Mergers and Acquisitions Series

Achieving Competitive Advantage and Growth:
The Window to Mergers, Acquisitions and Alliances

(This programme is only for the Tata Group)

Programme Objective

Mergers, acquisitions (M&A) and alliances have increasingly become an important element of the strategies of Indian companies to achieve competitive advantage and growth. The Tata Group has been at the forefront of such initiatives. At the same time, global evidence on acquisitions and alliances suggests that value is being destroyed in many of these transactions just as frequently (if not more) as it is being created.

One of the key reasons for this is that many managers have a limited understanding of the mechanisms behind the creation and destruction of value in acquisition processes and very often lack the diverse skills necessary to succeed in these important though expensive processes. This course presents an opportunity to study in detail how acquisitions and alliances contribute to achieving competitive advantage or growth and what conditions need to be met to maximise the probability of success.

Focus of the Programme

Given the above purpose, the programme shall specifically focus on some of the following issues:

(a) How should companies and managers think about whether and what to acquire?

(b) What are some of the principal mechanisms of value creation in M&A?

(c) How can the acquiring firm maximise its share of the value creation potential by following best practices in various stages of M&A such as opportunity evaluation, target assessment and selection, due diligence and negotiation?

(d) What are some of the significant challenges and best practices during post-acquisition integration? What do companies need to understand and do about post-acquisition integration so to actually realise or translate the potential of their acquisition into long-term company or shareholder value?

(e) Should companies do ‘alliances’ instead of ‘acquisitions’ to achieve their desired business objectives – if yes, under what conditions are alliances a better option than acquisitions and how should companies manage them successfully?

(f) If alliances are indeed a better option than acquisitions, what are the critical issues and challenges in successful alliance management

Audience for the Programme

Given the purpose and focus of the programme, it is mainly directed towards the following set of managers:

(a) Senior executives and managers in those Tata companies that have not yet embarked on any major or significant acquisition or alliance activity until now, but clearly see them becoming a very critical part of their competitive and growth strategy going forward. This might typically include mid or smaller sized companies in the Tata Group.

(b) Executives in companies where mergers and acquisitions have taken place, but who have not been personally involved in this exercise, and shall be playing an increasingly important role in future such initiatives.

(c) It would be useful if senior executives who expect to be involved in M&A or alliance activity on behalf of their companies mentioned above attend this programme as a group or cross-functional team.

Pedagogy

The programme shall use a variety of approaches to facilitate learning through:

(a) A mix of real-life case studies, practitioner and research articles, role-plays and group assignments to facilitate learning. There would also be some application exercises to help participants relate/apply the concepts and issues discussed to their specific company, business or industry situations.

(b) Inviting some senior executives from the Tata Group to share their own M&A related learning and experiences with the participants. They will typically represent those Tata companies that have already undertaken large or several acquisitions for their respective companies in the last 5 years.

(c) As relevant, inviting senior executives from domestic or international non-Tata companies to share their thoughts and experiences with participants.

Programme Fees

The fees of Rs. 90,000/- per participant will cover case studies, papers & other study materials, accommodation and meals. There would be a special rate of Rs. 4,00,000/- for a team of 5 individuals from the same organisation.

Programme Dates

To be announced soon

Contact Details
Programme Director :
R Sunder (rsunder@tata.com)
Senior Consultant
Phone: 020 66091028 Mobile: 0 9225505473 Fax: 020 26122338