When you are thinking of growing your business through a merger or acquisition, there are things you need to know. The BDC estimates in the next 5 years, more than 40% of Canadian entrepreneurs will exit their businesses through the sale to a third party or by transitioning it to family. This is the good news. Yet, according to a recent Harvard Business Review report, the failure rate for mergers and acquisitions (M&As) sits between 70 percent and 90 percent. This is not good news.

Most buy/sell planning & valuation optimization strategies focus on tax, client list enhancement, growth of hard assets, manufacturing efficiencies and intellectual property maximization. However, the often forgotten, rarely enhanced, and frequently flat out ignored asset known as People and Culture is buried in the back of a report, like the opinion section of your daily newspaper.

Most consultants focus on what is easy – the traditional “hard sciences” reserved for accountants, lawyers, and tax specialists. Why? Because it conveniently fits into a simple checklist. Maybe that is why the majority of M&As fail to provide real value.

The evaluation of human capital and company culture, integration and risk assessment is difficult. It doesn’t have to be.

On October 17, join the Pillars and Pvisio to put some transparency into an otherwise opaque component of a business transaction – human capital and culture synergies – for a successful merger or acquisition.