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Better deals through targeted debiasing?

Posted on November 30, 2007 at 3:59 PM
Filed under: Acquisitions
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Interesting piece in the December Harvard Business Review (subscription required) by a McKinsey trio. They call it "Deals without delusions," and they explore the ways acquirers tend to delude themselves at each stage of a deal — most notably, by seeking information that confirms rather than challenges their hypotheses. The authors group their remedies under the very consultanty term "targeted debiasing." But if you can debias yourself against the occasional lapse into that kind of lingo, you'll find some nuggets of practical advice worth sharing with business managers you're working with. The best one? "Have a dedicated M&A function."
Kenneth Klee

Go to the HBR article

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