evolutionary. It allowed me as someone with little experience in the realm of consolidation and backwards integration to understand the ins and out of the process before I had ever sat in on a deal. This book should be read and kept by those who want to learn about business, marketing, or M&A.
Well put together and soundly presented.......2003-02-28
I just got this book as a gift. WOW!!!!!! It's very well written and the ideas are refreshing compared with the beancounter approach of all the accountant types who crush companies, cut the staff in half, and gut the core. We all know companies that have just thrown away the wrong people and slashed all their expenses (especially marketing) to make the numbers work so they can get their stock to budge or the consultants/Investment bankers to pocket their success fees. This book shows in a very sly way how corrupt the entire M&A world is. Show me a merger and I'll show you a greedy CEO or soul-less investment banker. This book provides helpful solutions to making the worst possible combinations work and pulls back the curtain on the scam of so many business analysts and beancounters who always claim"It's only business; it's not personal." Last time I heard that, I was fired.
This book made us $22 million and saved our company big$.......2001-12-24
The patented processes in this book helped my company get an actual return on our substantial investment by driving revenue and saving us millions. A roadmap for success,the book walks through all stages of the deal. It starts with the out-of-the-box "marketing due diligence" which honestly reveels the shortcomings of traditional due diligence. A jealous reviewer here calls it unrealistic, yet it's used by most of us in the Fortune 50 (he must have lost the contract to these guys) The writing is smooth and keeps your interest all the way and it gets quickly to the meat and potatoes focusing on revenue enhancement.(SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!) Anyone who's worked on a deal knows this is where the rubber meets the road. Even a fool can cut costs after a merger, but a failure of so many deals is not gerating revenue. The book using examples and case-studies explains how to fill what the author calls "the revenue enhancement opportunity pipeline." It virtually put money in our pocket!! Sheer genius. The middle sections of the book address combining products, services, customer bases, personnel decision-making criteria, management functions and proceses. The last 200 pages detail specific strategies and tactics for successful integration. Discussing the most commmon challenges, how to align corporate culture, employee and customer communication strategies, training and development, reward and recognition prohgrams,theres even a very comprehensive chapter on designing the new organizational structure. No book I have read on this subject speaks about so many important aspects and in such detail. The seven members of our management team each read this book over and over and used it as our gameplan constantly referring to it over the 8 months we worked on this deal. It was like having a consultant on staff! Our deal was a success BECAUSE of this book. Other companies, afraid to break with the traditional practices that only work half of the time, will be destined to repeat their failures. Heaven help their shareholders.
Comprehensive and complex.......2001-09-24
This is a great book. Similar to Jemison's Managing Acquisitions, this is a book that provides extensive information on many strategic topics. The book is well-written, far from dry, yet really digs down deep. It departs from Jemison in its real-world application. The book details where other companies have gone wrong and where others have made the right decisions. It is a bit high level, so I don't think it would suffice as one's first introduction to business. But I was exposed to this book as a grad student at Vanderbilt and it has plugged me in more quickly to the world of organizational design, cultural analysis, and specific business strategies than I would have guessed. Real interesting book. I could see having it around for a long time to come.
fascinating and stimulating.......2001-09-11
Winning at Mergers is a brilliant book. It is not an ABC of M&A. As a former investment banker, I can see how it might turn off those consumed with completing transactions. Several chapters advise against doing deals that would undermine the success of the combined entity. That's a somewhat radical concept considering accountants and bankers have a singular objective in mind when faced with a corporate marriage. This book is ideal for graduate business courses. It takes the reader from the basic M&A 101 accounting-focused level to a broader and more business-focused level. That's what makes it stand out. It's more a book about successful business than number crunching. This book focuses on real-world challenges and operational factors to help a deal move from strategy through completion. It is divided into three parts: strategy; pre-deal (due diligence, etc.); and integration. The chapters on culture, organizational design and integration tactics make it worth the price of admission. No other book that I have read takes this approach. From the detail provided at every step of the way, the guidance seems tried, tested and improved upon. The book is also very well written. Interesting and filled with case studies and quotes that make the insights fresh. As another reviewer suggested, it is the perfect companion book to a dryer and more elementary book like Patrick Gaughin's. Without the insights of Clemente and Greenspan, one ventures into M&A with only a rudimentary understanding of what it truly takes to make a deal work and a company succeed. I recommend this book as a business tool and a reality check on whether one is even approaching transactions correctly.
