The Must-Reads for Mastering M&A Mysteries

In the world of M&A, education is everything. As industry leaders, we constantly seek new ways to share insights and information with colleagues, potential clients, and business owners. Here are some books we recommend you add to your TBR. 

BCG's Ten Lessons from 20 Years of M&A Report: Published in October 2023, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report provides ten valuable lessons from their two decades of studying M&A. It notes that serial acquirers of small to midsize targets often generate the highest long-term value creation, suggesting the effectiveness of smaller, more manageable acquisitions.

QuickValue: Discover Your Value and Empower Your Business in Three Easy Steps by Reed Phillips and Charles Slack. This book demystifies business valuation, offering a practical and cost-effective method for understanding your company's real worth. Using his expertise as the Chairman of Oaklins International, Phillips guides readers through three easy steps to gauge business value. "QuickValue" promises to transform valuation from a complex task into an accessible, integral part of your daily operations.

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg describes how women unintentionally hold themselves back in their careers. Her famed TED talk, which has been viewed more than eleven million times, encouraged women to “sit at the table,” seek challenges, take risks, and pursue their goals with gusto.

More Than Enough: Claiming Space for Who You Are by Elaine Welteroth. Throughout her life, Elaine Welteroth has climbed the ranks of media and fashion, shattering ceilings along the way. In this riveting and timely memoir, the groundbreaking journalist unpacks lessons on race, identity, and success through her own journey, from navigating her way as the unstoppable child of an unlikely interracial marriage in small-town California to finding herself on the frontlines of a modern movement for the next generation of change-makers.

Agile M&A: Proven Techniques to Close Deals Faster and Maximize Value by Kison Patel. Corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&A) professionals -- whether they work at banks, in corporate development groups, or integration teams -- often complain that their industry is falling behind in modern process solutions. While M&A is becoming an increasingly accepted first-line growth strategy for companies worldwide, and deal volume continues to set jaw-dropping new records quarter to quarter, the M&A industry has not adopted new innovations in technology or techniques since the late 1990s. It's time to bring M&A into the 21st century.