From a PwC report on how to do M&A better. One of the points: “The findings underline that the capabilities premium for both leverage and enhancement deals is a powerful expression of value creation. Leverage deals, in which the buyer uses its capabilities to strengthen the target, performed slightly better on average than enhancement deals, in which on-boarding new capabilities often comes with greater complexity.”
Five ways to avoid the pitfalls of binary decisions: from strategy+business. “Before you decide, check how the question is framed to ensure you have all the information you need and have considered all your options…It’s critical for executives to overcome this cognitive tendency to quickly make insufficiently informed binary choices. A decision to buy or sell, keep a project in-house or outsource it, work in the office or work from home, to name a few examples, can make or break a business and a career. And an in-between or hybrid option might be best. For instance, designating someone a leader versus a manager artificially limits the person’s potential because executive roles require both skill sets. And the sharing economy was built by injecting alternatives into binary decisions, such as whether to own an automobile. Moving beyond binary choices creates a nuanced perspective on potential risks and opportunities.”
strategy+business on why the first five minutes of a meeting shape its outcome. “The basic idea is that to support people and move critical objectives forward, leaders need to ask themselves four questions: Why are you meeting? Who needs to be there? What conversation needs to happen? And how can you create the conditions that will enable that conversation? In my experience, leaders are often able to answer the first three questions with just a little extra effort. But they usually come up empty when it comes to the last one.”
