Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best merger/acquisition book on the market!, August 24, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Five Frogs on a Log: A CEO's Field Guide to Accelerating the Transition in Mergers, Acquisitions And Gut Wrenching Change (Hardcover)
Congratulations on writing the very best Merger/Acquisition book on the market! My entire management team is truly impressed. Because of recent (and at this time, confidential) activities planned for our Company, and with little experience in the acquisition/merger process, I have been searching for (and read) many books on the same topic. I found your book at the suggestion of Barns and Noble's web site (top of their best seller list). Your book is a no-nonsense practical approach that to-date has been an invaluable reference for our management team. Of the 9 books I've either read each page (as well as a dozen others I've just skimmed that are not worth reading), yours is by far the very best. In particular, the section on "culture" (what it REALLY is and what actions are necessary), on transition teams, on executive comp. for the transition (yes, I am a Frederick Herzberg and Alfie Kohn fan, but with this type of major change, the carrot-and -stick lives!), the danger of 260 priorities (we're probably at 262 but now understand how to back-off), and perhaps most "world class" is the communications chapter (we just spent about $10m on a communications consultant who should read your book!) I would be remiss not to point our one small error: Page 62, first full paragraph, I believe you meant to reference the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN), not the "Warren Act." This is a common error we Human Resources people see due to dictating machines and listening to tapes. Please let me know if you have had any follow-up publications, especially if you have more detailed advice on organizational design. Thanks for making our jobs easier and making us "look good" by simply taking your advice. Jim Gray, Vice President - Human Resources, Asten, Inc.
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
M&A Light, February 16, 2001
This review is from: Five Frogs on a Log: A CEO's Field Guide to Accelerating the Transition in Mergers, Acquisitions And Gut Wrenching Change (Hardcover)
The two keys to successful M&A are 1)knowing the right things to do and 2)doing them. Five Frogs clearly provides a list of the former. In a lighthearted way, it shares many anecdotes and tales that have nothing to do with business but are analagous to M&A to help establish a proper mindset, which is critical if one is to succeed in integration. But it falls short (and I think intentionally)because its goal is to make you want to hire the author to fill in the blanks. So in essence, it's an entertaining 200 page brochure.Unfortunately, if you're actually looking for the meat and potatoes, it's not in this book but between the covers of "Winning at Mergers & Acquisitions" by Clemente and Greenspan and "Joining Forces" by Marks and Mirvis. Those books, especially the first which has twice the information, can effectively act as your M&A bible providing strategy, due diligence, cultural and integration guidance. That is my preferred fieldguide to accelerating the transition.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A practical, field-tested guide, August 14, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Five Frogs on a Log: A CEO's Field Guide to Accelerating the Transition in Mergers, Acquisitions And Gut Wrenching Change (Hardcover)
Mike Spratt, co-author of this book, was a consultant at my former company until it was acquired in 1998. During the seven months between the acquisition announcement and the deal's consummation, Mike provided me, as a middle level manager, with all of the advice that this book contains(it had not been published at the time). Believe me, he was absolutely correct about nearly every facet of the situation, especially about how the value of the deal degrades every day between the deal's announcement and the acquistion's closure. Well-tuned organizations, which are being acquired, become unraveled during this period, as every employee wonders what will happen to him/her after the acquisition. One must, as a manager, come to terms with one's own emotions during this time. Equally important, everyone else will be on edge, or 'in the grip of the inferior function,' as Myer-Briggs practitioners might say. To be rational in this tempest of emotion, to be results-oriented in this quagmire of confusion, and to be calm in this sea of confusion are critical traits to possess. Only a few individuals will exhibit them consistently. The message in this book is very valid. For acquiring companies which are business process-oriented, versus results-oriented, any or all of the Seven Deadly Sins can be and will be committed as a matter of habit. Although I have not been in contact with Mike since the acquisition in February, 1998, it is clear to me that he and his co-author have done sound work in this area. For those of you, like me, who are data-driven and results-oriented, this book may appear to be light reading. However, human nature and behavior is not an exact science, no matter what the situation might be. This book provides real insights into how those behaviors affect acquisitions. Such information is vital, whether you are a part of the acquiring team or part of the company being acquired.
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