100 Days and Beyond

Welcome to another episode of 100 days and beyond with Karen Thomas. She is the founder and director of Seven Transformation Ltd. She is also a Chartered Organisational Psychologist, Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and a member of INSEAD's global director network (IDP-C).

Background

Karen started her journey with training and specialising in organisational psychology. Then, she got into Management consultancy, specialising in the people aspects of M&A. After that, she went into IBM to lead businesses and integration.

Karen is an Interim Executive Committee member, Consultant and NED with 25 years of experience leading complex enterprise-wide transformations and M&A integrations to $105bn turnover. Karen has proven expertise in strategy and transformation of complex global businesses involving the creation of new and disruptive operating models to reduce cost, grow the top line, extract more excellent value from data and technology, create new dynamic cultures and deliver customer-centric and digitally delivered customer experiences.

Value Creation Management as NED

Karen focus on the private equity world from the non-executive chair and believes that if you’re interested in value creation, then explore private equity because governance is the priority as the NEDs build a relationship with the CEO and the broader management team is critical. You need to know their motivation and passion for supporting them achieve their goals. From a cultural perspective, you can help the CEO to scale up the journey. Recognise the need to bring in more formalities and processes to scale up.

Psychology of value creation

Karen is a big advocate of strength methodology. She says that you must know your career and the purpose of business.

Strength plays a key role, but you need to know the issues to get better at bringing the proper capability support. Be focused on knowing the correct principles and tools with experience and knowledge to fix the issue.

Leading value creation through strategic transformation being CTO

Being part of the executive team is working with the business teams on the journey with a process to follow to set up a transformation office and centres of excellence. If they want to set up a new model around account management, CTO must deliver what they've set out that they want to achieve.

A transformation must have a defined endpoint with a set of KPIs that needs to be delivered, but the importance and the difference between working with an interim and a consultancy are that they're working with you. They're taking you on the journey, but they're leaving you with that capability and that sustainability that you may know that you will do more next time.

Make sure to work towards it in a planned way. Build checkpoints to see if we are achieving our goals in a planned and methodical way. You need the provocation and make a mission. These were some of the few things discussed in the Podcast with Karen Thomas. To know her magnificent experience, tune into the Podcast.

Connect with Karen Thomas

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenthomas-bland

Share your expertise and knowledge on our podcast platforms. Apply to be one of our featured guests at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dudley-peacock This podcast gives M&A experts the platform and the opportunity to demonstrate and showcase their ‘in the trenches’ experiences using a state-of-the-art platform for peers and potential clients. Go To www.100daysandbeyond.com for more episodes.

LINKS: http://mergerintegration.co.uk

http://www.100daysandbeyond.com

http://www.skilfulpursuit.com

Welcome to another episode of 100 days and beyond with Allan Dowie.

Allan is the Senior Board Executive with 20+ years of global strategic development and sustained profitable growth in multiple sectors. He is also a partner at N4 partner LLB.

Background

Alan was passionate about finance and accountancy, so he started his career by setting up businesses like clothing, glass recycling, printing and property at a very young age. Then he went into the nuclear industry, finished his accountancy qualification. After that, he moved into the banking and, consequently, into consulting.

He is now an experienced Global CFO and C-Suite executive with a proven track record of operating within Private Equity backed and Public organisations with revenues of £1bn+, driving year-on-year growth, shareholder value, customer satisfaction and increased profitability through organic growth, strategic acquisitions, process improvements and complex business transformations.

N4 partners and its Aim

It is an investment in advisory partnership guiding clients to the best opportunities. It is a particular investment and advisory firm to deliver real growth and value. Understanding client their challenges needs and to guide them through the journey.

Structure versus strategy in businesses.

At N4 partners, Allan and his partners do structure and strategy together, allowing them to be relatively fluid in their approach. It’s not about putting people in boxes, but being part of a team putting the right processes and systems. Bringing on the right culture is essential.

Core principles of successful organisations

The pillars of success are the structure, process system, business model and right people. You need to be bringing in young people with different experiences and backgrounds to take learnings from them. Be able to bring the right team together. Have a plan based on different cultures and locations. It will help the business grow.

Connect to Allan Dowie

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allan-dowie-8a4b4aa

Share your expertise and knowledge on our podcast platforms. Apply to be one of our featured guests at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dudley-peacock This podcast gives M&A experts the platform and the opportunity to demonstrate and showcase their ‘in the trenches’ experiences using a state-of-the-art platform for peers and potential clients.

