Strategy, Commercial and Operational Due Diligence

Strategy is the cornerstone that keeps management grounded, employees aligned toward core objectives, and resources allocated effectively. A cohesive strategy provides clear assumptions of a company’s view of the future and, when new trends or events emerge that are inconsistent with those underlying assumptions, the company can react with agility and address these new factors without impeding forward momentum.


Trigger questions
  • How can we increase market share by 20%?
  • Do we have the resources to effectively enter the market?
  • Where should I locate my production facility?

Competitive strategy

  • Identify and develop strategic responses to short and long-term changes in the market
  • Assess competitive positioning and develop competencies to provide a competitive edge in the market

Proposition and business model innovation

  • Identify new market opportunities and the capabilities required to capture them
  • Use operations as a lever to support the vision and mission for current and long term market objectives and competitive advantage

Market entry strategy

  • Develop adjacent growth strategies and shape international expansion
  • Identify and develop new business and market opportunities by employing a comprehensive understanding of trends, customers, technologies and geographies

Operating strategy

  • Formulate effective strategies to bridge the gaps between business strategy and implementation by clearly aligning implementation steps with overall business strategy

M&A strategy / commercial due diligence

  • Scrutinise M&A opportunities and assess viability of commercial projections 
Corporate and Business Unit Strategy

Deloitte’s global experience in merger integration has highlighted four ‘best practices’ that its strategy teams use to guide businesses through the crucial integration phase:

• Articulate the vision and business benefit of the merger or acquisition –

Clearly define the vision for the integrated organisation; identify each expected benefit; identify and communicate expected synergies; select strong integration sponsors.

• Develop an effective integration plan –

Identify, prioritise and measure synergies long before the deal goes through, preferably at the due diligence stage.

• Assign a dedicated integration team –

Avoid losing focus on day-to-day operations by allocating specific resources to manage theintegration, with a project manager, strong executive support and results-based incentives, where appropriate.

• Over-emphasise people –

Don’t overlook the effect M&A can have on employees: quickly implement a new organisational structure; prepare the HR team to recognise and resolve cultural issues early; communicate the impact of the transaction in depth and provide quick answers to questions regarding people’s ongoing roles and responsibilities.

Operations and Post-Merger Integration




  1. Understand the nature of data and validate it
  2. Model the data and validate the results
Data analytics


Learn more about
Mergers and Acquisitions