A behind-the-scenes look at the world of Mergers & Acquisitions from the collective behind The Agile Gorilla. To see profiles of the people on the podcast, please see the bios in our Collective.
Available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Every few weeks we look at a relevant topic of interest: what is going on behind the headlines, what is our view, what would we suggest to management, what would we do differently?
David Boyd, Ben de Haldevang and Abhay Pande from The Agile Gorilla collective talk to Ian Wakeford an expert in acquisitions, integrations and organisation change. Over his career, Ian has advised some of the largest UK and global organisations on how to deliver mergers, acquisitions and integrations. In the podcast we talk about his career, moving from a consulting role to the internal leader in London Stock Exchange Group, and the challenges of serial acquisition.
David Boyd, Ben de Haldevang and Abhay Pande from The Agile Gorilla collective talk to Marijke Cazemier, an expert in organisation design and leadership development. Over her career, Marijke has advised some of the largest UK and global organisations on how to build and develop their teams. In the podcast we talk about how curiosity is an important leadership quality, and organisation design is more like gardening than architecture.
David Boyd, Ben de Haldevang and Paul Siegenthaler from The Agile Gorilla collective talk to Joe Hine from SI Partners. SI Partners provide sell-side advice for company founders, helping them prepare for sale and achieve a successful exit. We talk to Joe about how founders can make the deal a successful both in the value they achieve and cultural fit for the organisation they've built.
David Boyd, Ben de Haldevang, Abhay Pande and Paul Siegenthaler from The Agile Gorilla collective discuss the world of mergers, acquisitions and integrations in 2023. We talk about the various impacts on acquisitions and integrations from AI (and OpenAI in particular), newly assertive regulators and changes in interest rates.
Ben de Haldevang, Abhay Pande and David Boyd and Paul Siegenthaler from The Agile Gorilla collective are joined by David Cox, a business transformation professional with a passion for Customer Experience. For over 15 years, David Cox has worked around Europe, South America and the Middle East helping clients drive revenue growth and customer loyalty.. We talk about who owns customer experience in an organisation, the challenge of keeping an external focus through an M&A deal, and the importance of metrics.
Climate change and the decarbonisation of transportation and industry are having a profound impact on fossil fuel companies. Ben de Haldevang, Abhay Pande and David Boyd and Paul Siegenthaler from The Agile Gorilla collective talk about how this affects M&A both in terms of strategic thinking and the successful delivery of deals.
The merger of Essilor and Luxottica in 2018 was the combination of French and Italian champions in lenses and frames. Ben de Haldevang, Abhay Pande, David Boyd and Paul Siegenthaler from The Agile Gorilla collective talk about the merger, evaluate success given hindsight, and how the Italian-side Leonardo Del Vecchio prevailed in a fight for control.
Text books on M&A tend to be dry and, in our view, a little ‘out of date’. Ben de Haldevang, Abhay Pande and David Boyd from The Agile Gorilla collective talk about the books they would recommend to a CEO undertaking his/her first deal. What book(s) would you give them to read this summer on the beach?….
The merger of law firms Allen & Overy from the UK and Shearman & Sterling from the US in a $3.4bn deal will not be easy to complete or deliver. Ben de Haldevang, Abhay Pande, David Boyd and Paul Siegenthaler from The Agile Gorilla collective talk about the challenges of merging professional services firms, especially those with a large number of partners. We talk about what the benefits of the deal look like, and how to achieve them.
Following a rare acquisition of a Mittelstand company by a foreign buyer, Ben de Haldevang, Abhay Pande, David Boyd and Paul Siegenthaler from The Agile Gorilla collective talk about the “Mittelstand” grouping of companies in Germany. How they differ in leadership and governance from typical companies in the Western hemisphere, and what that means for M&A.
Ben de Haldevang, Abhay Pande and Paul Siegenthaler from The Agile Gorilla collective, talk about the wave of mergers hitting the banking sector, and how we have learned or evolved from previous banking crashes.
Ben de Haldevang, Abhay Pande and David Boyd from The Agile Gorilla collective, talk about the challenges of integrating two firms long after the acquisition has completed. In the news recently has been Google’s integration of the DeepMind acquisition into their internal “Google Brain” team. The team ask what are the challenges, and how do you deal with them?
Ben de Haldevang, Abhay Pande, Paul Siegenthaler and David Boyd from The Agile Gorilla collective, talk about the separation of Worldpay from FIS (so soon after the acquisition), and the latest news from the EY separation.