Before hunting for acquisitions, the internal business owner (deal sponsor) must write a thesis answering "what problem are we solving?" This prevents reactive M&A driven by inbound opportunities and ensures strategic alignment from the start, separating the "why" from the "who."

Effective private equity boards function as strategic advisory councils rather than governance bodies. Board members are expected to be co-investors who actively help with strategy, networking, and operational challenges like procurement, making them a key part of the value creation engine.

To avoid a broken handoff, embed key business and integration experts into the core deal team from the start. These members view diligence through an integration lens, validating synergy assumptions and timelines in real-time. This prevents post-signing surprises and ensures the deal model is operationally achievable, creating a seamless transition from deal-making to execution.

Many M&A teams focus solely on closing the deal, a critical execution task. The best acquirers succeed by designing a parallel process where integration planning and value creation strategies are developed simultaneously with due diligence, ensuring post-close success.

By the time a strategic acquirer enters due diligence, the desire to do the deal is already high. The process's primary purpose is not to hunt for deal-breakers but to confirm key assumptions and, more importantly, to gather the necessary data to build a robust and successful integration plan.

Instead of an immediate post-close review, conduct retrospectives 6-12 months later. The true quality of due diligence and strategic fit can only be assessed after operating the business for a period. This delay provides deeper insights into what was missed or correctly identified, leading to more meaningful process improvements.

Instead of a linear process, treat M&A as a spiral. Constantly revisit and adjust deal structure, diligence findings, and integration plans. A discovery in one area (e.g., diligence) should trigger a reassessment of the others (e.g., deal structure), ensuring a cohesive and de-risked outcome.

If a compelling target company doesn't align with your M&A framework, don't just kill the deal. Use it as a prompt to re-evaluate your strategy. The target might be a sign that your initial assumptions were flawed. The choice isn't just "yes/no" on the deal, but "is our strategy still right?".

A board's fiduciary duty is to maximize shareholder value, which is an expected value calculation (Offer Price x Probability of Closing). An $80B all-cash offer with 100% certainty is superior to a $100B offer with only a 75% chance of regulatory approval, as its expected value is higher ($80B vs. $75B).