TAKING OVER AND SELLING A BUSINESS IN A FOREIGN INDUSTRY (AND COUNTRY)

This is an interlude from our series on one of our own recent acquisitions, to consider instead the amazing 13-month story of Anand Sanwal, who found himself suddenly taking over a business in India in an industry he knew very little about, running the company and successfully selling it.

This fascinating story is told in full on the CB Insights blog. Sanwal is the CEO of CB Insights, a New York based tech industry analysis firm - an extremely busy job in its own right. After the sudden death of his father he finds himself agreeing to take over the management of the business his father had built over 30 years... in rural India.

His experience in running both companies at the same time provides a number of useful lessons in prioritisation, crisis management, delegation and business strategy. The story details his M&A strategy and how he proceeded to sell the company to the right buyer (without using brokers). It's a wonderful story, with important lessons from an M&A perspective, and larger doses of respect and humility than are normally found on business blogs.

"What the F is the plan?
So I needed a plan.
Not on day 1, but pretty quickly.
Not because anyone was asking for one, but for myself. For Atlas.
How does one develop a plan when you don’t understand the business, the science, the industry, the country, and sometimes even the language?...
In my view, there were 4 options for the business."

We urge you to read the story here.