The Economist reports that M&A activity is bouncing back, and as noted in other posts (search ‘downturn’ and ‘crisis’), strong firms should be taking advantage of weak conditions to buy up low-priced opportunities – provided of course they know how to do that well (see Building acquisition capability).

Let’s beware, though, of the dark side of M&A

• the pursuit of growth for growth’s sake, with no resulting strategic advantage
• ego-driven lunacy (remember Royal Bank of Scotland)
• … not forgetting, of course, that many deals are sold by advisors, regardless of their advisability to the client.

If our CEOs and Chief Strategy Officers can just keep their heads this time, perhaps the 2015 downturn will not be quite as bad as the 2008 one.