Go To www.100daysandbeyond.com for more episodes.

LINKS: http://mergerintegration.co.uk

http://www.100daysandbeyond.com

http://www.skilfulpursuit.com

Welcome to another episode of 100 days and beyond. Today we have Ian Kirkpatrick with us. He is the Head of Transformation and a highly experienced, commercially astute business leader (COO/HR Director/Logistics Director) who has transformed HR, supply chain and facilities functions during M&A across multiple sectors.

Background

Ian Kirkpatrick started his career as a graduate trainee in food manufacturing. After that, he moved to dispatch and distribution and got into leadership, leading and helping people through the change.

He has worked for RS Components, The Culina Group, Europa Worldwide Group, Kwik Fit & European Tyres, Itochu Corporation, Stapleton Tyres, Scottish & Newcastle, Coop Retail Logistics and Premier Foods. His significant projects include M&A involving large scale TUPE/redundancy, business turnaround and system improvements leading to significant cost cutting, improved sales and cultural change.

Supply chain and logistics

Logistics are buying the right products, putting and selling them at the right place, and then delivering on time. If you can win people, you can win logistics.

Ian has learned over the years that it doesn’t matter how much money you invest in any business or property. The vital part is excellent customer service.

Pre-deal process and due diligence in M&A

The key aspects to access in M&A before making a deal with the target acquisition are shared by Ian Kirkpatrick. These are as follows:

• Start with communication because communicating with people is the key part. You must look at the customer feedback online and you can also look at it without the Internet by communicating with the salespeople because they know the customers and what drives margin.

• Look at their customer records to know about the organisation.

• You are required to look at the value of assets, stock, property, and liabilities that go along with people.

These were a few of the consequences shared by Ian Kirkpatrick. To know more about his splendid journey, tune into the podcast.

Connect with Ian Kirkpatrick

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/mwlite/in/ian-kirkpatrick

Email: [email protected]

Share your expertise and knowledge on our podcast platforms. Apply to be one of our featured guests at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dudley-peacock This podcast gives M&A experts the platform and the opportunity to demonstrate and showcase their ‘in the trenches’ experiences using a state-of-the-art platform for peers and potential clients. Go To www.100daysandbeyond.com for more episodes.

LINKS: http://mergerintegration.co.uk

http://www.100daysandbeyond.com

http://www.skilfulpursuit.com

Welcome to another episode of 100 days and beyond. Today we have Debora Edwards with us. She is the chief transformation officer at Illuminet. She is a business & an HR leader passionate about delivering sustainable change in a digital environment.

Background

Debora started her career as HR programme manager with professional services but found herself doing more in the M&A space and working with the technical business. Therefore she moved into the contractor space for many years and worked as a transformation manager with Lloyds Banking Group. Debora has over 20 years of the transformation experience. She also has experience in managing mergers, acquisitions, integrations and divestment.

Building leadership team and change management.

Debora Edwards stated that change management in mergers and acquisitions integrations to bring organisations together is critical. From an HR point of view, she says that pay the individuals, as it is their primary right. Get the plan right and put that in a framework incorporating change in communications. Ensure the individuals and leadership teams feel valued when joining the new organisation. Work with the internal technical teams to identify ways to automate or outsource services to make the business efficient. It will help the business to grow and develop.

The cultural awareness and location of different organisations are fundamental. You must work closely with the internal and leadership teams to understand the culture. And you need to apply a different approach, depending on the location and the culture.

Reviewing and revising business values.

• When businesses plan to merge or acquire another business to move forward, how they approach other organisations and identify opportunities for the individuals' impacts and add value to the business.

• Working with people who are champions and can help you embed the piece of change is another important aspect of adding value.

• Make sure to support the individuals along their journey. Work with the leaders to help them to be successful.

• Change management and communication are the essential parts.

Key takeaways

Some key takeaways shared by Debora Edwards are:

1. Spend some time thinking about what you want the end outcome to look like and the journey you want to follow and identify the pain points that you want to avoid.

2. Planning is a significant part.

3. Work closely with the internal team and bring somebody who can support you.

Tune into the Podcast to know the magnificent experience of Debora Edward.

Connect with Debora Edward

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debora-edwards-6a09a0b

Share your expertise and knowledge on our podcast platforms. Apply to be one of our featured guests at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dudley-peacock This podcast gives M&A experts the platform and the opportunity to demonstrate and showcase their ‘in the trenches’ experiences using a state-of-the-art platform for peers and potential clients. Go To www.100daysandbeyond.com for more episodes.

