This playbook is part of our Active Directions Playbook Series, designed to help private and family business owners navigate strategies and initiatives they may not have encountered before. Our goal is simple: give you a practical starting point to align your key stakeholders, clarify accountabilities, and work together with confidence.
In a buy-and-build strategy, shareholders and leadership must be genuinely aligned on risk, investment horizons, and legacy goals, particularly in family businesses where differing views can easily derail progress if left unresolved. This playbook focuses on acquiring to create value and outlines what each key stakeholder owns in making that happen.
The model starts with a solid platform business, then uses targeted acquisitions to build scale faster than organic growth alone. Value drivers include local market density, new geographic coverage, complementary capability, and the multiple expansion that comes from becoming a larger, more strategic asset at exit.
The failure rate of M&A is high. Research shows 70 to 90% of acquisitions fail to achieve their intended value, underscoring the need for a robust strategy, formal investment criteria, and a systematic approach to identify and evaluate targets.
Role in Acquisition Strategy: Sets the strategic intent, preserves legacy, and provides the mandate for growth through acquisition.
Key Responsibilities:
Define the non-negotiables and what the business stands for through any acquisition
Champion alignment across the shareholder group on risk appetite and timeline
Provide stewardship over the cultural identity of the combined group
Model long-term value creation thinking over short-term disruption.
What good looks like: The Founder holds the vision steady while empowering the team to execute.
Role in Acquisition Strategy: Represents future value and long-term ownership perspective, bridging legacy with growth ambition. They also play a key role to challenge the acquisition strategy and ensure the risk is manageable.
Key Responsibilities:
Engage actively in shareholder alignment discussions, not just as a beneficiary but as a voice
Develop understanding of acquisition strategy, due diligence, and integration risk
Support the Founder in managing family dynamics during complex decision-making
Understand the tax dimension, as value built before 1 July 2027 retains the existing 50% CGT discount treatment, no matter when you sell in the future.
What good looks like: The Next Generation Shareholder is informed, engaged, and future-focused.
Role in Acquisition Strategy: Drives the overall strategy, leads the leadership team through the acquisition process, and owns integration outcomes.
Key Responsibilities:
Ensure the platform is large and stable enough to support bolt-on acquisitions, with capable leadership and sufficient bandwidth to manage due diligence, integration, and core operations at the same time
Define and validate investment criteria with the board
Lead target identification, assessment, and Go/No-Go decisions
Own post-acquisition integration accountability alongside the COO.
What good looks like: The CEO keeps the core business performing while the acquisition strategy advances in parallel.
Role in Acquisition Strategy: Structures the deal economics, manages the funding mix, and ensures financial discipline throughout.
Key Responsibilities:
Ensure lenders' expectations on meaningful equity contribution are met, and the funding mix is agreed before a target price is set
Oversee financial due diligence covering quality of earnings, working capital, and debt structures
Model multiple expansion scenarios and synergy delivery
Track post-deal financial performance against the acquisition thesis.
What good looks like: The CFO ensures no deal proceeds without a clear path to value and an affordable funding structure.
Role in Acquisition Strategy: Owns integration execution and ensures the platform can absorb new businesses without losing operational momentum.
Key Responsibilities:
Develop and maintain an integration scorecard covering finance close, KPI migration, systems, and culture
Manage leadership retention and employee communication post-acquisitions
Ensure post-integration receives just as much planning, budget, and resource as the transaction itself
Identify and eliminate integration overload risks across the management team.
What good looks like: The COO turns acquisition energy into disciplined integration, on time and on plan.
Role in Acquisition Strategy: Protects and grows revenue during transition, and unlocks cross-sell and market expansion value from acquisitions.
Key Responsibilities:
Maintain customer confidence and communication through the integration period
Identify and activate cross-sell opportunities between the platform and acquired businesses
Drive geographic coverage, complementary capability, and density that acquirers and lenders value
Report on revenue synergy realisation against the acquisition business case.
What good looks like: The CRO ensures the revenue engine accelerates, not stalls, through every acquisition.
As the research confirms, integration is where most deals fail because acquisition energy is high and integration discipline is low. Every role in this playbook exists to change that outcome.
For support in aligning your team around an acquisition strategy, reach out to Active Directions or call +61 1300 035 650.