"A must read for all experts involved in private equity and m&as (*). A short relevant book mixing theory and practice to addresses a specific topic. Given that at least one M&A out of three does not deliver according to the plan, the author investigates the role of strategic marketing before the deal, in the pre-acquisition phase. He answers with pragmatism to three questions: what is commercial due diligence? What is the theory? What is the practice in real business life? The book unveils a unique marketing tool: MOSAICS, to easily structure market data / strategic information and articulate the analytical tools. (By the way, MOSAICS can be of interest beyond the sole arena of M&A).
Moreover, the book features a meaningful analysis of the practice. It pleads for giving the commercial due diligence the prominence it should have, in order to increase pay-off of M&A. "A wake-up call for the business world" (*) One may challenge the interest for the business world of a work out from academic research. Well, the right answer is from professionals: the original manuscript was awarded the yearly prize by ARFA (French Association of M&A Professionals) and received support from seasoned practitioners (*). (*) refer to the quotes featured on the fourth cover and the foreword. TARGETED AUDIENCE : Financial executives, corporate strategy executives, management consulting and education (business schools professors and students) EBOOK OR PAPERBACK : The e-book features all figures and graphs in color whereas they appear in grey levels in the printed version. KEY WORDS : M&A, mergers & acquisitions, pay-off, ROI, investment, value creation, deal value, deal preparation, dataroom, data room, commercial due diligence, commercial analysis, strategy, analytical tools, matrix, Ansoff matrix, BCG matrix, GE matrix, KSF, key success factor, Ohmae 3C, Porter five forces, 8Ps Krippendorf, SWOT, strategic marketing, market analysis, market intelligence, knowledge management, risk analysis, methodology, mosaics model, management consulting, strategy consulting, private equity, PE, investor, venture capitalist, corporate venture, investment bank. SOME AUTHORS IN BIBLIOGRAPHY : R.Bruner, A.Chernev, P.Howson, R.S.Kaplan, K.L.Keller, P.Kotler, P.Millier, K.Ohmae, A.Reed Lajoux.
