Acquire and Pivot

ACQUIRE

AND

www.nunnbetterconsulting.com

Pivot. The effect of integrating an acquisition upon the staff in the parent company

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If you’re a small or medium sized business and acquire another enterprise, accept that it’s going to affect all of you

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We end with

A QUESTION TO ASK YOURSELF

BEFORE YOU ACQUIRE

DEFINITIONS

Integration:Bringing together two businesses to make one,

after an acquisition

SMBSMB:Small or Medium sized

Business (Enterprise)

Integration


IN THIS PRESENTATION WE’RE TALKING ABOUT ONE SMB ACQUIRING

ANOTHER SMB


500

100

100

50

20

Small Business Administration (USA)

Gartner Research (USA)

Industry Canada

European Union

New Zealand

NUMBER OF STAFF

WHAT IS A “SMALL” BUSINESS, EXACTLY?Different Definition on the size of a Small Business

99% of businesses in New Zealand have

less than 50 people


AND THAT MAKES “MEDIUM” … ?Less defined than “small”

999

500

250

Gartner Research (USA)

Industry Canada

European Union

NUMBER OF STAFF

Different Definitions on the size of a Medium Sized Business


A small boat moving across the water

It joins up to another, smaller, boat

When they set off together, the 2nd boat is used to going a

slightly different direction, at a slightly different speed

What happens?


1. Bakery with long term staff, been in business many years

2. Software company in dynamic market

Which can handle the change in direction and instability that

ensues?


BOTH

But the amount of change that they are

comfortable with probably differs

dramatically


FOR EXAMPLE…

•A 100 person business acquires a 10

person business

•The 10 are going to incur a lot of change

in their work environment

•But many forget that the 100 will also go

through change


NOT BUSINESS AS USUAL

•Usually people assume the acquiring

(parent) company is unchanged

•However, to some degree, all of these are

changed

• The paths, speed of forward motion


WHAT IS A PIVOT?

• Startups talk about pivoting, when a company changes its business model, i.e. the direction in which it is moving

Odeo pivoted away from subscription podcasts when they saw iTunes taking over the market

They moved into micro blogging

And renamed to Twitter


WHY ACQUIRE?

• Whenever you acquire anything, you wantsomething out of it

• With an SMB acquisition you usually want one or all of these

•Expertise•Market•Technology

• The effect of absorbing these is the pivot


SO WHAT?

•Unlike large businesses

•SMBs are significantly affected by external

factors and changes in direction


THE PUNCHLINE

• If you acquire a business

•Can your currentbusiness culture handle

the amountof change that will affect

them?

• If not, then there’s trouble ahead

• Unless you do something to prepare for this

QUESTION FOR THE DAY


SMALL PIVOT

Delay a product

releaseAdjust tax position

Adjust to new

market share

Increase Customer

Support team

Implement long

awaited IT – now

that the company is

larger

Change invoicing

policy


BIG PIVOT

Acquired Senior

Management

becomes policy

maker for parent

Redirect sales

towards new market

Use IT from

acquired company

Adopt sales strategy

of acquired

company

Rework marketing

campaign

Adopt acquired

technology as new

platform for parent

company product


LOOK FORWARD TO FUTURE BLOGS ON BUSINESS CULTURE CHANGE


We help SMBs through their Special

Projects• Whether it be a phone call or an onsite engagement, we’re here to help you


http://www.nunnbetterconsulting.com/

P.S.

•The acquired staff will go through more

significant changes

•We haven’t touched that subject at all, here

Helping small and medium

sized businesses with Special [email protected]

Better Consulting