In his book ‘The Human Side of M&A: How CEO’s Leverage the Most Important Asset in Deal Making,’ Dennis Carey gives advice on merger building:
“You will be building your merger or acquisition on a shaky foundation unless a few critical elements pass muster before the transaction is finalized. Specifically you will need to ensure that:
1. The strategy is sound. Whether the goal is expanding markets, products or consolidation, make sure that M&A is the right solution;
2. There are no skeletons in the closet. Make certain that you are not inheriting any fraud, legal or accounting issues that could spell disaster for any deal. Be diligent about due diligence and;
3. The human capital picture is thoroughly understood. It is critical to follow a separate process that will uncover precisely what you will be getting in your new management team; a picture that will not be fleshed out sufficiently as a result of the normal due diligence process that focuses on financial and legal issues.”
Archive for the ‘business articles’ Category
Dennis Carey and M&A Activity
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010Dennis Carey and McKinsey Quarterly
Thursday, May 20th, 2010Dennis Carey – with his wide and varied experience as a CEO and corporate recruiter – has also written many articles for various business-related magazines (as well as books). One of these is McKinsey Quarterly. This magazine is filled with helpful articles for business people and consumers alike. One of the most recent articles discusses the benefits of word-of-mouth marketing. No matter how much time, effort and resources are put into marketing, often the best way of getting your product out there is ensuring it is the best and then having contented customers tell others about it. As the article points out, this marketing method is “not only simple but also free.” There is so much out there in terms of marketing methods that it can often become too overwhelming; the “simple but free” word of mouth method speaks volumes.
Word of Mouth Marketing Methods and Dennis Carey
So for someone like Dennis Carey, who is always trying to improve and help businesses, word of mouth marketing is probably nothing new. But it might be interesting to read this article in McKinsey Quarterly that provides statistics for just how useful this is. It might also make his clients happy as the price of word of mouth is definitely something to smile about!
Ex-CEOs Stepping In To Help
Monday, March 8th, 2010Many big businesses, as of late, have been installing independent chairman who were previously CEOs elsewhere to help out with their companies. This is certainly happening more in troubled companies, but isn’t exclusively occurring in these locations. A governance research firm called The Corporate Library, said that 46 former CEOs are chairmen of other companies, up from 14 in 2004.
Dennis Carey, a senior client partner at recruiters Korn/Ferry International says, “These chairmen are strategic equal partners of the CEO because they already demonstrated a successful ‘in the trenches’ style of management.”
At Delphi Automotive LLP, for instance, John “Jack” Krol was named in 2009 as an outside chairman of this auto-parts company. He was working on the daily matters of the company, and helped to adise Delphi CEO Rodney O’Neal on his 2010 and 2011 operational plans. A Delphi spokesman says that Mr. O’Neal views the new chairman “as a partner and coach.”