Carey Contributes to 'Merger and Acquisitions'

Published in April, 2001, Harvard Business Review on Mergers and Acquisitions is a book which will help managers think clearly about the consequences of merging their company so that they can make a truly educated decision about such a strategic business move. This is an important book today considering the modern trends toward merging companies, including buyouts and joint ventures. Keeping track in today’s world of who owns which company is difficult, but not as difficult as deciding if this is the right direction for a particular company. Luckily this book, which includes discussions from major experts in the world of business today, can help make this decision easier. Among the many informed discussions in this book are:

• Lessons from Master Acquirers: A CEO Roundtable on Making Mergers Succeed by Dennis Carey;

• The Fine Art of Friendly Acquisitions by Robert J. Aiello and Michael D. Watkins;

• Are You Paying Too Much for That Acquisition? by Robert G. Eccles, Kersten L. Lanes, and Thomas C. Wilson;

• Stock or Cash?: The Trade-Offs for Buyers and Sellers in Mergers and Acquisitions by Alfred Rappaport and Mark L. Sirower

Returning Chairmen Bring Experience and Success to Boardroom

Executives with years of experience behind them are to a greater and greater extent being recruited to help faltering companies get back on the road to success. This trend of bringing retired executive back up to the plate is continuing as the economy, and businesses, come out of crisis mode and begin the long climb to stability and success.

These older, but wiser executives are being used as “outside chairmen” to bring to the table their well-earned expertise to guiding companies out of the mud of financial instability into the clear waters of financial success.

As Dennis Carey, one of the key executive recruiters contributing to this trend puts it: "These chairmen are strategic equal partners of the CEO because they already demonstrated a successful 'in the trenches' style of management."

The new-old “outside chairmen” enter the picture by leading a board review of the company’s overall business strategy. In addition they evaluate the possibility of spinoffs and acquisitions, while simultaneously running the company in partnership with the CEO and also the business coach.

Since the idea is so successful it is not only utilized by struggling companies, but often companies that are doing just fine will bring in an outside chairman with years of experience in order to do even better. In the year 2004, for instance, only 14 former CEOs became chairmen of new companies, while today there are at least 46 ex-CEOs chairing different companies.

Corporate Structure Continued

The Board of Directors is elected by the shareholders, and is comprised of two types of representatives: insiders who have worked and still work for the company every day, as manager or other job like CEO or CFO. The second type of member of the board comes from the outside; chosen externally and independent of the company. In this way the board can monitor the performance of the managers of the corporation, making sure that the interests of the stockholders is protected.