The Thing Nobody Tells You About Mergers, Acquisitions & Succession Planning

There’s a lot to take care of when a business is sold, merged, or a founder leaves. Most of the advice you hear around M&As and succession is about the formal things: what happens to shares? Money? Control of the company? Who will be on the board? Who will be the new CEO? All of that stuff is the easy bit. (Kind of.) And it’s NOT what we’ll be covering at this special event.

The thing nobody tells you about M&As and succession is that there’s another oft-neglected layer to the transition process. Not the formal elements like shares and job titles, but the question of who will carry the company flame. What happens to that founder-led startup spirit after a founder leaves or two companies merge? How does all this affect the culture, creativity and energy in the company? How can a founder truly let go and be at peace whilst others lead their baby towards an uncertain future?

The event will be led by Tom Nixon, himself a founder and entrepreneur who has been involved in research led by Peter Koenig with over 500 other founders that uncovered a set of principles which seem to explain these deeper mysteries of M&As and succession. The event will be highly interactive and Tom will work with the stories, questions and current conundrums of the people who come along.

To bring the subject to life, Anthony Prior, MD of Bagelman will be joining us to tell his story of buying the business and how he not only became its new MD but truly became The Bagel Man even though he wasn’t the original founder.

All proceeds from this event will be donated to our official charity partner for 2018, The Clock Tower Sanctuary.