LINKS:

http://mergerintegration.co.uk

http://www.100daysandbeyond.com

http://www.skilfulpursuit.com

Welcome to another episode of 100 days and beyond with Kevin Murphy.

He is the CEO & founder of the International Strategic Board Advisory Business. He is an influential leader delivering high-impact results through strategy, direction and decision-making. He can deep-dive scenarios, solve complex problems (root causes), stabilise businesses and achieve regulatory alignment before accelerating growth.

Background

Kevin has been in financial services focusing on payments for over 20 years. He has significant experience in growing, turning around and restructuring businesses in Ireland, the UK, Europe & North America for a portfolio of PE firms, large PLCs (BANK OF IRELAND GROUP PLC) and privately-owned companies.

Leadership strategies and challenges of CEO

• Strategies

Kevin believes that as a CEO, you need to do three things to make the PE businesses succeed.

1. You have to have a plan and you are required to have a structure and an organisation.

2. Get an experienced team that can execute the plan. Experienced people can work out regulatory issues.

3. It is critical to start making the decision and transform yourself to inject momentum into business and move things forward.

• Challenges

Kevin says that when you’re facing challenges with your business, the key thing is to communicate around it and dig up all issues that are needed to be addressed to move forward. Plan to resolve the issues.

You should be honest and direct with your colleagues and stakeholders. You must learn from your mistakes.

Carve-outs

To make the carve-out successful and get the business ready for sale, you need to understand the business and deal with the issues to grow it and then sell it. The First three months are very crucial in injecting pace, finding out the issues, assessing the people, building plans and communicating very powerfully to the people in the business. You need experienced people.

Strategy is 95% above execution. You can have the best strategy in the world, but you must be prepared to do the grind day in day and out focus. Manage and lead the business to solve the customer’s issues and satisfy them to get revenue.

To more details, tune into the Podcast.

Connect with Kevin Murphy

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevindmurphy1

Share your expertise and knowledge on our podcast platforms. Apply to be one of our featured guests at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dudley-peacock This podcast gives M&A experts the platform and the opportunity to demonstrate and showcase their ‘in the trenches’ experiences using a state-of-the-art platform for peers and potential clients. Go To www.100daysandbeyond.com for more episodes.

LINKS: http://mergerintegration.co.uk

http://www.100daysandbeyond.com

http://www.skilfulpursuit.com

Welcome to another episode of 100 days and beyond with Jean Philippe. He is the Founding Partner at Verdier & Co. He is corporate finance and Investment banking professional with 20+ years of experience. He is also Chair of the Alumni Council of London Business School.

Background

Jean had a strong interest in banking and finance so he pursued his studies in economics, business and finance accounting. He started his career with a French investment bank called Pep. After that, he was recruited by a German investment bank in London, where he was focused on structured transactions combining M&A and equity debt.

Leadership

Leadership is critical in the world of M&A. Jean narrated leadership in two ways. Firstly, don’t be concerned about things you can’t uphold. Influence the things that you can regulate. Remember to remain focused. And secondly, don’t let hope drop. The ones who succeed are those who effectively roll up their sleeves. Mind-set and diversity are essential.

Strategy and growth consulting

In Acquisition, transformation requires strategic thinking ahead of transaction. The value in businesses is around people. Having passionate people who think of changing the world.

To grow the business profitably and sustainably, you should try to put yourself in your client’s shoes. Listen to your client’s agenda, get into structuring conversation and then go into legal aspects to access data. Having a plan is vital. Communicate with the CEOs, board members, chairman or head of business lines about the strategic agenda, growth and acquiring capabilities, market footprints, et cetera.

To know more leadership and management principles, tune into the Podcast.

Connect with Jean

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpverdier

Website: www.verdierandco.com

Email: [email protected]

Share your expertise and knowledge on our podcast platforms. Apply to be one of our featured guests at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dudley-peacock This podcast gives M&A experts the platform and the opportunity to demonstrate and showcase their ‘in the trenches’ experiences using a state-of-the-art platform for peers and potential clients. Go To www.100daysandbeyond.com for more episodes.

LINKS: http://mergerintegration.co.uk

http://www.100daysandbeyond.com

http://www.skilfulpursuit.com

Welcome everyone to our latest episode of 100 days and beyond. Today James Pugh joined us. He is a Co-founder and director of CapEQ & he is M&A, Fund raising and strategy consultant.

