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Call it the holy grail, a white whale or whatever relentless pursuit you want. Creating significant, measurable value through mergers and acquisitions remains difficult in far too many transactions. Yet M&A isn’t going anywhere. To strengthen your position — not only as a buyer but as a seller — consider factors beyond the typical due diligence, valuation formulas and integration metrics. Maximizing value for stakeholders requires a better understanding of three often overlooked elements: culture, purpose and digital acumen.
These can be difficult to quantify, but they increasingly impact how companies come together in a deal and how well they can succeed moving forward. PwC has created a brief assessment with critical questions to help you understand how your company approaches each of these important elements.
The culture conversation
What’s at stake
C-suite executives and board members often say they “walk the talk” on culture, purpose and values. But often employees below management level disagree. That disconnect is even more challenging when you’re trying to integrate with another company and align cultures. Maybe that’s why cultural issues often hamper value creation in deals.
What to do
Be honest about how well you can accurately assess and understand both your company’s culture and another’s — and the specific elements of each — well before the deal closes. Start with considering different dimensions such as collaboration and teamwork, autonomy, adaptability, innovation, work experience and management. In addition to fostering candid conversations within workforces, you can examine these dimensions through employee surveys and with social listening tools to get a clearer picture of culture.
Power in purpose
What’s at stake
Culture is tied to a company’s purpose, which is built on values and ultimately helps motivate people to come to work and help bring that purpose to life. Your company’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) efforts can demonstrate this connection clearly, with the respective ESG commitments of a buyer and a seller often a proxy for cultural fit. And ESG is increasingly important in gaining support from outside stakeholders.
What to do
Understanding the ESG profile of a company you might buy is critical. Not only should you determine what it prioritizes and how it communicates those priorities, but you should know of any potential landmines that could increase risk, reduce value and create other complications. If your company has been vocal about reducing its carbon footprint, for instance, buying a business that has largely ignored the issue could create conflict during integration and beyond.
Defining digital
What’s at stake
Companies in many industries have invested in digital transformation, so digital understandably should factor into M&A decisions as buyers consider acquisitions to boost their digital capabilities. Your digital acumen can also affect the deal process itself. A digital divide between organizations can create challenges — from due diligence and valuation through integration. And this goes beyond simple software issues. The degree of digital skills among each workforce in a transaction can shape the level of integration and ultimately the speed of the combined company’s digital transformation.
What to do
Digital transformation can both improve efficiency and enable employees, and retaining talent in tech-related transactions is often essential. Artificial intelligence, cloud, 3D printing, automation … these and other technologies are exciting. But it’s not just about which tech will speed your digital journey, but which one will help which groups of employees get the job done. It’s the intersection of that technology and your human capital. Make sure you have the people necessary to operate successfully.
Take the next step
Ultimately, these three elements are driven by people — what drives them to show up in a workplace, how they function once there and what skills they bring to the table. Understanding your people and knowing yourself as a company are significant steps in revealing what kind of dealmaker you are and making deals that can deliver value.
What’s your dealmaking identity?
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