Book Description
A widespread misunderstanding concerning leveraged buyouts (LBOs) is the belief that they accomplish little but the ruin of companies and the loss of employment. How else could it be? Until recently, journalists, including much of the business press, have depicted LBO specialists as generally greedy, if not sinister, forces whose activities compound the dislocations of modern American economic and social life. This kind of criticism reached a crescendo in the press and in Congress at the end of the 1980s, and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts found itself in the middle of the controversy. Based on interviews with partners of the firm and on unprecedented access to KKR's records, George P. Baker and George David Smith have written a definitive account of how KKR has approached LBOs in a book that will appeal to the specialist and general reader alike. The authors focus on KKR's founding, evolution, and innovations as ways to understand issues in modern American business. In examining KKR as a unique form of enterprise--one that subscribes to a set of alternative perspectives on business and value creation--the book bridges the gap between public perception and academic knowledge of how financial innovation impacts economic life. The firm's approach to leveraged buyouts was an important aspect of the corporate restructuring and governance reforms in the American economy from the mid-1970s through 1990 (the years of what some have called the "leveraged buyout movement"). KKR and other companies fundamentally altered the prevailing perception of the role of debt in the modern American corporation and established an alternative model for organizing and managing corporate enterprises. KKR financed the companies it acquired with high levels of debt, while linking their ownership to management. It then imposed rigorous monitoring by the board of directors over the companies in its portfolio. This combination of factors forced managers to concentrate not on growth but rather on how to achieve value through whatever means was most appropriate to the company's circumstances. The purpose of the leveraged buyout was to realize, or "create," value in companies by reforming their management systems. KKR's approach to restructuring the relationship between owners and managers in a highly leveraged firm rested on a basic principle: Make managers owners by making them invest a significant share of their personal wealth in the enterprises they manage, and they will have stronger incentives to act in the best interests of all shareholders.
Customer Reviews:
Good primer/introduction to LBOs.......2007-03-15
If you're relatively new to the subject and want a good primer/introduction to LBOs, as well as some background history on the leveraged buyout and on KKR, this is a good read. It's reasonably quick and easy to read without being too dumbed down. I think that, among others, one group that would really benefit from reading this book are college students (or even MBA students) who are interested in eventually working in private equity but who don't currently know much about it.
As a brief summary, this book includes:
1) A discussion of the rationale for leveraged buyouts - from the standpoints of both the economics (to the buyer) and corporate governance (LBOs as one solution to the classic principal-agent problem)
2) A history of KKR and of the leveraged buyout in general. It goes back to the founding of KKR and to very early LBOs.
3) A discussion and brief analysis of a number of real world LBOs - both successful and failed. This is probably the most useful part of the book, as it gives you some feel as to the factors that can lead to a successful (or failed) LBO and helps you learn from some of the mistakes of the past.
I was interested in the subject from the perspective of an equity analyst interested in identifying potential LBO targets. The book, naturally, doesn't provide a framework for identifying LBO targets (nor did I expect it to), but it was a very good introduction/primer on the subject that, when combined with other reading and research, helped me develop my own framework for identifying potential LBO candidates.
A fine book on the LBO philosophy of KKR.......2006-08-05
The book, The New Financial Capitalists, provides the reader with more than just a cynical rant of corporate America, management, corporate finance, and corporate restructuring. It is a refreshing read in that it offers the reader with a logical understanding of the problem(s) facing corporate America and the solutions provided by KKR - i.e. the LBO - which attempt to remedy the problem(s). The book is well worth the price.
Hey, MBAs! This book is for you!.......2005-07-12
When I thought about buying this book, I was looking for several things. First, the technology of the private equity business--comprehensively discussed case studies of real buyouts, successful and failed. Second, the history of the business-I wanted to understand hidden laws and tendencies. Finally, I wanted to learn about other great players on the market.
Well, I found all the above plus much, much more. What's more, it took me just two weeks to go through the book-the language and style are light and interesting.
Finance Capitalism and Corporate Excess.......2004-05-28
KKR is a truly unique institution. Are they merchant bankers, acting as fiduciaries in behalf of their clients? Or is it accurate to derisively call KKR takeover specialists, rapacious and always on the lookout for corporate prey? It is indeed difficult to pin a generic label on what KKR is doing--it depends on which side of the political fence you are in--but what we do know is that KKR is the acknowledged leader of the leveraged buyout, a branch of private equity investing which allows investors to profit from sizeable anomalies between a company's potential value and its current value, in part through the introduction of substantial levels of debt in a company's capital structure. As Baker and Smith explains: "By employing high levels of debt...they minimized the cost of buying the equity, which they shared with the target companies' managers. Assuming that the cash flows of the acquired businesses would be more than sufficient to repay the borrowing, [KKR's] success depended on a combination of timely debt reduction and the promotion of longer-term efficiency."
