Podcasts

In this episode, Gerry Adolph, a Senior Partner at Booz & Company and leader of the firm’s Mergers and Restructuring group, sits down to interview Edward Tse, Chairman of Greater China for Booz & Company and author of the new book: The China Strategy. They speak about the book, which describes how to build the capabilities that business leaders need for operating an integrated China-global strategy, with a particular focus on M&A.

Rashad Al Mansoori on the challenges of driving technology-enabled change in a rapidly developing region, and how CIOs can help lead major change management efforts.

In this episode Gerald Adolph, a Senior Partner at Booz & Company and leader of the firm's Mergers and Restructuring group, discusses the current state of the M&A marketplace as the economy begins to recover from recession. Adolph explores topics that include: Whether the transactions making headlines today represent an actual turnaround in the deal-making arena, the roles of both strategic and financial buyers as we move forward into 2010, and what types of transactions we are likely to see as this merger cycle progresses.

Ahmed Youssef, a Principal at Booz & Company based in Dubai, discusses the idea of deep pockets, exploring the role private equity, hedge and sovereign wealth funds play in today’s M&A marketplace. This is the last of four episodes exploring ideas from the new book “Merge Ahead: Mastering the Five Enduring Trends of Artful M&A” by Booz & Company's Gerald Adolph and Justin Pettit. Topics include: the role sovereign funds will play as the world’s economies begin to recover, differences between private equity firms and sovereign funds in the assets they seek, and the types of deals deep-pocketed buyers will pursue going forward.

In this episode, Tom Flaherty, a Senior Partner at Booz & Company, discusses the concept of velocity and impatience as it impacts the deal environment. He approaches this topic, which is described in the book "Merge Ahead: Mastering the Five Enduring Trends of Artful M&A" by Booz & Company's Gerald Adolph and Justin Pettit, by exploring: whether the pace of business has become too fast; the reason deals are closing more quickly today and its implications for merger integration; and the need for interlocking integration plans, ranging from immediate to 100-day and 1,000-day.

Gerald Adolph, a Senior Partner at Booz & Company and leader of the firm's Mergers and Restructuring group, discusses the concept of merganic growth, which is described in his new book with Booz & Company Partner Justin Pettit titled "Merge Ahead: Mastering the Five Enduring Trends of Artful M&A" (McGraw Hill, June 2009). Topics include: the extent to which a merganic growth plan is a necessity today, the biggest mistakes to avoid in adopting merganic growth, and building the skills necessary to be a successful merganic acquirer.

In this episode, Gerald Adolph and Justin Pettit discuss their new book, "Merge Ahead: Mastering the Five Enduring Trends of Artful M&A" (McGraw Hill, June 2009). Adolph, a Senior Partner at Booz & Company and leader of the firm's Mergers and Restructuring group, and Pettit, a Partner at Booz & Company, together touch on a number of key topics from the book, including: the concept of "Merganic” growth; the five enduring trends, which include "Bigger is Better than Ever" and "Velocity and Impatience"; and how to craft a successful Merganic growth plan.

Rob Carter, Global CIO of FedEx, said his greatest challenge is using IT to maintain FedEx’s competitive advantage over its aggressive rivals. To that end, he discusses how FedEx has undertaken a major renewal of its technology architecture in hopes of reducing complexity and increasing connectivity.

Ivan de Sousa, a Senior Partner at Booz & Company in Brazil, discusses the key mistakes to avoid in financial sector M&A, specifically focusing on the post-merger integration (PMI) phase. Ivan focuses on mistakes made in three critical areas: planning, execution and result tracking, and governance and integration structure.

Justin Pettit, a Partner at Booz & Company, explores the secrets of successful turnarounds based on an article he co-authored with Booz & Company Senior Partner William Jackson for Financier Worldwide. Topics include why turnarounds are so difficult, the four common characteristics of successful turnarounds and how to implement them, and expectations for future turnaround activity in the current environment.

Seamus McMahon, a Partner at Booz & Company, discusses how the current environment has impacted the way post-merger integration should be handled in bank transactions. Topics include the importance of retaining top customers, how to deal with managing credit risk for the combined entity, and the need for a more deliberate approach to cost savings.

Mike McKeon, Senior Partner at Booz & Company, shares his insights into the current banking industry meltdown in this first video edition of Mergercast by Booz & Company. Mike takes on topics including the crisis’ impact on business and the economy, its acceleration of the existing trend toward industry consolidation, the government bailout, and what has to happen for the crisis to truly end.

