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

Feldman, Mark L; Spratt, Michael F

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 088730981X ISBN 13: 9780887309816

Publisher: Harper Business, 1998

Synopsis

A riddle:
Five frogs are sitting on a log.
Four decide to jump off. How many are left?
Answer: Five
Why?
Because there's a difference between deciding and doing.

Written by Mark L. Feldman and Michael F. Spratt of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Five Frogs on a Log offers readers an entertaining and no-nonsense field guide to the mergers and acquisitions jungle, packed with insight and instruction for executing corporate change and capturing shareholder value. Whether you're buying another company or acquiring a new vision of the future, this book proffers an unconventional perspective and a practical, readily accessible set of solutions to the single greatest challenge facing today's managers: executing rapid transitions ion mergers, acquisitions and gut wrenching change.

Designed for corporate managers and CEOs caught up in the whirlwind of change, every chapter provides accessible ideas and wisdom for navigating the most demanding business transitions. The authors offer a unique hands-on perspective based on their work with top Fortune 500 firms. As they state:

"Increasingly, the companies that win are those that learn faster, act quicker and adapt sooner. They will compress time by making and executing early, informed decisions about economic value creation, ruthless prioritization and focused resource allocation. They will use these decisions to take early firm stands on management deployment, organization structure and culture. Their actions will increasingly be linked to long-term, sustained economic value creation."

The advice and expertise offered in this book can be used to solve a range of operational problems from speeding up new product development to merging two businesses; from changing company culture to repositioning a business in a while new marketplace.

Whatever the challenges and opportunities facing you, your company, your industry, Five Frogs on a Log will move you from deciding to doing.

About this title

Review:

Five Frogs on a Log is a practical and easy-to-absorb manual for corporate leaders facing those intense periods of total transformation that seem--for better or for worse--to define today's business world. Written by Mark L. Feldman and Michael F. Spratt, both partners and managing directors of PricewaterhouseCoooper's global M&A consulting division, the book aims to help managers through the "jolts, curves, and emotional potholes" that inevitably accompany such large-scale restructuring. "The high-priced bankers and lawyers exit with the close," they write, "leaving management to confront the challenge of producing results that justify the price, the added risk, and/or the significant disruption to current operations. To complicate matters, they face what amounts to a new company and a set of unexpected demands that can easily divert them from capturing the value that drove the deal." With help from insightful illustrations and quotations from those who have been there, Feldman and Spratt build upon their basic theory--that speed is of the essence in corporate upheavals of this type--by offering pragmatic solutions for the myriad problems that invariably arise. --Howard Rothman

About the Author:

Mark Feldman, Ph.D., is partner and managing director of PricewaterhouseCoopers' global mergers and acquisitions consulting business--The Accelerated Transition. He provides strategic advisory services in accelerating the capture of sustained economic value from mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures. He has twenty years of international consulting experience with many of those years spent in the Asia-Pacific region. He has published many articles and is a frequently quoted speaker who has addressed audience throughout the world.

Michael F. Spratt, Ph.D., is also a partner and managing director in PricewaterhouseCoopers' global mergers and acquisitions consulting business. He provides strategic advisory services, specializing in companies undergoing dramatic change. He has eighteen years of international consulting experience and nine years of experience in production management and business planning in the semiconductor and instrumentation industry. He has published numerous articles on transition management, value driver analysis, and value creation incentive plans. He has addressed audiences through the United States and is a popular speaker on change and transition.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Business
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 088730981X
• ISBN 13: 9780887309816
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 193