Donald Trump is the new CEO of the troubled organization known as “The United States of America.” The troubled shareholders battled it out to determine though a process they needed a new leader. The shareholders were looking at the bottom line and the past leadership wasn’t driving optimal results.
The board members aka Congress were consulted and advised. They too battled it out to make the determination of what was right for the shareholders. They also had their personal and professional interests in mind, and this overtook any other rationale.
The justice system and legislative branch sought to navigate all the legal issues and concerns. However, it was and is just a part of the machine.
America as a body is now itself within the process of M&A
In the early part of the morning, before the light peeks through the window, I can see drifting thoughts, ideas and realizations. This morning, it became clear that we are in the process of working through the details of an acquisition. I have been through acquisition on both sides, and it is what it looks like.
When Chubb Insurance was acquired by Ace, CEO Evan Greenberg said in his first statement addressing the company, that it would be a “meritocracy.” He said, that we would work together as one team. This statement was not only false, but it was also intentional and temporarily kept the chickens’ laying eggs. It was too bad for the poor chickens when they discovered the eggs weren’t on the menu but they themselves were being served for dinner.
Our country today didn’t just elect a president, it brought in a CEO that is treating the country like a large corporation.
Bring in the Advisory
DOGE and Musk are the equivalent of McKinsey or Deloitte aiming to streamline operations and reduce cost. The target to cut spending and reduce waste and duplicative process is part of the strategic goal and objective.
Fundamentally, this playbook is easy to follow. Strategic investment in future profitable concepts and ideas are one part. The second is to reduce overhead, operational costs and “run” to the extent that the country runs on bare bones. The third is to beat the competition in every aspect of the market. This includes many aspects of investment but also means acquisition.
One of the first things people do in these situations is bring their own team in. They do this to the extent required for loyalty, trust and explicit execution. More often than not, M&A costs a lot of money and the return on investment is not seen immediately. The playbook lives mostly with the CEO and a very small handful of people. This is normally 3 or less.
More to come
The purpose of this post is to get you thinking about this and it provides a place for you to start understanding what is happening. This President is now shifting to America Corp. The outcome of this experiment is truly unknown but the playbook is something that we can now see, understand and follow.
Renaming the Gulf, changing the rules, creating new executive orders is just the start. We will have many more changes in the next 90 days. Once the changes are made, there will be a period of recovery and acclimating. From here, we will see change waves and there is a lot of risk across the board.
What do you think? I’d like to know.
