Welcome to Westgate’s weekly Boardroom Briefing! Please share this with a friend if you like today’s briefing and reply with any feedback.

 

According to studies, a shocking 70 to 90 percent of acquisitions fail (HBR, 2020). If you are the owner of a business that is being acquired or are the CEO who’s leading the integration yourself, these are pretty grim statistics. The board, investors, employees, and customers will not be happy.

 

But now there is a new way of M&A!

 

William Vogelgesang, investment banker and co-founder of EPOCH Pi, joins me on the Get Hired Up! podcast to discuss mergers and acquisitions under the lens of the B Corp structure. We discuss integrations, conscious capitalism, CEO turnover, what sellers are looking to preserve in a company, and much more.   

 

There are more than 2200 B Corp companies around the world and Bill's firm EPOCH Pi is one of them. If you’re not familiar with Certified B Corporations, they are certified leaders in the global movement for an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy. B Corporations are leaders in the movement for economic systems change.

 

According to Bill:  

  

"People are motivated by a purpose that is larger than them—being a part of something. That's what motivates them. As a result, companies that have a higher purpose, that are trying to create value for all stakeholders, and have a conscious culture run by conscious leaders, which I think is a way of saying that the organization sees its interconnectedness with all things, those companies actually outperform.   

  

There was a book written in the 2003 timeframe called Firms of Endearment, written by Rajendra Sisodia, and others. And it looked at 20-something public companies that had these characteristics, and the thing that hooked me is that over a period of 15 years, those companies outperform the S&P 10x.”  

 

Access the full conversation here.

 

KM, our client, recently returned from a business trip to Tallinn, Estonia, and graciously shared this photo. Here is what he said about the beautiful city:

 

“This picture is taken from the Patkuli Viewing Platform a little after 9:30 pm—it stays light very late even in May! This was the view looking north toward Tallinn Bay. The Patkuli View Platform offers a great vantage point because it is some 157 stair steps up from the street and cars you see in the foreground, below.

 

The tallest spire you see in the picture is St. Olaf's Church, which Wikipedia says dates back to the 12th Century (it was probably rebuilt a few times ...) The towers with conical red "roofs" are portions of the historic City Wall, which itself dates back to the 13th / 14th Century."

 

If you are ever visiting Tallinn, KM recommends the restaurant Lee Restoran, in Old Town.

 

 

PS. We continue to receive questions from this small community and will share the Q&As soon. Do you have a question? I will respond personally with a thoughtful answer. Let me know! 

 

Thank you for sharing your day with me, and enjoy the rest of your week!

 

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Maureen is a performance optimization coach and personal branding strategist for next-level executives and board nominees.

 

Westgate Executive Branding and Career Consulting Inc. would like to acknowledge that we are located in Mi'kma'ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi'kmaq People. We are all Treaty people.