Making Your Company Inflation Ready

Inflation has a corrosive effect on business performance, but like any economic threat, it tends to separate the wheat from the chaff. Those companies able to protect themselves from inflation’s negative effects can exploit an inflationary period to improve their competitive advantage. With prospects for inflation on the rise over the midterm, companies need to start now to make sure their organizations are “inflation ready.” … [ Read more ]

Winning Through Mergers in Lean Times

Companies that are avoiding mergers and acquisitions in an economic slowdown may be missing a major strategic opportunity. According to this study by the Corporate Development practice of The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), mergers that take place during periods of below-average economic growth have a higher likelihood of success. And they generate considerably more shareholder value, on average, than deals taking place during periods of … [ Read more ]

The Next Frontier: Building an Integrated Strategy for Value Creation

In today’s stock-market environment, companies need to take advantage of the full range of levers available to generate shareholder value. In particular, they must identify and manage the key tradeoffs across the three chief components of a comprehensive value-creation strategy: improving fundamental value, exploiting differences in industry valuation multiples, and setting priorities for the use of free cash flow. The report, the sixth in BCG’s … [ Read more ]