Mergers and Acquisitions: CEO Leadership and Board Dynamics

Lead M&A Like Warren Buffett | Why Deals Fail & How to Make Yours Succeed

Studies show that 70-90% of acquisitions fail to create value. Yet CEOs keep making them. This course explains why—and more importantly, how to be in the minority that succeeds.

This isn't another M&A fundamentals course. In 3.5 hours across 51 focused lectures, you'll discover the hidden forces that drive even smart executives to make terrible acquisition decisions—and learn the framework that Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger use to consistently create value through acquisitions. Taught by an investment banker with 30+ years of M&A experience.

Why Most Acquisitions Fail (And It's Not What You Think):

The standard explanations—overpayment, bad management, poor integration—are symptoms, not causes. This course goes deeper to reveal:

• The Institutional Imperative: Why business momentum makes bad deals inevitable, even when everyone knows better

• Misaligned Incentives: How CEO compensation structures actually encourage value-destroying acquisitions

• Flawed Performance Metrics: Why the "yard sticks of success" that boards use are inappropriate and misleading

• Behavioural Economics: The psychological biases that cause smart executives to make irrational decisions

• Wall Street's Role: Why investment banking advice is systematically skewed—and how to see through it

What You'll Master:

• Move beyond superficial explanations to understand the root causes of acquisition failure

• Apply the Berkshire Hathaway acquisition criteria to evaluate any deal

• Use better measures of acquisition success (hint: EPS growth isn't one of them)

• Understand intrinsic value, return on capital, and book value per share as proper metrics

• Recognise the warning signs before a deal destroys shareholder wealth

• Build a framework for making acquisitions that actually create value

This Course Includes:

• 10 sections covering the complete "why acquisitions fail" framework

• 51 video lectures (3.5 hours of focused content)

• Real examples including Warren Buffett's own acquisition mistakes

• Charlie Munger's psychology of human misjudgement applied to M&A

• Practical criteria you can apply to any acquisition decision

Who This Course Is For:

• CEOs and executives considering or overseeing acquisitions

• Board members responsible for approving M&A transactions

• Corporate development professionals who want to avoid common traps

• Private equity investors evaluating acquisition targets

• Business school students who want insights not taught in traditional programs

• Anyone involved in M&A who wants to understand why most deals fail

Why This Matters:

I've spent 30+ years watching acquisitions fail—often predictably. The patterns repeat because the underlying dynamics rarely change. This course shares insights you won't find in business school textbooks, drawn from decades of real-world M&A experience.

Over 150,000 students have enrolled in my finance courses. If you're involved in acquisitions at any level, this framework could save you—or your shareholders—from an expensive mistake.