Background

He started his first business at 14 by building computer backs. He grew the business to 8-9 locations. He got into M&A about 15 years ago, and set up CapEQ, a finance company with a colleague to run ethical M&A transaction two years ago.

Value creation.

To create value for your client's transaction, you must engage with people from both sides and communicate about value creation and their PMI processes. Good understanding leads to value creation. On the buyer side, you should help them continuously make strategic acquisition that change business’s outcome, allowing them to integrate effectively.

Transaction support is critical to completing transactions and sitting on the buy side, you should advise the other side to get some advisors. That advice eventually helps the transaction flow better and become more successful.

James believes that Carve-outs are technical. You are more capable of doing technical stuff all day long, and it doesn’t usually involve people.

Corporate Acquisition strategy

For a long time, corporate acquirers have been struggling to match their valuation of private equity. With a lot of change, corporate acquirers are acquiring stuff that changes the trajectory. It adds intrinsic value. There’s a drive to scarcity value that is becoming more focused. People understand that consumers are the critical part as they drive everything in the UK economy. Consumer Focus is changing. Therefore the business is changing.

ESG sustainability

ESG provide a commercial advantage in the long-term. It can straight away preclude profitability. Capitalism has changed the world for a better place.

ESG allows people to feel more in control and be supportive. It gets the consumer to drive the economy. It allows the consumer to make a better choice of the product. It is long-term and we need to be doing things that help people 15 years in advance. These things take time to get a return, but they can get a massive beneficial hit.

To know more about James magnificent experience, tune into the Podcast.

Connect with James Pugh

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-pugh-1b046815

Website: https://capeq.com

Share your expertise and knowledge on our podcast platforms. Apply to be one of our featured guests at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dudley-peacock This podcast gives M&A experts the platform and the opportunity to demonstrate and showcase their ‘in the trenches’ experiences using a state-of-the-art platform for peers and potential clients. Go To www.100daysandbeyond.com for more episodes.

LINKS: http://mergerintegration.co.uk

http://www.100daysandbeyond.com

http://www.skilfulpursuit.com

Welcome to another episode of 100 days and beyond with Ashley Hyche. He is the senior vice president of Wells Fargo and company. He is the head of strategy and M&A Integration.

Background

Ashley started his career as a senior associate M&A and strategy at Applied Materials that got him into corporate development and M&A.

He is a strategy professional with demonstrated leadership. He has expertise in operating M&A processes, deal negotiation/analysis, valuation, due diligence, integration execution, and value creation for companies both organically and inorganically.

Due diligence phase

Ashley believes that having a voice and understanding the value from a leadership perspective builds a prospect for synergy creation. It is necessary to advocate for having a seat at the due diligence table to initiate a well-measured plan over the life of integration.

In the FinTech integration, you have to engage and get involved on the due diligence side of integration before the deal is consummated. Executive management must take action quickly as there's competition in the market. The sound process can help the management team and leader to be successful.

Human dynamics

The critical functions of people are finance, marketing, and sales in HR or Human capital. You ought to give them a voice and level of confidence about their job and functions as part of the planning exercise. It would be confidential for the team to evaluate and achieve the Integration diligence for the target.

Valuation and integration.

In integration, any acquirer would care for an acquisition to be accretive for their bottom line. To create value, you're required to create 100 days goals and beyond to meet the integration of the objective. You must be capable of understanding the execution risk areas. It is necessary to determine the success criteria and the vital performance indicator early. It will allow the management team to look back and quantify in one or two months.

Ashley is an imaginative and energetic leader. He has Deep Financial Services experience with FinTech and leading banks. For more details about his journey, tune into the Podcast.

Connect with Ashley Hyche

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyhyche

Share your expertise and knowledge on our podcast platforms. Apply to be one of our featured guests at . This podcast gives M&A experts the platform and the opportunity to demonstrate and showcase their ‘in the trenches’ experiences using a state-of-the-art platform for peers and potential clients. Go To www.100daysandbeyond.com for more episodes.

LINKS: http://mergerintegration.co.uk

http://www.100daysandbeyond.com

http://www.skilfulpursuit.com

Welcome to another episode of 100 days and beyond. Today we are joined by Richard Sederman. He is a senior M&A and strategy director with an extensive history in listed FTSC companies with over 10k employees worldwide.

Background

Richard Started his career as a graduate trainee and then became a director. He had secured an extensive career in mergers, acquisitions and integrations.