"The New Financial Capitalists" is by far one of the best books dealing with KKR and LBO finance in general. Apart from providing an inside track with regard to understanding the raison d'etre behind buyouts and their critical success factors, this book has a wealth of information regarding specific transactions led by KKR, of which the $31 billion buyout of RJR Nabisco is undoubtedly the most well-known. The authors conclude that LBOs and, by extension, the existence of private equity takeover specialists such as KKR, yield long-term benefits to the economy which are far in excess of the intermediate costs such as employee dislocation and onerous debt servicing.
KKR sought to break new ground in enhancing shareholder value: it compelled investees to maintain a focused business strategy and to divest or spin off underperforming operations, and it was highly instrumental in making corporate America realize that capital is a scarce resource which must be judiciously employed. As an instrument of financial and managerial reform, KKR helped reconcile the interests of corporate managers and shareholders, by requiring senior executives to have a direct economic stake (i.e., become stockholders) in the companies they manage.
The analysis of some of KKR's failures underscores that, by using leverage as its weapon of choice, KKR is in effect a high-wire act. However, the presence of debt in the capital structure is also extolled as a disciplining force for managers who have become used to high free cash flow levels and low debt. Thus, what KKR and other LBO practitioners are in effect saying is that a company's operating and investment decisions are not completely independent of its debt-equity ratio.
This book deserves to be read because it is an absorbing study of leveraged takeovers seen through the lens of a pioneering firm.
any interest in lbos, this is your guide.......2002-12-31
KKR was the first name I heard while researching the Private Equity marketplace for a college paper. It also became the name heard mostly afterwards and rightfully so. Jerome Kohlberg, Henry Kravis and George Roberts are obviously extremely smart and confident guys, fortunately the book exhibits moments of vulnerability; which is helpful for any financial entrepreneur. The only shortfall is that the book isn't longer. I was excited while reading some of the chapters, keep in mind that this is a finance book not the Lord of the Rings. This book is terrific. Enjoy
Book Description
“The failure rate of mergers and acquisitions is unreasonable, unacceptable, and unnecessary,” say Claude S. Lineberry and J. Robert Carleton in this much-needed resource, which outlines their unique, proven, and practical process for increasing the success of mergers and acquisitions. Written for all those with a vested interest in the success of the deal—board of directors, executives, managers, employees, and shareholders—and based on years of research and real-world experience, Achieving Post-Merger Success is a down-to-earth guide that gives stakeholders the tools they need to
- Profile and assess corporate cultures
- Identify potential or actual culture clash barriers to a merger or acquisition
- Determine what to do to avoid, minimize, and resolve culture clash
- Plan for efficient and effective post-merger cultural integration of the two organizations
Download Description
“The failure rate of mergers and acquisitions is unreasonable, unacceptable, and unnecessary,” say Claude S. Lineberry and J. Robert Carleton in this much-needed resource, which outlines their unique, proven, and practical process for increasing the success of mergers and acquisitions. Written for all those with a vested interest in the success of the deal—board of directors, executives, managers, employees, and shareholders—and based on years of research and real-world experience, Achieving Post-Merger Success is a down-to-earth guide that gives stakeholders the tools they need to
· Profile and assess corporate cultures
· Identify potential or actual culture clash barriers to a merger or acquisition
· Determine what to do to avoid, minimize, and resolve culture clash
· Plan for efficient and effective post-merger cultural integration of the two organizations
Customer Reviews:
Guide to using Cultural Due Diligence in merger situations.......2006-09-12
The main point the authors try to make is that typically in merger and acquisition situations corporate culture of the parties involved is not studied as methodically as legal, fiscal issues and other hardware issues.
Their Cultural Due Diligence Model aims to add an invaluable element to the process by focusing proactively on corporate culture at the planning, implementation and post merger stages of the merger. They also show the post-merger Cultural Integration and Alignment process detailing what to do after the merger is announced. Though it may seem like a typical `consultant' tool at first glance, the Organizational System Scan Model can be a handy tool if it is utilized at the planning stages of M&A.
Designed to be a hands-on resource, Achieving Post-Merger Success and the accompanying CD-ROM have many operational-level tools, checklists, case studies, worksheets, and samples which can be useful tools for organizations to minimize culture clash and integration problems. Some more examples like the British Airways example would have aided the reader see the reality in actual M&A situations.
The authors also assume that the tools provided are valid universally irrespective of national culture. This delinking corporate culture from national culture can be very misleading and potentially dangerous. In reality many of the tools e.g., staff involvement day, where one gives feedback and advice to own boss and the CEO would cause confusion and distress in many cultures. In many cultures people simply answer politely and 360 degree feedbacks would give a false sense of security. In spite of these shortcomings, this is a valuable book for people planning and overseeing corporate mergers.
Useless Book.......2005-09-06
This is an absolutely poor book of no added-value to the reader. It is poorly written (not much text anyway, more bullet points).
