Mergers, acquisitions, and alliances in the New Economy.The importance of non-financial information in the due diligence process.Policy Futures’ workshop.The REAL business of doing Business Intelligence.Counting chickens: Tyson Foods' acquisition of IBP.Survive then thrive: opportunities to focus on profitable growth.100 ways to bury your competitors: linking intelligence and strategy.Smart business environmental analysis.
A systematic approach to unsystematic societies: facilitating strategic planning. Listen to what they tell you: competitor profiling from advertising analysis.Mergers, acquisitions and alliances in the new economy.Scot Draughon, Draughton Professional Association.The recent Napster bankruptcy filing illustrates the challenges of integrating disruptive technologies into traditional business models. In evaluating targets for merger, acquisition, and strategic alliance, how can the take-over company evaluate a partner’s ability to integrate disruptive technologies and contribute to successful business models?
This presentation examine this question by defining the application of disruptive technologies to “brick and mortar” business models and outlining the management challenges. It will also outline management techniques for addressing these challenges. This part of the discussion will allow participants to derive a checklist of characteristics to evaluate take over targets.
Participants will enjoy a lively discussion of stories illustrating these points and walk away with a solid understanding of the nature of the due diligence challenges in evaluating partners for strategic alliance in the New Economy.
The importance of non-financial information in the due diligence process.Arthur Weiss, AWARE. The battle waged between Carly Fiorina and Walter Hewlett over the fate of the Compaq-Hewlett Packard merger showed the world how important people factors are in M&A decisions. However attractive the apparent synergies and finances appear to be, the success or failure of a merger will depend on the people involved.
I am not an oracle, and will not make any predictions on whether the Hewlett-Packard/Compaq merger will ultimately turn into a dream or a nightmare. One thing I can say, however, is that: success will not rest on financial factors. It is the people and other non-financial issues and how these are handled – culture, management approach, employee and customer support, which will determine the future. These are areas where CI professionals can help in the M&A process, through their experience in collecting such intelligence on all types of companies.
The Importance of Non-Financial Information in the Due Diligence Processwill address some of these issues, and look at how CI can be used to help build understanding of such non-financial factors, that ultimately will lead to the success or failure for many M&A type decisions.
Policy Futures’ workshop.Stanley Feder and Alan Schwartz, PolicyFutures LLC.You’ve probably noticed how much government regulations and policies affect the way you do business and your bottom line. Federal, state, and local taxes; labor and environmental regulations; international trade agreements; anti-trust decisions; and even the cost of fuel affect you, your customers, suppliers, and your competition. Wouldn’t you be better able to manage your business if you were able to forecast whether and how much policies that affect your business will change? Our workshop will introduce you to a method for assessing policy risk and forecasting how much policy will change when new legislation is proposed, after elections, or as the result of your or your competition’s lobbying efforts.
The REAL business of doing Business Intelligence.Joe Goldberg, MotorolaIf you put five business intelligence (BI) experts into a room and ask each of them to give one definition of what it is they do, you will get at least 10 different answers. This can't be good. Questions are sure to fly and a debate will unquestionably ensue! Should your efforts be focused or should they try to be all encompassing: financial, strategic, tactical, counterintelligence, sales force support, technical, marketing, acquisitions, mergers, alliances? Should the efforts of your BI unit work for a few senior executives, or for the many constituents who have day-to-day intelligence needs: middle management decision makers, sales pros, and those in the general work populace? We will have more than five experts in our room and significantly more opinions. Let the discussion begin! We will examine the current trends and issues in BI, and how you might place them in a framework that will provide your organization the greatest return on your BI investment dollars.
Counting chickens: Tyson Foods' acquisition of IBP.Linda Butterfield and Michael Fellner, Kroll Associates, When Tyson Foods, the largest chicken producer in the US, faced slowing profit growth, the company bid to merge with IBP, a leading beef producer. Once combined, the new Tyson would have become the nation's largest beef and chicken producer. The senior management of both companies believed a merger was a great strategic and financial decision. But instead of taking the market by storm, Tyson ended up taking IBP to court. Tyson had serious concerns about IBP's financial health and called off its bid. How would CI have helped Tyson decision-makers avoid this situation? Where were the skeletons in IBP's closet hidden?
