Blog Posts by Paul Dippell

Paul Dippell
Chief Executive Officer, Service Leadership
Paul Dippell is CEO of Service Leadership, Inc., a leading global consultancy to solution providers, industry consultants, and IT vendors, and publisher of the Service Leadership Index®, the foremost worldwide channel partner benchmark. Prior, at USBX Advisory Services, Paul established its IT M&A practice. At All Covered, Inc., a large SMB IT managed service provider, he led M&A and integration. He then founded a mid-market IT services firm with two private equity raises. At Xerox, Paul was V.P. of Managed Services, serving F500 customers worldwide. Before that, at CompuCom, he was V.P. of Enterprise IT Operations Consulting for a $2BB IT solution provider. Paul is a highly rated speaker at solution provider industry events worldwide.
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01/03/2019
2 min read
The mergers and acquisitions (M&A) year: Past and future
By: Paul Dippell
As expected, M&A in 2018 in the MSP space was even more active than 2017. Our fearless prediction is that—barring some sort of macroeconomic change—2019 will be as busy,

Business Growth
09/27/2018
1 min read
Ensuring 1+1=3 and not 2 or 1
By: Paul Dippell
It’s challenging to define your business strategy, determine the extent to which buying (or selling) a company should play a role in that, and if so, then finding, qualifying, negotiating, and closing an M&A deal. These are often perilously close to make-or-break activities that can demand a CEO’s full attention, regardless of other demands on their time.

Business Growth
07/26/2018
8 min read
Avoiding the most common M&A failure points: Part 2
By: Paul Dippell
In Part 2 of Avoiding the Most Common Merger and Acquisition Failure Points, we’ll discuss certain potential mismatches that can occur, how to spot them in advance, and what to do when you do spot them.

Business Growth
07/26/2018
5 min read
Avoiding the most common M&A failure points: Part 1
By: Paul Dippell
CEOs tend to share a personality trait. They like to pursue and close deals—whether it’s winning a new customer, buying a company, or selling their own company. Unlike winning most new customers, selling their company or buying a company is a “bet the farm” proposition (literally, in the case of selling.) And, unlike winning new customers, most CEOs have little experience buying or selling companies.

Business Growth
05/24/2018
5 min read
Getting a win/win M&A transaction
By: Paul Dippell
Owners who are inexperienced at mergers and acquisitions (M&A) often focus on valuation – what’s the price I’m going to get or pay? This is understandable; obviously that’s an important number.

Business Growth