Not too bad.......2004-10-13
It's not an unuseful book. Problems of cultural clash during mergers are not a new topic in management literature, but since most executives still don't seem to care much about that, this book is valuable. The methods described by the authors are interesting, the check lists are useful, but it's definitely a book written by consultants: "You gather people in a meeting room, you have the big boss do a speech, you make everyone work together during 2 hours, and that's it". If only it was that simple...
And the chapter about "organization as a system" has no purpose.
At last! Sensible Meger and Acquisition Guidance.......2004-04-01
Rather than listening to conventional wisdom or advice from the occult, people involved in mergers and acquistions should heed the guidance of these authors.They provide useful, solid, and proven advice for those who would really like to "get it right."
The authors are experienced and helped a number of "big league" organizations. They sort out the practical from the theoretical.
In writing this clear guide, they also displace many current myths about this business, including "culture is important but no one knows how to deal with culture." Now we do, thanks to Carleton and Lineberry.
Written in clear terms with approriate cases-in-point this is a must for anyone doing an acquisition or advising one. Really good stuff.
Must-Read for Executives Engaged in M&A's.......2004-03-22
As an executive coach, I have read just about every book on M&A to help my clients navigate the turbulent waters of mergers, acquisitions and subsequent integration. This book is the best by far. M&As are up sharply in this economy as a means of pursuing corporate growth; however, as this book deftly illustrates, 55 to 75 percent of all mergers fail to achieve their financial goals. The authors cite disturbing statistics associated with M&As: stock prices decline approximately 70 percent of the time when an M&A is announced; only 23 percent of acquisitions earn back their capital cost; productivity declines 50 percent during the first four to eight months after the M&A; and about 60 percent of mergers result in lowered profitability for as long as seven years after the merger. Clearly, poorly-executed M&A's can be career-limiting. The reason for M&A failures is not a lack of financial and legal due diligence. Most executives engage in exceptionally thorough legal and financial due diligence processes. The reason for failed M&As is culture clash, the inability to integrate the operational, cultural and people aspects of the merging organizations. Culture clash results in internal confusion and in-fighting, inefficiency, frustration, downtime, and too much internal focus when what is needed is an external focus on customers. In addition to loss of staff morale and motivation, poorly executed M&As can result in the loss of key executives (nearly half within three years), decreased customer service and satisfaction, and brand confusion.
This outstanding book outlines a simple and effective process for my executive clients to engage in cultural due diligence (CDD). This process can be undertaken simultaneously with the legal and financial due diligence processes, usually inside of 30 days. This cultural due diligence process can eliminate culture clash, significantly increasing the likelihood of success of the merger, my executive clients and their careers. I view CDD as an essential process which supports the M&A, not one which turns up reasons not to pursue it. In addition to the logical and simple CDD process presented in this book, authors Bob Carleton and Claude Lineberry have included many case studies of successful M&A's as well as helpful worksheets and flow charts to help my executive clients pilot their M&A and integration. They've even included a CD-ROM filled with checklists, worksheets, agendas for staff and executive meetings to ensure cultural alignment, and other integration tools which can be customized and/or reproduced. I plan to give this book to every one of my executive clients contemplating or engaging in a merger. It just may save their careers!
Book Description
How does one accurately measure an alliance? With all the factors involved -- productivity, decision making, team performance, the number of new customers, and damage control -- getting a precise measurement can be a complex and daunting task. Knowing which measurement to use, and at what stage of the alliance life cycle, is critical.
Measuring the Value of Partnering gives readers a system for measuring a relationship's contribution at every stage of the alliance, from creation to implementation to termination. This essential book features case studies drawn from interviews with key players at companies like IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Starbucks, Staples, and Hyundai. Weaving these and other real-life examples together, Author Larraine Segil helps readers develop the appropriate metrics and then shows how and when to use them accurately and intelligently to achieve the greatest impact.
Timely and practical, Measuring the Value of Partnering provides the tools for making any alliance is work to maximum organizational advantage.
Customer Reviews:
Jargon, puffery and false pretenses.......2007-03-16
This book is not at all what its title and blurb suggest. It purports to help you to assess strategic alliances by using "metrics", which are defined as "that which should be measured" (at xi). Unfortunately, the author has a distinctly inadequate approach to this concept: she will tell you that you should use something as a "metric", but she does NOT tell you (i) how to measure it, or (ii) how to weight it against other "metrics" that are qualitatively different. If you are expecting the book to provide even a single template or checklist that will enable you to accumulate a bunch of metrics and compare them -- in fact, if you're expecting anything quantitative at all -- yours is a vain hope.
