Ensure alignment before investing resources in a merger or acquisition

Leadership typically assesses the value of a possible merger or acquisition based on business strategies such as:
Gaining entrance to new markets
Filling solution offering gaps and building solution synergies
Accelerating scale and improving cash flow
Yet, despite these well-intentioned strategies — and the due diligence of leadership in their assessment within these parameters — the failure rate for most mergers and acquisitions (M&A) remains greater than that of their successes.
Between 70% and 90% of mergers and acquisitions fail.
Lake Capital Partners and Harvard Business Review research
Despite the trend of failure, the rate and size of acquisitions has more than tripled since the late 1980s and early 1990s, with the total value of mergers and acquisition deals worldwide now estimated at $3.9 trillion (2018).
Even with substantial resources being invested in mergers and acquisitions by businesses around the world, many are failing. It is more important than ever to understand where this failure stems from and