Value and sustainability as a strategic driver

In acquisition integration, Richard says it is essential to create social value, thus creating a responsible company by accessing every business against a criteria from geography, people and product perspective.

The products being made with a practical purpose and a solution are vital to the customer. You must understand your customer's problems and sort it out, bringing sustainability to them.

You need to invest differently to bring sustainable products and services to your market and build it into the standard products offer, so people continue to buy from you.

Strategies for merger and acquisition integration

1. The critical thing is to have a horizon checking process within the business to know the outcome in your geography.

2. You should have a good set of tools that have been tested and reused several times. It will help you get through diligence quickly to plan integration without doing much rework. It will make the whole process easier and repeatable.

3. In different geographies, the big thing is cultural variations. You must be very adaptable to any local cultural variation to get a plan that everyone can work with.

Project management skills

A lot of nuances are the difference in culture and delivering the project with the people you haven’t worked with before. It is a combination of a good on-boarding experience, putting the new people or employees on a process to make them understand and experience the organisation’s integration.

It is vital to have people from cross functional experience to understand the wider business.

Another thing leading the business to success is separating out the day-to-day running of the new business with the integration. If the organisation coming on-board is small, the starting principle is the vision and purpose needed to be integrated from larger to smaller.

"It is important to have a growth mind-set. Things can be done differently and improve. Look for opportunities and take them."

-Richard Sederman

These were some of the leading principles shared by Richard Sederman. To know more, hop onto the episode.

Connect with Richard Sederman

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-sederman-4065464

Website: www.essentracomponents.com

Share your expertise and knowledge on our podcast platforms. Apply to be one of our featured guests at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dudley-peacock This podcast gives M&A experts the platform and the opportunity to demonstrate and showcase their ‘in the trenches’ experiences using a state-of-the-art platform for peers and potential clients. Go To www.100daysandbeyond.com for more episodes.

LINKS: http://mergerintegration.co.uk

http://www.100daysandbeyond.com

http://www.skilfulpursuit.com

Welcome to another episode of 100 Days and Beyond with Naresh Kumar, Co-founder and managing partner at Operating Bridge Partners.

He is a result-oriented leader with almost two decades of operating, M&A and advisory experience with global investors, blue-chip brands and tier-1 consulting firms. He provides leadership to corporates as an 'accountable' Executive and concurrently leads the design/execution of 'Value Creation' plans as interim operator/advisor.

Background

Naresh Kumar's first role was designing aerospace structures. As an engineer, he loved managing complex projects, supply chain issues, managing people and working with people. So, he got involved in the supply chain management and moved to Dubai to set up first captive offshore centre for Atkins.

After that, he moved to the US for MBA from Purdue University. And post graduation, he started his management consulting journey in 2009 and has first-hand seen rise of operational value creation, growth equity and ESG within Private Equity. He worked with Accenture and Deloitte until 2016 providing hands-on M&A, Transformation and Performance Improvement support to clients. Thanks to consulting career, He is experienced in various industries with deep spikes in Private Equity, Business & Financial Services, Healthcare and Products.

Since 2016, Naresh has been an executive interim working directly with investors and their portfolio companies in senior advisor and operator roles.

Operational value creation

There are 6000+ private equity & debt investors each with a unique investment thesis such as control equity, sectoral focus, special situations, Buy-Build and Carve-Out etc. Since 2008 financial crisis, capital has been cheap and PE firms are prioritising operational value creation to realise alpha returns. Operational focus also enables PE firms to differentiate themselves from competition both in-terms of both winning pre-deal auction and realising post-deal value creation plan on sustainable basis.

Post-signing, Exit value is primary success metric in the PE industry. In-terms of portfolio support and monitoring, there are two related but distinct worlds within a typical PE firm:

1. Investment professionals with corporate finance background responsible for investment thesis, sourcing right deals and later monitoring the performance of fund portfolio

2. The other is in-house operating partners who primarily work with portfolio companies to realise the operational value creation thesis.

Naresh says that businesses are all about people, as they are the core assets. If you lose people, then you lose revenue and profit especially in knowledge industry sectors such as business services. The secret to successful re-pivoting towards target state is injecting A teams to win hearts & minds and driving collaboration across different businesses units, markets and functions.

Due to lack of above, c84% of transformation programmes fails jeopardising future-proofing of business model. As a result, a lot of mature private equity firms have been using Transformation Management Office(TMO) lever to turn 'bold' vision into reality and realise 'full' potential of PE value creation plan.