Moreover, the metrics she proposes are often quite vague. For example, she proposes "strategic alignment" and "strategy fit" as two separate metrics during the development of an alliance (at 43-49). The distinction between them is never made clear, although for the latter she includes a kind of flow diagram with 12 boxes filled with terminology like "Misson/Vison/Values", "SWOT", "Product Lines" etc., and other chestnuts from undergraduate business textbooks. Here are some other examples of metrics, verbatim (at 214): "Define expectations and success continually", "Educate the customer about [your company's] value," "Negotiation - change the conversation from how much to how good". Maybe these are good bits of advice in some contexts, but the use of the word "metric" for each of them is quite misleading.
The "case studies" that make up most of the book are no more illuminating about the nuts and bolts of implementing a measurement process. They consist mainly of the authors's big-company clients patting themselves on the back while describing the things that were important to them in various deals, without describing any process for scoring or comparing these factors.
The author does take great pains, however, to remind us that, e.g., she once did some research at Cal Tech, that her current firm (into which her old firm merged) is "considered the world experts in Negotiation and Relationship Management processes" (at 57), and that she wrote another book (which you are encouraged to buy and read). This constant huckstering is tiresome. So is the prose style. It's an endless permutation of empty business-speak like "leadership", hand-off," competency" and "critical", e.g., "leadership is critical at this stage" (as if it isn't at other stages?), or the non sequitur: "The operationalization metrics, a cumbersome term, relates [sic] to the multitude of activities that put flesh around the skeleton of the alliance. This is also the moment of alliance hand-off from those who developed and negotiated the alliance to those who must implement it [at 63]."
If you can tolerate soporific prose about alliances, you would be much better off reading Mark De Rond's "Strategic Alliances as Social Facts". In addition to critiquing the "life cycle" model of alliances on which Segil relies, it offers a great deal of substance -- including a convincing argument that the success or failure of alliances often is based on factors the parties didn't initially expect to measure.
A must-read for anyone who is in a business relationship.......2004-01-07
Segil's expertise shines through in this book about the role metrics play in creating successful business relationships. Segil's use of real-world examples shows how the unpredictable, complicated realities of alliances can be overcome and managed by applying the right metrics. With her keen insights and first-hand experiences, readers finish the book armed with the tools and direction they need to use alliances to their advantage. A great book!
Average customer rating:
- Collaboration with Appropriate Velocity
- Written In 60 Days, and Reader Suffers Pain
- A MUST-READ FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO EXCEL IN E-BUSINESS
- Excellent
- Very insightful and motivating
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Fastalliances: Power Your E-Business.
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Intelligent Business Alliances: How to Profit Using Today's Most Important Strategic Tool
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Measuring the Value of Partnering: How to Use Metrics to Plan, Develop, and Implement Successful Alliances
ASIN: 0471396834 |
Book Description
Crucial techniques for business and finance managers making e-business alliances
Alliances and mergers are coming fast and furious for dot.com and Internet-enabled companies-and in fact are a key strategy for any savvy digital business. In this book, Larraine Segil reveals her proven approach to business development in the Internet world-what Segil has trademarked "fastalliances.com." This is the first book to dissect the unique aspects of e-alliances, from identifying deliverables to providing tools proven to cement swift and decisive relationships in Internet time. Key points are illustrated with both positive and negative examples from companies that include Compaq, Sun, Disney, Go, Kodak, MP3, and Stamps.com.
Alliances are a crucial part of any Internet business-both dot.com and brick-and-mortar-and an important topic for business and finance managers whose companies are making use of the Web. The approach, author credentials, and unique message of FastAlliances create a package that has bestseller potential.
Download Description
Alliances and mergers are coming fast and furious for dot.com and Internet-enabled companies-and in fact are a key strategy for any savvy digital business. In this book, Larraine Segil reveals her proven approach to business development in the Internet world-what Segil has trademarked "fastalliances.com." This is the first book to dissect the unique aspects of e-alliances, from identifying deliverables to providing tools proven to cement swift and decisive relationships in Internet time. Key points are illustrated with both positive and negative examples from companies that include Compaq, Sun, Disney, Go, Kodak, MP3, and Stamps.com.
