Tag: Markets First Approach

Hershey, Campbell Acquire Healthy Snack Brands to Follow Customer Demand

Customers are one of the strongest forces affecting your business today and in the future. Your company’s long-term success depends on their sustained demand for your products and services for years to come. Two recent acquisitions demonstrate the strong pull of customer demand in shaping company success. In the past week both Hershey and Campbell …

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Mars Makes Minority Investment in Healthy Snack Maker Kind

Sugar is not so sweet anymore. Blamed for making people sick and causing obesity, consumers are turning to healthier options and governments are trying to curb sugar consumption. Faced with these market dynamics, Mars recently announced it has made a minority investment in Kind Snacks. Kind’s products are made without artificial ingredients and include bars, …

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Why Is a Candy Company Buying a Pet Hospital? Mars – VCA Acquisition

Mars, the maker of M&Ms and Snickers, will acquire VCA, a veterinary company, for $7.7 billion. VCA owns about 800 animal hospitals a lab business and dog day care franchises and has about $ 2 billion in revenue. Although it may seem strange for a candy company to acquire a pet company, Mars already owns …

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Capstone Speaks on International Market Entry at VEDP Event

Expanding your business into a new market, especially an international one, is an exciting, yet tricky undertaking. There are many benefits to growing your business globally including reaching a new set of customers and a new geographic market. At the same time, success does not come easily. You must grapple with regulatory challenges, cultural differences, and country-specific …

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CUSO M&A: Finding the Right Partner for Growth

Strategic mergers and acquisitions can be a powerful tool for growing your CUSO, but much of your success depends on finding the right partner. How can you identify the right partner for growth? The best way to begin your search is to identify the ideal markets in which to grow your organization. Once you have …

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Looking to Africa for Growth

What do you do when sales decline? If you’re Diageo, you move to Africa. Diageo, the maker of Smirnoff vodka and Johnnie Walker whisky, has been a global liquor powerhouse for years. However, the company’s growth has been slowing in its traditional markets of North America, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean. In other words, …

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Secrets to Selecting the Best Market for Growth [VIDEO]

Selecting the right market is critical to successful growth. The market should have healthy, stable demand for your products or services and be aligned with your overall growth strategy. We strongly recommend selecting a market prior to identifying acquisition targets or potential partners. Without understanding market dynamics, you may be tempted to pursue what looks like a …

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“Where To Start Your Search for M&A Targets” — New M&A Express Videocast

How do you go about finding companies to buy? Do you begin your search by contacting a list of usual suspects? Rather than falling back on the usual suspects, consider using a truly strategic approach to finding the right company to buy. A demand-driven approach to picking acquisition targets will help increase your chances of successful M&A. …

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How Do You Find the Best Market?

How do you find the best market for your product or service? Capstone Project Manager Matt Craft answered this important question on the Market Selection Panel at the Virginia Conference on World Trade in Richmond, Virginia on October 30. Hosted by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP), this is the state’s largest international trade conference and is focused …

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Forget the Competition. Think Customers.

Don’t let the competition define your external growth strategy. Instead, plan for the people who matter most ─ your customers. Let’s face it ─ we all care about what other people think, and in business that often means measuring how we stack up against the competition. While it’s important to keep an eye on competitors, …

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