Corporate Development: Strategies for Acquisitions and Alliances


Aims

  • To develop the ability to make a choice between alliances, mergers and acquisitions, or internal development
  • To build a firm grasp of how value is created through acquisitions and alliances.
  • To create expertise in analyzing how social capital is developed and used in corporate development
  • To develop an ability to choose acquisition target and alliance partner
  • To create the critical ability to manage integration processes in acquisitions and to design governance structures in alliances
  • To gain state-of-the-art understanding of how capabilities to acquire and ally are developed and organized so as to manage portfolios of alliances and acquisitions

 

Information

Companies are ever more relying on mergers & acquisitions (M&As) and alliances as different modes of corporate development to promote new learning, capability development and value creation. In a world where pressures for globalization, technological developments and time-compression incur a blurring of traditional organizational boundaries, the sets of managerial actions that enable relatively discontinuous changes in corporate growth and scope are a critical element of firm strategy and competitiveness. The past two decades have experienced a dramatic increase in mergers, acquisitions and alliances, both domestically and internationally, but there is also empirical evidence showing that a significant proportion is not giving the expected results.
 
The objective of this course is to help participants develop a conceptual and practical understanding of the role of acquisitions and alliances in the general context of corporate development. After successfully completing the course, students will have to their availability a toolkit that helps them deal with the nuts and bolts of alliances and acquisitions from a strategic angle. This includes tools to make a choice between acquisitions and alliances based on their pros and cons, as well as to assess their implications and integration into firms’ corporate strategies. Practically, this also involves tools assessing the specific ways in which resources of companies can be integrated to achieve corporate growth, value creation and competitive advantage, while highlighting the pitfalls. The course also pays attention to the managerial challenges alliances and acquisitions pose by addressing the levers of successfully integrating acquisitions, controlling alliances, selecting targets and partners, developing alliance/acquisition capabilities and managing portfolios of alliances and acquisitions, as well as the role of social capital in realizing these. The course develops state-of-the-art understanding of the risks and returns associated with acquisitions and alliances, and the managerial skills and capabilities needed to be successful.
 
Format
Teaching methods are varied and include a combination of lectures, plenary discussions and group/individual case work. To be able to properly utilize the learning opportunity of this course, students should adequately prepare the material in advance of each workshop as it facilitates the process of group-work and class discussion. In order to create an engaging class atmosphere allowing divergent perspectives to be aired, which is important in courses of this nature, where there are seldom “right” or “wrong” answers, the course is highly interactive in nature and requires a student’s committed participation.

Assessment

Written exam, assignment(100%)

Written exam (60%); class assignment (40%); company assignment (facultative)

 

Materials

Selected academic articles.