Christopher Hannegan, Principal at Booz & Company, and Sean McDade, founder and CEO of PeopleMetrics, discuss the importance of measuring employee engagement as part of the transaction process and how to use that data to create effective communications. McDade and Hannegan explain the proper time to begin measurement, the kinds of questions asked, and the way this approach can add value to a merger.

Gerald Adolph, Senior Vice President of Booz & Company and leader of the firm's Mergers and Restructurings group, discusses the importance of integration planning that incorporates both the first 100 days and the merged organization's longer-term strategic goals. He explores three areas where this type of planning is most important and analyzes the impact of the current economic environment on planning.

Andrew Cainey, a Senior Executive Advisor for Booz & Company in Greater China, discusses the state of the M&A market in China today. He explains why foreign companies typically buy stakes or create partnerships with Chinese entities rather than buying them outright and the recent boom in Chinese companies entering into transactions with foreign targets.

Paul Hyde, a Vice President in Booz & Company's Financial Services group, discusses how nearly two decades of banking industry mergers have created a group of "have-not" banks struggling to survive. He describes just what sets these banks apart from their more successful brethren, what they should do to remedy the situation, and where banking industry M&A is headed.

Gerald Adolph, Senior Vice President at Booz & Company and leader of the firm's Mergers and Restructurings group, discusses the impact of the tighter credit environment on third-quarter 2007 M&A activity. He looks at the types of deals hindered by tighter credit, its impact on private equity firms and some new opportunities this presents for strategic buyers.

Gerald Adolph, Senior Vice President at Booz & Company and leader of the firm's Mergers and Restructurings group, discusses the M&A environment in the first half of 2007, looking at the strength of the current merger wave as well as the types of transactions seen. He then turns to the remainder of the year, examining critical, ongoing trends such as the potential impact of tighter credit on deal flow.

Justin Pettit, Vice President at Booz & Company, spoke on July 27 at the Wall Street Journal Deals & Deal Makers 2007 conference on "The Next Big Thing: 7 Ways For Dealmakers to Make Money Tomorrow." This episode brings the presentation to you as recorded at the conference, which was held at the New York Stock Exchange.

J Neely, Vice President at Booz & Company, explains why divestitures in today's environment are much harder than they appear, potentially impacting not only the divested entity but the seller itself. Booz Allen has identified seven key hurdles to successful divestitures and J discusses several of them in detail during the interview.

Justin Pettit, Vice President at Booz & Company, discusses a recent finding that, perhaps counterintuitively, the priciest acquisitions usually serve buyers better. He explains why this is the case and offers advice to those interested in considering an M&A strategy focused on pricier, growth-oriented partners.

Tom Flaherty, Senior Vice President at Booz & Company, discusses the challenges facing merging utilities in the regulatory approval process. Success in this area requires tough negotiation supported by innovative proposals to ensure that both shareholders and customers are treated equitably.

Gerald Adolph, Senior Vice President at Booz & Company and leader of the firm’s global merger and restructuring practice, discusses the 10 merger imperatives as a framework for planning a merger and keeping it on track. The use of these imperatives allows the process to be broken down into a set of manageable components.

Simon Gillies, a Vice President at Booz & Company, discusses the importance of strategic due diligence in the merger process. Strategic due diligence is a third, critical component of the due diligence process, going beyond the traditional legal and financial reviews. It explores whether the potential of a transaction is realistic - or not.

J Neely, Vice President at Booz & Company, discusses the execution-related risks inherent in all transactions – the nine deadly sins of mergers. More than two-thirds of the transactions that fail do so at the execution stage. The keys to avoiding this fate are understanding the nine deadly sins and establishing a program integration team early in the merger process that can address them.

Tom Casey, Vice President of Booz & Company specializing in information technology, discusses the importance of IT integration to merger success. He explains why senior management tends to approach IT integration in a perfunctory, arms-length manner and makes some suggestions for avoiding major IT integration mistakes.

Gerald Adolph, Senior Vice President of Booz & Company and leader of the firm’s global merger and restructuring practice, describes the importance of merger communications to successful transactions. He provides some valuable, practical advice about just how to set up and administer such a merger communications program.

Gerald Adolph, Senior Vice President of Booz & Company and leader of the firm’s global merger and restructuring practice, explains why mergers are more successful today than over the past decade, when one-half to two-thirds of them failed. Adolph attributes the change to a jump in the number of consolidation deals (rather than strategic deals), better pre-merger planning, and greater oversight from key stakeholders.