M&A: From art to science

Technology is changing M&A in the U.S.

• New Accenture Strategy research shows large companies in the U.S. are now pursuing more mergers and acquisitions to gain digital capabilities.
• With digital fueling new business growth, these companies are supplementing their organic digital growth with inorganic deals.
• It is not enough just to acquire or merge with digital savvy. Companies must then spread that digital savvy across the broader organization.
• The true victors in M&A will be those who apply digital technologies to their own processes, giving them a competitive edge from strategy to playbook.

What typically triggers an M&A event for your company?

A traditional M&A approach doesn’t work for digital

Three out of four U.S. executives (81 percent) agree or strongly agree that companies cannot rely on their current M&A capabilities for digital deals and must hire digital leaders into their M&A organizations to succeed.

In addition, 59 percent say technology is already allowing them to achieve targets and capture value faster in their M&A deals.

Internal digital capabilities as the Swiss pocketknife

If the traditional M&A toolbox is no longer sufficient for digital deals, it must be expanded and changed. But, applying digital to the ins and outs of a deal is only part of the equation for success. U.S. companies must become more digital themselves to integrate newcomers as rapidly and effectively as possible—doing so provides them all the benefits of digital in a Swiss pocketknife effect.

Many acquiring companies are undergoing their own digital transformations, but most have not digitized completely. For instance, 57 percent say they have a platform in place to enable new businesses and systems to rapidly integrate, as well as digital expertise to support the integration.

Surprisingly, it is often M&A that pushes U.S. companies to digitize more broadly; 88 percent of executives surveyed agree or strongly agree M&A activity has forced their company to develop a data strategy.

An emerging science

Digital technologies help C-suite leaders transform M&A from an art to a science, to increase its capabilities as a driver of innovation and business growth. Leaders are already making some important changes:

Successful M&A teams already bring art to the deal in a way only humans can. Complementing that art with the science of analytics and applied intelligence only bodes well for the future of M&A.