Case study - Mergers & acquisitions

Résumé du document

David Kuchen is a serious young man which has a clear objective for his professional life. He is a 30 years old man who has chosen to leave a lucrative and regular Bay street job (advisory field) for getting an MBA from a top school and entering in the world of self entrepreneurship. With his MBA, he got the necessary knowledge but also an important debt for the financing.

This strategic choice in term of life shows that David Kuchen is a person who has a great vision of what he wants and has to do for getting it. He is the kind of person who cans take risks for achieving his goals, even if it means lost a regular and simple life. He wants to be entrepreneur and takes himself his decisions. Nevertheless, he hopes find at least a part of his former salary and more in the future. The perspectives of earning money is important for him and he is really excited about the growth prospects for this business.

In this last job, he was in the advisory field. This kind of job is a great opportunity to understanding a lot a things in term of business. It is also a way for observing efficiently a lot of markets and becoming prepared for getting his own business. He has the experience and the knowledge for envisaging a lot of situations and businesses with a professional vision and expertise.

Extraits

[...] They represent large investments. For Kuchen, working with this kind of customers is such as negotiating with retailers. It is long, very competitive, stressful and without guarantees. They have the power to increase the pressure on prices and margins, and to negotiate for adapted and specific offers (linked to their real needs). They are serious customers because they make large and regular orders but they ask for low prices. The small chains and single location businesses are totally different and it is also the case for their powers. [...]

[...] Cake Masters seems to be the only one. It is a bet which cans bring him to lost a lot of money if he fails (about dollars of his personal money). In term of negotiation, it is definitely a weakness. Kuchen cans not miss this operation. It is an (poker term when the player put all he has) witch a 50 / 50 per cent of probability (not really good in poker and it is the same in business). If you add the fact that no commitments in term of investment are signed, it is like a 30/70 per cent against him. [...]

[...] It is a strategic question (in term of transition) above all in this case. The company was built by one man which, I think, will not let his company dying because of the lack of experience of one person. The work of a life destructs by another person. Kuchen already thought about his salary and compensations for finding investors. I think he is too focused on his personal salary. It does not have the business and the ideas, but he already has requirements about his payments. [...]

[...] He defined some criterias linked to his personal view but not adapt them to the business and its market. His researches are quite good: it looked at the market and industry for understanding what is the main opportunities, competitors, customers, etc . in United States, Canada and GTA. He identified the main segments and devoted time for finding the main characteristics of each one. He also looked at the consumers behaviors in term of consumptions and tastes. He researched also the main channel and their characteristics in term of business, needs, expectations and competition. [...]

[...] David Kuchen is really ambitious. We can think that he is a little bit a gambler who really needs to earn more money and have more responsibilities but he is also a well prepared and hardworking person, so, we can say if it is a real weakness or just a clue that he is dynamic and motivated. He had two objectives: improve his knowledge in term of “marketing and strategy” and complete his financial skills and build a network of potential investors and advisors for helping him. [...]