Thursday, October 1, 2015

Mergers, Acquisitions and Restructuring: A Waste of Talent?

I'm always surprised when I hear someone suggest that people doing deals are wasting their talents.   The usual laments are that these individuals would better serve society if they "actually did something."  When pressed, this phrase is finally explained by statements like "I mean actually produce something or perform a useful service rather than just shuffling papers."

Hmmm.  Let's think about this.  Let's take the typical executive who spends their day "producing goods or services."  Presumably they better serve society by better meeting the needs of consumers - you know - the people who choose what to buy with their hard earned dollars.  I suppose these executives better serve society with high quality goods or inexpensive goods or some combination of these traits.

So good signs of a productive executive are increasing sales, reducing costs, eliminating unproductive assets and (yikes) making a profit!

Now I'm not suggesting that all deals or dealmakers are good, but those are precisely the attributes that characterize the best mergers!    So maybe we need a few more bumper stickers suggesting "Consuming? Thank your local investment banker!"

Just sayin'

Ralph

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