Gary McGaghey is a chartered management accountant in the United Kingdom hailing from South Africa. Having achieved successful financial transformation in the field of private equity and privately owned and listed companies on a global scale, McGaghey discussed and outlined the most important principles to business integration.
Focusing on private equity companies, McGaghey explained that companies can maintain and maximize their value by following four key yet often overlooked principles and practices.
Let’s take a closer look at these principles as outlined by McGaghey to better understand integration planning and the way to find success at a higher level.
Key Principles to Integration
As a high-level accountant with years of industry experience prioritizing integration, Gary McGaghey focused on the same principles that would bolster deal sourcing as well as diligence. Expanding material value while driving acquisitions can be done successfully with just a few areas of focus, according to Gary McGaghey.
Prioritize Pace, Tightening Timeframes
Advancing a deal to signing is difficult in and of itself, yet many private equity companies will fumble when they call on management teams to perform integration. McGaghey expounded on this idea by underscoring the importance of a specialist with expertise in the field. Bringing in professionals with verified experience to run integration can lead to a more successful merger and a quicker pace that tightens timelines, saves money, and keeps the company moving forward.
Put plainly, McGaghey understands that an experienced manager doesn’t necessarily have experience in merger management, so keep an eye out for the right professional to handle the job.
Exploring Value and Driving Ownership
When everything has a price, keeping a timeline and driving value forward is important. Gary McGaghey understands that successful integrators will often revisit the key factors that drove them to merge in the first place. This involves exploring how fast private companies can create potential revenue growth while creating additional value. For Gary McGaghey, improving within the workspace meant improving agility, embracing tightened techniques, and professionalizing the entirety of the sales force.
Assigning and Splitting Responsibilities
Every role is integral during this phase of integration. In a private equity company, this means creating a network of communication between deal and operation teams. During this phase, the private equity business, as noted by Gary McGaghey, will focus on ideating risks and opportunities for collaboration while installing an effective management team.
During integration, portfolio leaders must make heavy and quick decisions under a larger degree of stress. As a result, management teams can feel hesitant to commit without fully exploring value regarding potential collaborations. For that reason alone, McGaghey suggests, assigning and splitting responsibilities throughout an experienced team is of the utmost importance.
Learn More About Gary McGaghey
Gary McGaghey is a professional chartered management accountant in the U.K. as well as South Africa, working on a global scale for privately owned, listed, and private equity companies. Gary McGagheya attended and graduated from the University of South Africa with a Bachelor of Commerce Degree. McGaghey would go on to attend and graduate from the Financial Times’ Non-Director Executive Diploma program, leading to his present position as Group CFO at Williams Lea Tag.
Under his guidance at Williams Lea Tag, McGaghey operates as the Group CFO of more than €1.3bn worth of end-to-end marketing and production services.
