In this episode of the PJ Tips Leading Business Change podcast series, our guest is Jami Taylor from the Bay Area, West Coast USA.

Jami Taylor joined us from the West Coast of the US, she is an expert in innovation, change and growth strategies, and has a wealth of experience in M&A on a global scale, particularly in Pharma, BioTech and MedTech space.

She spent nearly 15 years at global pharma giant Johnson & Johnson in leadership roles in Corporate Affairs and founding team, Johnson & Johnson Global Public Health. Her current roles include Biotech Executive, Advisor & Board Member, Vice President, Corporate Affairs at Protagonist Therapeutics and Board Member at Object Pharma and Aneira Pharma.

J&J have been involved in over 1000 Mergers & Acquisitions, and many more will have been researched and rejected. In this podcast Jami gives insight into The Good, The Bad & The Ugly of M&A, and offers some very practical lessons from case studies.

We nearly called this episode 'Know M&A, Know the Future of Business', have a listen and let us know your thoughts.

First off Jami gives us an over view of some of the key growth strategies for business, and when different strategies are more appropriate for businesses. I found it fascinating how she talks us through the value of Organic Growth, the hard, dirty, yet often over looked hands on work that adds significant value to businesses. Organic Growth can often be less risky, if not as sexy as Inorganic Growth including Joint Ventures and M&A. 

I ask Jami 'What is an M&A, and why should business leaders engage in M&A?'. Her experience affords us specific insights and valuable lessons. She talks us through examples of failed M&A, and give us some useful insight into the hurdles and losses. Listening to this might help listeners to think very precisely about potential hurdles or losses that might occur - or have occurred - in their growth. 

So what ae the ingredients in a good M&A?  Jami tells us in this podcast. 

Change, as we know, is often risky, expensive and failure intensive. I do a lot of work with clients on identifying, understanding and managing potential pitfalls to any change or project, including M&A, and I use I tried and tested process to show management precisely where to pay more and less attention in order to reduce those pitfalls and greatly improve the likelihood of success. 

When you hear Jami talk about de-risking mergers and acquisitions ( integration etc), she shares some useful and practical suggestions from her years of experience, and even suggests a tippy-toe / softly-softly approach to M&A, such as get to know the potential target, do some work together, deliver a project and so on. This gives first hand insight into how they they work, they values, culture and ways of being. A great strategy or deal can be undermined and brought to its knees by a clash of culture or failure to find a 'fit'. 

Finally we talk about the importance to buyers in the Medtech and Biotech fields of acquiring business with clear Purpose, Green Credentials and ESG strategy.

Thanks to Jami Taylor, thanks to you for listening. Please message with any questions, feedback or suggestions for future guests.