About the types of transactions in the group’s Finally, the issue of growth or erosion of shareholder value as discussion a specific goal, as seen through buyer stock price changes, is The discussion is centered on bigger firms buying smaller not typically a goal of talent-based deals and was not a factor firms with an emphasis on “talent-based deals,” meaning deals in our analysis. In contrast, larger deals lend themselves where the people at a target are deemed the most important better to share price comparisons with peer companies, as asset among all the other assets at a target. For most buyers, this data is publicly available and can then be analyzed by the deal strategy centers on acquiring to expand their consulting firms and academics alike. capabilities (also known as “scope deals” in M&A circles). However, the general principles reviewed here can be We did not consider any transaction that transformed a adjusted and applied in varying “doses” to most deals. company to such an extent that creating a “new” culture, or third culture, was required. While these transactions do happen, they are a very small percentage of actual deals. Likewise, large industrial deals, and mega-mergers, while discussed within the group, are not the focus of this paper. The consensus was that the size, scale and global scope of these deals made it difficult to incorporate the approaches discussed here early, and also that there were many other “assets” in the combining firms, well beyond just talent and employees. How advanced acquirers approach culture in M&A 3