The M&A blueprint prompts business leaders to conduct a thorough self-as- sessment along with a comprehensive market assessment. The organization ended up wasting time and M&A to achieve our corporate strategy? Answering resources on deals that were mostly unsuccessful, these questions will require asking still more and its executives unintentionally created an clarifying questions about specific organizational unwieldy portfolio of businesses. strengths and capabilities, resources available, and other inputs to effective deal making. As this example illustrates, success in programmatic M&A requires much more than just executing on Understanding ‘why’ and ‘where’ a long string of deals. Acquirers must articulate The M&A blueprint prompts business leaders to exactly why and where they need M&A to deliver conduct a thorough self-assessment along with on specific themes and objectives underlying their a comprehensive market assessment. The self- overarching corporate strategies. In addition, they assessment helps establish the baseline from which must give careful thought as to how they plan to to identify gaps in corporate ambitions as well pursue programmatic M&A—including constructing as the opportunities for M&A to fill these gaps. It a high-level business case and preliminary involves examining a company’s key sources integration plans for each area in which they want of competitive advantage and testing their scalability to pursue M&A. to determine whether they would still play to the company’s advantage after a transaction. For its Taken together, these factors combine into what part, the market assessment acts as a “sense we call an M&A blueprint. In this article we discuss check” for business leaders, ensuring that the com- how it can be implemented to help organizations pany’s M&A strategy capitalizes on the most remain unrelentingly focused on their investment recent and relevant trends, accounts for potential thesis throughout the deal process. Having a disruptions, and acknowledges competitors’ likely clear M&A blueprint is even more critical as com- actions and reactions. panies begin to consider how to rebound from COVID-19. Without an M&A blueprint, it will be An M&A blueprint should also define any boundary more difficult for companies to distinguish between conditions, or limits to the company’s use of through-cycle opportunities that are consistent M&A. These conditions, which are typically imposed with their corporate strategy and “low hanging, dis- by the CFO or the board investment committee, tressed asset” deals that are not. provide an important reality check: they define the con straints on certain types or sizes of deals, thereby further narrowing the scope of potential M&A blueprint: The building blocks targets. In setting these conditions, business The M&A blueprint can help executives answer leaders should account for preexisting financial three main questions: Why and where should we hurdles—for instance, a rule that “deals must use programmatic M&A to achieve our corporate be accretive in the first year” likely would not apply strategy? And how should we use programmatic to deals targeting growth and might therefore A blueprint for M&A success 61