There’s a myth that acquisitions are only executed by huge, publicly-traded, Fortune 500 companies, but that’s simply not the true. In reality, there are many acquisitions conducted by small and middle market firms that are private transactions and are not reported to the media.
There are many reasons to consider acquisitions, regardless of the size of your business. A smaller, highly focused acquisition can grow your company and be incredibly profitable. In fact, small transactions allow you to execute your strategy covertly and avoid alerting your competition to your growth strategy. With a small, strategic acquisition there is less of a risk of integration issues and acquisition failure because the deal is not transformative for the organization. At the same time, a small, strategic acquisition can fulfill a targeted growth need and positively impact a company’s long-term growth.
Another reason people don’t consider acquisitions is because they think they are too expensive. While acquisitions do require a significant amount of financial resources to execute, the cost of organic growth or doing nothing may be higher than the cost of M&A. When looking at the bigger picture, it may be more expensive to develop a new product on your own or take too much time. Companies often use acquisitions to move quickly and implement a ready-made solution. If you are concerned about cost, keep in mind there are ways to mitigate the price of a deal. Only you can determine if acquiring or building your own solution is best, but you should consider both options simultaneously.
Whether or not you decide to grow through external or organic growth, you should consider both as tools, regardless of the size of your company. For every company, unintentionally falling into the trap of doing nothing is dangerous. Innovation, either from external growth or through in-house development, is key to long-term success. Think about companies that lost their edge do to failure to innovate. Blockbuster didn’t adapt from DVD to streaming and lost out to Netflix and Redbox and the once dominant BlackBerry, which failed to compete with iPhone. The cost of unintentionally doing nothing can mean your services and products become obsolete, so make sure you consider your next steps with the future in mind.
