It takes a Great Team to Make an M&A Transaction a Success
During my business career that spans more than five decades, I have found that the best lessons are not always straightforward. And they don’t always appear where you‘d expect to find them.
In fact, I discovered what amounted to a validation of the Allegiance Capital Corporation business model while reading a McKinsey & Company article on large-firm strategic acquisitions. As you may know, Allegiance Capital does not serve large publicly traded companies. Instead, we specialize in helping entrepreneurs sell or finance their small to mid-sized businesses.
You might be wondering why I would even read an article from McKinsey & Company about how M&A teams at large companies should expand the original M&A team to gain consensus among company leaders in various areas of the business. But here’s the lesson that applies to all of us: Without a “meeting of the minds” among people with different skills and viewpoints, second guessing begins before the ink on the agreement is dry.
While many of our clients are essentially a “team of one,” almost all have family members involved in the business in one way or another. And they might even have investors. When these business owners retain us to represent them, they get a team of seasoned business experts from many disciplines to advise them, not unlike the counsel that large companies get from their in-house experts. And that’s how good decisions are made.
We find that most entrepreneurs, although very smart about their own businesses, have no idea what it takes to determine the right price for their company or to find buyers who are willing to offer the best price.
With our help, the owners learn about the sales process themselves so they can explain the intricate detail of selling the business. We have found that this detail is both educational and reassuring to the owners and to their family members and investors.
We want all of our clients to know that we’ve got the bases covered. Here’s our process:
We keep the details of the transaction private from day one. We use five world-class databases to research recent sales, establish current and projected market value and identify potential buyers. We also use powerful marketing and public relations strategies to protect and promote the reputation of the business during the entire process.
In short, we provide the type of counsel that a large publicly traded company would get from its senior in-house experts. We help entrepreneurs get family members and investors on the same page to avoid the second guessing that is never fun, no matter how large or small the company is.