Mergers & Acquisitions and Reflections on Work Practice

Section 1

This assignment draws upon topics covered in Theme 5 of the programme. Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) involve the redistribution of scare resources (capital, labour and enterprise) so it is important that any M&A is properly researched and evaluated. In the current financial / business environment M&A activity is high and appears to be experiencing another wave of activity. Within that activity both conglomerate and cross-border (international) mergers are common. Managers who are responsible for acquisitions will outline numerous reasons as to why a particular M&A activity should occur. Where such activity is not welcomed by a target company, managers of the target company seek to refute the reasons put forward as justification for the M&A proposal. 

Required

Identify and critically assess whether the current wave of activity in M&As is similar to those cycles which have occurred in the past. In addition, discuss the operational, strategic and financial factors that need to be considered in order for the M&A to be considered successful. Within your critique include relevant examples to illustrate the points you consider and make. 

Section 2 

“It is fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure” – Bill Gates

Self-reflection can be used to understand where you are, what you are doing and where you are going given the current learning you have. It will also help you to develop yourself in terms of professional work environment and it will help your leadership abilities in terms of driving individuals and the firm in which you work. 

Reflection is important within educational experiences. A reflective statement is a statement that captures thoughts about, perceptions of, a past experience, such as you have experienced in your study of this module. Reflections help us to understand past events and associated experiences and hence to learn lessons. Having written a reflective statement, it is then possible to analyse it and draw lessons about future decisions, behaviour and actions. Such a statement can focus on the consequences of the educational experience for work-related decisions, behaviour and actions, not least in the arena of confirming or amending professional work practices. Reflection is more than just description – if we are faced with a recurring situation what would we do differently the second time around given what we have learnt from the first time we encountered the situation.

Required

Look back over your studies, of the six themes, in this GIFP module. Identify two ideas from within the six themes, which you feel are relevant to work practice, be that previous work, and/or current work, and/or work you aspire to. Justify the ideas identified for inclusion in your list of two. It may be appropriate to identify ideas which are perhaps very new to you and/or ideas which although you were already familiar with, your studies have thrown new light on them, prompting new insights.