Customer Reviews:
Collaboration with Appropriate Velocity.......2001-03-02
The hybrid title obviously fuses two very important words: "fast" and "alliance." It is Segil's assertion (and I totally agree) that "The e-commerce business world has turned many old rules on their heads....You have to be ahead of the [other] players in this game. FastAlliances can be the tool -- the approach that helps you reinvent a small part of your organizational structure if you are a traditional (not new Internet) company. If you are a new Internet company, the challenge will be to apply some level of discipline while maintaining the velocity you have already created." So the emphasis for all organizations (regardless of size or nature, be it a "traditional" or "new Internet" organization) must be on forging and sustaining appropriate strategic alliances while conducting business at a high rate of speed. How? Segil offers a "unique model" which suggests a seven-step approach:
1. Diagnosis of Your Company, Competitors, and Industry
2. The Up-Front Work in the Creation of FastAlliances
3. Define the Deliverables for FastAlliances
4. Managing Stakeholder Expectations
5. The Essential Characteristics for Business Development
6. Leveraging the Global E-Space
7. Employing the E-Mindshift System
Actually, there is a Step 8: The Deals -- Making, Managing, Adding Value, and Terminating Them. She explains the "nitty-gritty of creating and managing FastAlliances -- metrics, ongoing change mechanisms, and knowledge transfer; tools, tools, tools!" There is a separate chapter devoted to each Step, followed by a final chapter (Chapter 9) in which she discusses "Pitfalls and Opportunities -- Summing Up." This is an especially valuable chapter because Segil addresses a key issue: How to grow a company in e-space by using traditional alliances along with FastAlliances.
In the Afterword, Segil provides her e-mail address, inviting readers to visit her website and thereby gain access to a suite of more than 25 software processes that comprise the Larraine Segil Partner Relationship Management (PRM) System. She also provides her e-mail address with the expressed hope for a continuing relationship with her readers. In other words, Segil continues to seek out FastAlliances of her own which perhaps (just perhaps) may include one with you. I also direct your attention to two appendices: FastAlliance Toolkit and Companies Supplying Weapons and Countermeasures in the War for Web Customers.
I rate this book so highly because its material is substantial and logically organized, because it is very well-written, and because (as Segil herself would no doubt agree) the book enables, indeed encourages each reader to select a combination of concepts, strategies, and tactics which is most appropriate to her or his own organization. Yes, to some extent, this is a "How to" book but it is also a "Why to" book. The seven-step or, for some, eight-step process allows for all manner of modifications to accommodate (a) the unique needs and interests of each organization and (b) changes in that organization's circumstances (eg leadership, resources, or competitive environment). Of course, the value of this book will be determined by the nature and extent of needs to which its ideas are applied, and, the skill with which such application is made. Now more than ever before, organizations need all the friends they can make...and then keep. Segil suggests a practical and comprehensive process to achieve that objective. Now more than ever before, organizations must also be able to maintain the velocity necessary to compete successfully. Segil also addresses that need. It's nice to know where to locate her if and when a FastAlliance with her would be appropriate to you both.
Written In 60 Days, and Reader Suffers Pain.......2001-02-25
One of a few books I bought in an airport bookstore rather than on amazon, my first thought is that the amazon process really does help--this book is flashy enough to get one to buy it on the fly, but probably would not survive in open competition when alternatives are easily visible in an electronic bookstore.
The author notes that the book was written in 60 days. It shows, and the reader is the one that suffers. I have no doubt that the author, an attractive person by the photo, is a wonderful speaker with many insights to offer. The book, however, is not well laid-out and one has the feeling that 100 different briefings have been sorted into chapter files and dumped into the book. What couldn't be fit into the text was turned into sidebar or text figure.
The book includes a CD-ROM I will never use, as well as a URL for a web address I will never visit. I would rather they had put the money into better editing, more white space, and a much better structure for the book.
My bottom line: the book should not be ignored, but I would recommend that the executive interested in these concepts have a strong younger manager of promise read this as one of 3-4 other similar books, and distill all of them into a ten page memo.
A MUST-READ FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO EXCEL IN E-BUSINESS.......2001-01-25
REQUIRED READING FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO EXCEL IN E-BUSINESS E-business is NOT dot.com business --- It is about supply chain management and customer relationship management. Segil shows readers how FastAlliances can help them stay lean while growing. Her keen insights and expert approach can help any organization use FastAlliances to do the real business of e-business. Readers become armed with the management tools they need to transition from the traditional to the new economy. TRULY GROUND-BREAKING! A MUST READ!
Excellent.......2001-01-11
Larraine Segil's previous book Intelligent Business Alliances was read by several of our partners and became our roadmap for integrating international alliances into our worldwide business development strategy. Now four years later she has given us a whole new way to develop e-business relationships. Continuous expansion of networking is our passport to growth in the global executive search business. Therefore, we have revamped our previously completed 2001 business development plan and have incorporated some of the tools and techniques that Ms. Segil outlines in Fast Alliances: Power Your E-Business. Larraine Segil has had a profound influence on our business model and this book is recommended to any business person who plans to survive in the Internet Age.
