M&A Science

Kison Patel gives a sneak-peek into a panel discussion of the highly anticipated M&A Science Virtual Summit, featuring over 40 industry-leading practitioners.

This panel discussion features Christina Amiry, Head of M&A Strategic Operations and Integrations at Atlassian and Steve Elliott, Head of Jira Align at Atlassian. Together they discuss the ways in which Atlassian ensured the acquisition of Jira Align was successful from both sides of the deal.

On this episode, Kison speaks with Kimberly Baird, Corporate Development Integration Lead at Cisco. She's responsible for driving the successful integration of acquired organizations into Cisco by implementing best practice methodology rooted in M&A-specific project and change management developed over 200+ acquisitions. Today she shares tips on how to adjust your M&A practice to a virtual process.

On this episode, Kison speaks with Ben Sutton, a senior manager of corporate development at NCR Corporation, about executing transactions and what a senior manager's role looks like. Together they discuss how to measure the success of a transaction, the difference between revenue synergy and cost synergy, and how you can predict what a leader wants out of a transaction.

Ben breaks down legal terms he's come to be familiar with and discusses potential learning curves to expect when entering a senior manager role. From predicting outcome wants incorrectly, transaction metrics, and experiencing post-close surprises, Ben covers every aspect of a senior manager corporate development role.

On this episode, Kison speaks with Sallie Cunningham about how to plan a divestiture from HR's perspective. Together they discuss the process of moving employees, how to approach ringfencing, and what Transition Service Agreements (TSAs) are. Sallie also explains what the key materials HR must have when it comes to preparing for due diligence during a divestiture and which transition records are required for HR to gather.

On this episode, Toby Tester interviews Kison Patel about his newly published book, Agile M&A, and how Agile can transform the traditional M&A deal process. They discuss topics such as how companies can apply Agile techniques to the antiquated M&A process and take a deep dive into how Agile is a unique project framework that increases efficiency and closes deals faster. The two also address the importance of accountability and leadership.

Through this interview, Kison gives a step by step guide on how to implement this innovative framework and breaks down Agile to its fundamental pillars. Learn how to adopt the responsive mindset Agile requires and hear Kison's opinion on the future of M&A. You can purchase Kison's book on Amazon or at agilema.com.

On this episode, Kison Patel speaks with Stephanie Carty. Stephanie is a corporate communications professional with more than 15 years of experience at GE, KPMG and other companies. Her expertise is in executive communications and ensuring top leaders communicate with honesty, clarity, and credibility. Currently, Stephanie is a strategic advisor, specializing in employee communications.

Learn components of communication plans, when to start planning, and behind the scenes activity that makes all the difference in the success of Day 1. In this episode, she tells Kison best practices for Day 1 and gives advice on how to avoid disasters. Stephanie also talks about a time she wrote 25 versions of a communication plan and how that unfolded at the time of signing.

On this episode, Kison speaks with Karen Isely of Isely Associates International regarding the impact people experience has on the outcome of M&A deals. Karen is an M&A specialist and the founder of Isely Associates International, an Australian-based global consulting business providing M&A advisory services to organizations growing by merger, acquisition or other similar business transactions. She brings experience as an HR professional, business leader and management consultant to every engagement and has contributed to nearly 150 deals, in-house as well as for corporate and private equity clients.

On this episode, Kison talks with PJ Patel, Co-CEO and Senior Managing Director at Valuation Research Corporation (VRC). VRC is a full-service, independent, global valuation firm that focuses exclusively on valuations that offer judgment beyond modeling. Kison and PJ discuss how to navigate intangible asset valuation in today's market, how the current M&A climate is affecting valuation, and how to avoid the most common mistakes when conducting a valuation.

In this episode, Kison Patel discusses the groundbreaking research done by Dr. Keith Dunbar. As a Managing Partner at JKD Talent Solutions, his team delivers actionable leadership intelligence. With this intelligence, we enhance clients' long-term profitability and growth by providing a unique, holistic view of leadership capabilities.

Keith gives insight into how leadership has more of an impact than culture, which is contrary to popular belief, and who actually has a bigger impact on deal success - middle management or C suite. They also cover why it's taken so long for people to realize how much leadership impacts the success of a deal, how to look for those leadership traits in your staff, and what works the best in terms of incentivizing leadership in your team.

Kison speaks with Nichelle Maynard-Elliot, a corporate M&A Executive, public company board member, and corporate dealmaker with over 20 years of financial and legal experience in M&A business development and strategic partnerships at Fortune 300 multinational corporations and top-ranked international/boutique law firms. She's a highly experienced corporate attorney lawyer, focusing on mergers and acquisitions.