The Big Idea: The New M&A Playbook

When a CEO wants to boost corporate performance or jump-start long-term growth, acquiring another company can be extraordinarily seductive.  Companies spend more than $2 trillion on acquisitions every year.  Yet, study after study puts the failure rate of mergers and acquisitions between 70 and 90 percent. 

Why do most M&As fail?  According to “The New M&A Playbook,” in the March 2011 Harvard Business Review, by Clayton M. Christensen, Richard Alton, Curtis Rising, and Andrew Waldeck, most acquirers don’t know how to .....