Very insightful and motivating.......2001-01-03
For fans of previous Segil books, you will really enjoy this one. What's great about this book is that it's written by someone who has actually had to make alliances work herself and she clearly understands where the pitfalls lie and how to avoid them. Getting up to speed on the internet economy is not an easy task, and Larraine puts business development deals into perspective with her clear analysis and useful set of tools for developing and managing alliances. The book is well written and I found it both interesting and well-paced. I actually think there is a little too much information in here. This could have been two books! So don't plan on finishing this on one plane trip (unless you're traveling to Nairobi on Southwest Airlines :-))
I've already started putting her "Spider Network" tool to good use and its helped me to reconstruct the way I was building business relationships and improve my approach to networking both inside and outside of my organization and my alliance partners' organizations. What I like best about this book is that I got actual tools that I started using right away. I really hate books which talk about a lot of theory but don't give me the practical tools I need to get deals done. There's even a CD included with her book that has some of her tools already loaded on it in software form and it links to her site (www.lsegil.com) which I just went to and was very impressed. I recently saw Larraine speak at a conference I attended and she really impressed me. I highly recommend this book.
Book Description
After more than a century of proliferation and growth, the nonprofit sector has reached a crossroads. The continued success of an organization's mission no longer depends on fresh, new programs and the extension of services, but on innovative management and revitalized organizational structure. The time has come for all nonprofits to consider mergers and alliances in their strategic plans. For many, this may seem a distasteful alternative after decades of Wall Street mergers made at the expense of workers, communities, and consumers-- but it doesn't have to be that way.
In Nonprofit Mergers and Alliances, Thomas McLaughlin describes a context for nonprofit mergers and discusses the forces that shape their use. He demonstrates that nonprofit mergers are fundamentally different from corporate mergers, that they can be of immense benefit to the community as well as the merging organizations, and that failure to merge can be disastrous for everyone. McLaughlin focuses on the concerns of the nonprofit sector: achieving the mission, retaining tax-exempt status, behaving responsibly in the community. He shows nonprofit managers and board members how to make their way through the merger process without repeating Wall Street misbehavior.
Using real-world examples and case studies, Nonprofit Mergers and Alliances offers clear, practical, step-by-step guidance through the merger process from preliminary considerations to actual implementation-- pointing out pitfalls and offering insightful commentary along the way. This immensely helpful volume provides:
* A penetrating discussion of the reasons to collaborate
* The C.O.R.E.(TM) model, a merger/alliance analysis framework
* Advice on partner selection
* Structure choice analyses
* Step-by-step guidance through merger and alliance processes
* A disk with forms and worksheets that any nonprofit can customize for its own needs.
Supplemented with easy-to-use checklists and analytical tables, Nonprofit Mergers and Alliances helps nonprofit board members and managers make the right decisions, monitor the entire process, anticipate problems, and find solutions quickly. The information contained in this book will help any nonprofit organization ensure the successful continuation of its mission in the immediate future as well as for years to come.
"We have two goals for this book. The first is to describe a context for nonprofit mergers, including a discussion of the forces helping to shape nonprofits' use of mergers and alliances. It is important that nonprofit managers and board leaders be aware of both the similarities and the differences in their sector's merger patterns and techniques. Ultimately, a nonprofit sector that knows well how to collaborate will be far more effective in the pursuit of its public-spirited mission . . . . The second goal is to provide concrete guidance based on actual nonprofit mergers." --From the author's Preface.
"Tom McLaughlin thoroughly addresses the subject in his timely and excellent new book Nonprofit Mergers and Alliances. It is a must for every nonprofit professional and board member." --Jere B. Ratcliffe Chief Scout Executive Boy Scouts of America.
"In a time when all nonprofit managers need to re-evaluate how to most effectively leverage the total assets of their organizations in support of their social mission, McLaughlin provides a comprehensive framework for understanding how to evaluate one's own organization and the tools needed to effectively link with potential partners." --Jed Emerson Executive Director The Roberts Foundation
"As the government continues to reduce both grants to and contracted services with nonprofits, some organizations are going to be forced to consider mergers and alliances. The key, as Tom so rightly points out, is to be prepared for change before there are no choices left. As usual, Tom is out in front of yet another business trend in the nonprofit sector." --Paul Clolery Editor in Chief Nonprofit Times.
Customer Reviews:
one of the best book written on the subject.......1999-04-22
McLaughlin does a painstaking job of providing an indepth analysis of mergers and strategic allainces in america's nonprofit sector. Highly recommended for scholars and students of nonprofit sector. An insighful work!
