In house M&A Playbook
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In order to standardize the activities of the M&A Team, I am planning to make an in-house M&A Playbook. If you have any recommendations or mandatory reading lists, please let me know.
if anyone has experience creating a playbook in the past, please let me know what format you used. (I am planning to read The Merger & Acquisition Leader’s Playbook and make visual powerpoint materials that are easy for team members to understand.)It’s a great initiative to formalize an in-house M&A Playbook — having a standardized approach becomes critical as deal volume scales or when more teams are involved across diligence, execution, and integration.
A few recommendations based on experience creating M&A playbooks:
1. Mandatory Reading:
– The Merger & Acquisition Leader’s Playbook (great choice — practical and operationally focused)
– Mergers & Acquisitions Integration Handbook by Scott Whitaker (very strong on integration execution)
– Harvard Business Review articles on post-merger integration (for leadership and culture perspectives)
– M&A Information Technology Best Practices by Janice Roehl-Anderson (if IT is a big focus in your integrations)
2. Playbook Format Tips:
– Visual PowerPoint materials are a great idea for making it digestible.
– In addition, I recommend having a core Playbook Guide (Word or PDF) that acts as the master reference document (so you don’t lose critical detail that may not fit into slides).
– Structure it into Phases (e.g., Strategy, Target Screening, Due Diligence, Deal Execution, Integration Planning, Day 1 Readiness, Day 100, Synergy Tracking).
For each phase, include:
– Objectives (what must be achieved)
– Key Activities
– Templates or Checklists
– RACI (who owns/delivers each item)
– Sample Deliverables
Version Control: Always keep a “living” version and a “published” version to allow evolution over time.
3. Practical Tip:
Build your first version as a “minimum viable playbook” — meaning it doesn’t have to cover everything perfectly right away. Focus on getting a usable v1 out quickly to start standardizing activities, then update and refine based on feedback after your first few uses.
Bonus:
If you use tools like Asana, Smartsheet, or SharePoint, you can also turn key steps from the playbook into reusable project templates, helping teams operationalize the playbook without needing to recreate checklists each time.
Happy to share more if you’re curious about what sections and templates tend to be “must-haves” versus optional depending on your deal types!
Jennifer, with respect to version control for the M&A playbook, who in your experience has been responsible for updating and/or approving changes to the M&A Playbook? In your experience, does this typically roll up to the supervisor of the integration manager, or to a steering committee of sorts?
Thank you for sharing these recommendations about the playbook. In your experience, is this shared with stakeholders or other teams that work on M&A deals? If so, how do you facilitate this and do you solicit their feedback?
Totally agree with the playbook methodology you describe. My team from an HR perspective created a 90 day playbook from time of close to post-close integration and this was our playbook, project planning etc. Helped greatly with senior leadership understanding the HR Integration strategy and timing of activities. This even helped with the acquired company leadership understanding the approach prior to deal close.
Thank you OP and Jennifer for this great topic. I learned a lot from your post.
What do you think about the audience who should receive the playbook? Should it be “free for all”? What level of moderation and targeted sharing might be reasonable?
Creating an in-house M&A Playbook is a smart move to bring structure and consistency to your deal process. What i suggest is reading The Merger & Acquisition Leader’s Playbook and exploring resources from PwC and Devensoft for practical templates. You can use a modular PowerPoint format with visual workflows, checklists, and phase-by-phase guidance to make it easy for your team to follow and apply.
Toshikaz and Jennifer, I appreciate your question and response, as I am currently working on developing an M&A playbook, with a particular focus on the integration phase. Since I am relatively new to this topic, I am referencing IMAA training materials and creating a template that includes process flows. The insights Jennifer provided have been especially helpful.
One key area I have been working on is aligning responsibilities between strategy, corporate development, and business development within the overall M&A process. I would like to ask if you have any valuable references or insights from your experience that could guide me in this effort.
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