Book excerpt: A comprehensive new framework for winning at Mfrom up-front planning to postmerger integration The challenges of mergers and acquisitions can be daunting-but the opportunities and benefits they offer forward-thinking companies can be tremendous. Winning at Mergers and Acquisitions offers a critical new approach to strategic M&A based on the authors' pioneering concept of marketing due diligenceSM. Covering every stage of market-driven M&A planning and integration, this book shows how to look beyond the quick hit to focus on long-term growth rather than short-term cost-cutting. Featuring dozens of real-life case studies-including both failures and extraordinary successes-plus inside comments from leading M&A specialists, this book contains crucial guidance on: * Predeal planning-how to identify your strategic needs and pinpoint the merger candidate(s) that will help you meet them * Sizing up targets for acquisition-how to examine the essential marketing, sales, and product issues that will determine a good company "fit,".strategically and culturally * Revenue enhancement planning-how to identify ways to drive top-line growth and develop action plans to generate near- and long-term revenues * Filling the pipeline-how to prioritize and actualize the critical steps necessary to drive shareholder value * Developing communication programs-how to design and execute communication strategies to garner support for the merger by employees, customers, and other stakeholders * Building a comprehensive postmerger integration plan-how to align diverse corporate cultures, develop training and reward programs, and move beyond the turf wars and lack of productivity that hamper the success of mergers and acquisitions. Last year more than 7,000 mergers and acquisitions were completed, with a collective price tag estimated at more than $800 billion. And although they are known as highly effective means of achieving corporate growth and strategic advantage, these transactions are fraught with pitfalls: Statistics indicate that a third of these deals will fail and another third will not bear out the expectations of the merger partners. What can businesses looking to undertake strategic mergers and acquisitions do to ensure that they do not fall victim to confusion, multimillion-dollar losses, declining market share and profits, or any number of other negative results of failed transactions? The answers are in Winning at Mergers and Acquisitions, a pioneering step-by-step guide to growth-driven planning and swift, effective post-merger integration. Challenging the conventional emphasis on cost-reduction synergies, this book presents the authors' groundbreaking blueprint for mergers that yield strategic synergies and high returns in meeting long-term growth, increased market share, and revenue generation objectives. Mark Clemente and David Greenspan explore in detail the marketing, sales, and organizational issues that are vital aspects of successful M&A ventures. They take executives through the entire strategic M&A process-from setting objectives, to evaluating target companies, to aligning corporate cultures in an effort to ensure problem-free integration. They show how to maintain a sharp focus on the markets that will be reached by the merger-and they offer invaluable advice on charting a steady course through the often tumultuous period of integration, when organizational chaos can cause the merged company to lose momentum, market share, and the backing of customers, prospects, and shareholders. Winning at Mergers and Acquisitions is essential reading for CEOs, managers, deal makers, and others looking to capitalize on one of the most important methods of effecting corporate growth in business today-while staying focused on the people, product, and process issues that power that growth.