Anyone who knows my son knows he is an avid tennis player. He’s been playing since a very young age and it’s taken time for him to understand that losing is a part of every sport. We’ve had our share of tears and fits, but he’s getting there and it’s given my husband and me the opportunity to have the “you can’t win them all” conversation.
He recently began playing with another very talented kid and the two of them have an absolute blast each time they get on the court together. They have fun, they laugh, they compete and they challenge one another. They also learn how to play together in order to accomplish one simple goal. To win.
Many of our kids join forces with other kids on a daily basis. They team up on projects in the classroom, on the playground, on the court and on the field. These very interactions are teaching our kids how to work well together in order to get the best result. Just as our children continue to grow and build new relationships, so do companies. They figure out how teaming up or merging with other companies could very well help them “grow up.”
Mergers and acquisitions are a big part of finance. On most days, Wall Street is buzzing about a deal and investors look for such announcements to get a sense of what the companies they invest in are doing to evolve, be profitable, and increase shareholder value.
Sometimes two companies come together in a deal which you wouldn’t necessarily think makes sense. For example, there was the deal awhile back of a casual watchmaker deciding to buy a luxury jeweler for several hundreds of millions of dollars. At the time one may have questioned why these two should come together, but it came down to one company realizing it was time to branch out and grow by snapping up another which had something big to offer.
The next time there is news of a merger or acquisition, regarding a company your child knows of, discuss some of the reasons why that company is teaming up with another and have them think of recent instances when they looked to team up with a friend of theirs.
Kid or company, both are simply trying to figure out the best way to continue to grow and get ahead.
Want to take this lesson further? Give us your email and receive a free download to a story that you can read with your child called “Sammy & Price’s M&A Adventure,” educate yourself even more on how to explain mergers and acquisitions to kids and share a fun activity called “Merger Mania.”
