Customer Reviews

Five Frogs on a Log: A CEO's Field Guide to Accelerating the Transition in Mergers, Acquisitions And Gut Wrenching Change

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I had expected to get a dry, formulaic tome on standard business practices from a couple of long-time PWC executives. What I found in this book is actually an entertaining and deeply insightful guide to merger and acquisition integration strategy. I also found it to have actionable recommendations, and would urge anyone working on a merger or acquisition to READ THIS FIRST!

I've purchased over 50 copies of this book. Before our first acquisition attempt, I bought this book for the entire executive team. We used it as a field manual. It was great. It gave us solid guidance and confidence while we were sorting out union accommodations and shareholder approvals. But, when union demands became difficult we remembered the authors saying that deal momentum often results in closing bad deals. This is because CEOs generally don't want to walk away from the high investment of time and resources they have already put into deal completion. The authors compellingly asserted that with the odds generally against acquisition success, if you can't do a deal on your terms, don't do it. After much debate we decided the authors had a point. We walked away from the deal. Looking back, this advice alone saved our company.

Our second acquisition was completed. But the two management teams began to argue immediately. We set up transition teams and made certain everyone had a copy of "Five Frogs". This book became our bible for accelerating the integration of the companies. The guidelines on post-deal priorities, reorganization and communication helped break through every impasse. We followed their advice to the letter and we've been growing profitably ever since. We are still following the book's advice and I'm still giving copies of the book to new colleagues and other CEOs. If you're going to merge two companies, do what we did. Buy this book for every member of the management team and insist that they read it. You'll be glad you did.

If you're about to do a deal, it's a must read. If you've been through a deal, it's still a must read -- because you'll surely recognize yourself in every chapter. I learned that the principal lesson of this book is that speed, focus and direction make the difference in successful integrations. It's clear that successful deals do not hinge just on strategy -- but on the execution of that strategy. I've seen too many companies focus all of their efforts on the strategy and hope that the actual integration will take care of itself. Five stars for Five Frogs because it's not only informative, it's helpful and entertaining.

Insights, Metaphors, Case examples abound in this extremely well written "field guide" about mergers and acquisitions. This is an easy read and is a very valuable resource including the dos and don'ts. Your chances of being part of the 17% are increased after you read it. (You need to read the book to find out the significance of 17%)

Five Frogs portraits the risks and provides CEO level solutions for successful integration of your recent acquisition. Feldman and Spratt demonstrate why their accelerated approach towards business integration maximizes stakeholder benefits (investor, customer, employee, supplier) and provides the new organization with tools to blend two cultures, stabilize the organization and achieve early wins.

My company has been making acquisitions for over twenty years and I think we've read all the merger books in print. "Five Frogs" is the winner when it comes to candid, practical and intuitive advice on how to accelerate through the post-deal transition without destroying shareholder value. Its a fast and easy read that makes its points clearly and with great examples that force you to think intelligently about decisions that must be made and executed quickly. The two chapters on internal and external communications planning and execution alone are worth the price. Our results from following the authors'advice on post-deal priority setting were both powerful and surprisingly painless. We're about to go through the biggest merger in our history and every member of every transition team in both companies now has a copy of "Five Frogs." It's become our merger bible. Also, if you get a chance to hear Feldman speak on the subject, don't miss it. He's an articulate and entertaining speaker who's seen it all. Very motivating.

I've had key responsibility in four mergers in the past five years, and found this to be eminently readable and very useful. The points that Feldman and Spratt make are consistent with my own experience, and also much richer as their involvement in M&A deals is clearly much more extensive. I use it as a reference and expect other readers involved with M&A can and will do the same. The format enables easy access to key points. Very highly recommended!!