---
title: Is Your M&A Playbook Ready? - Stratford Group Ltd.
description: Organizations can influence whether time invested in the M&A process is productive, seed-sowing work that yields a high-value 'harvest' – not a barren crop
image: https://www.stratford.group/hubfs/MK-Blog%20and%20News%20Images/BLOG-Is%20your%20M%26A%20playbook%20ready.png
---

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# Is Your M&A Playbook Ready?

 Influence whether time invested in the M&A process is productive, seed-sowing work that yields a high-value 'harvest' and not a barren crop with a playbook.

 Jun 17, 2019, 7:57:41 AM

Mergers and acquisitions are a key strategic lever to propel your company’s growth. They are complex, stressful, time-consuming bets with no guaranteed outcome. And there’s no changing this – it’s the nature of the work. What organizations can influence, however, is whether the time invested in the M&A process is productive, seed-sowing work that yields a high-value “harvest” at the end – not a barren crop.

What makes the difference? A structured, planned and phased approach to navigate the many M&A variables. In other words: a playbook.

#### What is a M&A Playbook?

An M&A Playbook is a company’s published, end-to-end approach to executing a successful M&A deal. The playbook includes activities, best practices, tools, templates and language that connects to the company’s strategic plan. It addresses every stage of the M&A process: from determining if M&A is, in fact, the best way to meet strategic goals, to planning the full integration of companies, through to post-integration learning and capturing long-term value.  The playbook is typically comprised of six phases:

![Stratford graphic M&A process flow - Strategy leads to Deal Flow and pre-qualification, leads to Due Diligence, leads to Pre-Integration, leads to Integration, leads to Post-Integration ](https://www.stratford.group/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/MA-Deal-Flow.png?width=683&height=185&name=MA-Deal-Flow.png)

#### Why are M&A playbooks critical?

As organizations look to fulfill their growth objectives, they rarely have all of the necessary in-house talent, expertise and resources to do so. Typical solutions are to buy, build, or borrow to close this gap. Of these, the “buy” solution – to be bought by or to merge with another company – can be the intended solution. And yet, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) often do not deliver the value they were intended to create.

 

> ### *“M&A is a mug’s game, in which typically 70%–90% of acquisitions are abysmal failures”*
> 
> *~ [Harvard Business Review](https://hbr.org/2016/06/ma-the-one-thing-you-need-to-get-right#:~:text=M%26A%20is%20a%20mug's%20game%3A%20Typically%2070%25%E2%80%9390%25,all%20the%20disasters%20just%20cited.)*
> 
>  

Studies show that companies with a well-structured M&A process (i.e. a playbook), however, have a much higher likelihood to achieve their desired outcomes, compared to those who do not.

#### **Sharing our experience**

Stratford works with hundreds of companies a year. In our experience, “pockets” within an organization sometimes understand certain aspects of the M&A cycle – but rarely is an entire, end-to-end plan created that provides a structured, repeatable and accountable approach to the entire procedure. Rarer still, is this plan clearly articulated so that all relevant stakeholders including your board, understand the big picture.

#### **How your business can change with a playbook**

Before Calian created their clearly-articulated M&A playbook, [Kevin Ford](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-ford-5426948/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_search_srp_top%3BqR2xwLUFQsuWeBfOstRcpQ%3D%3D&licu=urn%3Ali%3Acontrol%3Ad_flagship3_search_srp_top-search_srp_result&lici=l6L10HfPSjiHe%2FVQxR2b3A%3D%3D), CEO of [Calian Group](https://www.calian.com/en), stated that they were misaligned as a management team, wasting precious time internally and trying to reach consensus with the Board. Creating a playbook significantly improved Calian’s M&A efficiency (decision-making, consensus-building and implementation speed) and effectiveness (success rate and value derived from the deal).

Based on years of experience, we’ve put together an [M&A checklist](https://stratford.group/insights/ma-playbook-checklist-create-your-own-ma-playbook/) that covers the key “plays” that Stratford uses on every successful M&A. If a merger or acquisition is on your company’s horizon, you may find the check list helpful in developing your own M&A playbook which can support better decision-making, consensus-building, improved implementation speed, success rate and most importantly realizing value derived from the deal.

 

*This article was published more than 1 year ago. Some information may no longer be current.*

 

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