Welcome to M&A Minute by Finch Brands. I’m Bill Gullan, President of Finch Brands. We are a real-world brand consultancy. We help companies at key moments strengthen, clarify, and activate the full potential of their brands and businesses. We call this M&A Minute. I can’t promise that it is just a minute but thank you for joining us. 

The risk of acting too quickly in an M&A event

In the world of Mergers and Acquisitions, it is easy to act too quickly. There is risk in acting too quickly when it comes to key brand questions in the wake of transactions like that.

It is easy to see examples of where businesses for reasons of expediency or any other reason act too quickly in fading away or sunsetting the brands of businesses they have acquired. The risk there is obvious. You lose brand equity. You alienate teammates.

What we’re here to talk to you about today is the risk of acting too slowly. We certainly work with companies in the middle of transactions but we’re also frequently called upon to provide work after the fact.

In some cases, years after for organizations that have made one or more acquisitions and have found over time that they are leaving value on the table. They have awkward or inefficient sales and marketing efforts because they never stopped to integrate. 

The risk of integrating too slowly during an M&A event

It’s easy to understand why acting too quickly creates unnecessary risk, but acting too slowly does too. If you’re years into an awkward, asymmetrical, and in some cases highly inefficient structure because many brands still exist, that might be a good time to think about brand integration.

The promise of a merger or an acquisition is often based on not only efficiencies in terms of sales and marketing investment but also the promise of the deal. There’s also the promise of bringing together the equities and setting forth a future vision.

So, never having the conversation and never taking the action that leads to greater brand integration over time is just as big of a risk as acting too quickly.

Make Brand Decisions that Keep Talent in Place

That’s today’s M&A Minute. If you’d like to be a Champion of Purposeful Change and learn how we can help, please contact us today and subscribe to our YouTube channel for future videos.

Finch Brands is a real-world brand consultancy that specializes in insights, strategy, and design, and has helped dozens of clients build successful post-M&A brands. We do this by helping clients win when it matters most by helping them own the change moment.