In order to be successful, businesses must prioritise their focus. The executives who run those businesses must, in turn, prioritise and focus their efforts. At a macro level, businesses need to focus on improving the skills of their workforce, improving their level of service to their clients and reducing the cost of doing business.

Alexander Graham Bell captured this ethos very well:

“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand.
The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus.”

​Resource Constraints
At the micro-level, this involves specific goals and a number of resource constraints including limits on people, time and capital. Management executives too, have their own resource constraints -  limited time, knowledge, experience and energy. To be successful, executives need to concentrate their efforts on the areas where they have the skills to drive success. One reason so few really achieve their goals is they never focus their attention, never concentrate their efforts and power. Instead, most people just dabble their way through life.

Prioritise for Growth
Priorities vary with the type of business and its phase of growth. What is important is for each business leader and manager to think concretely about setting priorities for themselves and their business and to revisit them frequently on a monthly, quarterly and yearly basis. To set such priorities, business executives must have concrete and useful data about their business, their industry, their clients and current market dynamics, in order to be able to set the correct focus for maximum effect. Then, most importantly, they must be able to effectively communicate those priorities to their personnel - and implement processes to ensure that these priorities are carried out.

So, what does all this have to do with M&A? One of the issues companies face is that they will often "dabble" with their acquisition goals and, as a result, fail to leverage the full potential benefits. This is primarily due to the constraints listed above, regarding their focus on running their business and the priority of ensuring revenue growth.

High Levels of M&A Activity in the Software Tech Sector
M&A activity and consolidation in the Software Tech sector has been consistently high over the past decade and, from the current enquiry levels we are witnessing, this trend looks set to continue for the foreseeable future. The current opportunities for synergies and growth are well-documented - as are many of the drawbacks. Most companies fail to have a properly documented M&A strategy based upon solid data; they also fail to have a clear plan of agreed actions, responsibilities, deliverables and timeframes. Even in companies where they believe they have an M&A strategy in place, they struggle to produce evidence of it beyond the level of a few scribbled notes on the "back of a beer mat". For many, the "beer mat plan" would be a step up and, at least, a basis for something more concrete.

Create a Solid M&A Plan to Reduce Your Risk
If you would like to take your M&A plans and create a strategy that can provide some tangible deliverables, considerable focus will be required. Add to that, industry insight, acquisition knowledge, a defined M&A process, combined with an understanding of current market dynamics and deliverables, then you are on the first rung towards M&A success. Without it, you will be paddling around in turbulent waters and could seriously scupper the performance of your business.

Take Your M&A Strategy Beyond The "Beer Mat"
Boss Equity can help you to create a tailored M&A strategy without distracting you from your business. Without such a plan in place, revenue can reduce, growth can be stunted and risk increased, valuable and limited management time can be wasted and business equity value can be quickly eroded.