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."

When owned by multiple private equity firms with varying exit horizons, IFS mitigates conflicting priorities by ensuring acquisition targets, even strategic ones, have a robust business plan to achieve profitability within 18 months to two years.

The success of an AI roll-up hinges on effective technology implementation. Therefore, the primary filter for acquiring a company is not just its financials but whether its leadership and culture are genuinely eager to adopt AI and transform their operations. This cultural fit is non-negotiable.

Successful large-scale acquirers remain nimble, flexing their own processes to suit the acquired company rather than force-fitting it into a rigid corporate structure. This preserves the culture and talent that made the company valuable, preventing value destruction and keeping the new team engaged.

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.

When acquiring a business, don't rely on a single outcome like achieving a growth target. Instead, seek assets that offer multiple ways to win. Even if the primary goal is missed, the acquired data, technology, or talent could create significant value for other business units, providing built-in insurance for the deal.

The "conquering hero" approach of forcing an acquired company to adopt your processes is the cardinal sin of M&A. Omar Tawakol's experience at Oracle showed that protecting an acquisition's unique workflows and incentives leads to growth, while rapid, forced integration destroys value.

Viewing acquisitions as "consolidations" rather than "roll-ups" shifts focus from simply aggregating EBITDA to strategically integrating culture and operations. This builds a cohesive company that drives incremental organic growth—the true source of value—rather than just relying on multiple arbitrage from increased scale.