Average customer rating:
- Reasonably useful and very boring
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Integrating Newly Merged Organizations
Michael P. Gendron
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Organizational Behavior
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Consolidation & Merger
| Management & Leadership
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Organizational Behavior
| Business Management
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
ASIN: 1567203167 |
Book Description
More than half of all mergers and acquisitions fail to meet established objectives of value creation. This book is a practical guide to further ensure the successful outcome of business M&A activities. Gendron highlights the critical issues that have historically been the foundation of poorly executed business integration processes. How these key elements are handled can make or break the integration of an acquired company. They include understanding the purpose of the transaction, capturing the learning of preliminary due diligence review efforts, and managing the personal factors that affect all employees in the merger process, including those who work for the acquiring and acquired companies. Once these basic issues have been considered, the integration team should focus on culture, critical processes, and communications. This book provides executives involved with the integration process with the tools they need, including checklists and assessment tools to develop, plan, and execute a successful merger. Whether new to the M&A process or a seasoned pro, the executive charged with key M&A responsibilities will benefit from this book's straightforward examples and non-technical presentation of information.
Customer Reviews:
Reasonably useful and very boring.......2004-10-13
No idea at all in this book... Just check lists. Long, very long check lists (I hardly exagerate). You may find it useful, and it certainly is, at least a little. Or you may find that succeeding in a merger is not only a matter of ticking all the items of a long list...
Average customer rating:
- The author also invented TIME TRAVEL
- Patents = Shareholder Value....and How to Make it Happen !!
- WORTH A FORTUNE !!!
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Technology Deals, Case Studies for Officers, Directors, Investors, and General Counsels about IPO's, Mergers, Acquisitions, Venture Capital, Licensing, ... Due Diligence and Patent Strategies
Stephen C. Glazier
Manufacturer: L B I Law & Business Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Production, Operation & Management
| Industrial, Manufacturing & Operational Systems
| Engineering
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
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Patent Strategies for Business
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e-Patent Strategies for Software, e-Commerce, the Internet, Telecom Services, Financial Services, and Business Methods (with Case Studies and Forecasts)
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Essentials of Licensing Intellectual Property (Essentials (John Wiley))
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Valuation and Pricing of Technology-Based Intellectual Property
ASIN: 0966143752 |
Book Description
hardcopy of pages to be scanned, and a CD-ROM of the cover art was received by Shina Giles at LSI on feb 9, 2004
Customer Reviews:
The author also invented TIME TRAVEL.......2006-06-02
Yes, it's true!!!! If you look at the back cover of the book it references the two glowing Amazon reviews that were written after the book was published. Which came first the book or the reviews? If you think too much about it (I didn't), it is sort of like looking into two mirrors that are facing each other. My review has as much credibility as the two previous. I look forward to seeing this review on the back of the book.
Patents = Shareholder Value....and How to Make it Happen !!.......2004-05-12
Patents = shareholder value. This is the equation that drives this book. For the first time, this book describes the specifics of how to work patent-sensitive technology deals in the new patent environment. This book is the much anticipated sequel to the classic books by the same author--'Patent Strategies for Business', which invented the field of Intellectual Property Asset Management, and 'E-Patent Strategies'.
Numerous real-life case studies are included. Other sections include the new directors' and officers' strategies for technology deals, patent litigation as a business tool, demand letters as a deal, the new software and business method patents, patent inventory-audits to mine the gold in your business plan, stock price and other metrics for successful innovation, portfolio theory applied to patent litigation, patent due diligence in mergers and acquisitions [how to buy more value for less money], the rules of virtual genius updated for software and business method patents, the four stages of patent denial in the software business, invention inventory-audits [start with the business plan, not the technology], building the investment grade patent portfolio, monetizing intellectual property, X-treme rush patent procedures, finding the new property in the new economy, due diligence as industrial espionage, Internet-ification patents, benchmarks and best practices for patent development, and valuable new legal developments.
After working with the author you find that he has even more new developments that have not made it into his books yet. Clearly, his daily practice is keeping him on the inventive cutting edge of the specific gambits of his dynamic field.
WORTH A FORTUNE !!!.......2004-04-21
If Glazier, the author, is not on your Board of Directors already, he should be. This guy is worth a fortune.
Books:
- How to Value, Buy, or Sell a Financial Advisory Practice: A Manual on Mergers, Acquisitions, and Transition Planning
- Human Side of Organizations, The (9th Edition)
- In Mixed Company: Communicating in Small Groups and Teams (with InfoTrac) (Wadsworth Series in Speech Communication)
- Influence Diagrams, Belief Nets and Decision Analysis (Wiley Series in Probability & Statistics)
- Information Systems Today: Why IS Matters (2nd Edition)
- Interest Rate Models - Theory and Practice: With Smile, Inflation and Credit (Springer Finance)
- Introduction to Casino and Gaming Operations (2nd Edition)
- Investment under Uncertainty
- It's Called a Breakup Because It's Broken: The Smart Girl's Break-Up Buddy
- Leadership in Organizations (6th Edition)
Books Index
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