M&A Awards 2021

6 Acquisition International - M&A Awards 2021 When it comes to growth and development, the contacts and connections assist hugely with developing a good monetizing event. After all, one of the make-or-break elements of any monetizing event is how much buzz can be developed around it in the run-up to the launch, meaning that the roadmap to launch and the pre-event work is just as important as the event itself. Fundamentally, as with so many things, it’s about who knows about an event, business, product, and service as much as it is about the event itself, which is where John Farrell and Associates’ depth and breadth of knowledge is truly invaluable. In the mind of John Farrell and Associates, a perspective backed up by the power of the marketing industry as a whole and the sophistication of the developments that have been occurring in this industry over the course of the past 18 months, the marketing services agency marketplace is a growing field that will only improve. Essentially, with clients continuing to – rightfully so – funnel significant effort and money into marketing and outreach, the net worth of the sector is a rising tide and promises to lift all ships. It has seen a huge growth in the expenditure in digital communications in particular, as more companies by the day are realising the power of a good digital footprint. In today’s predominantly remote paradigm, a company that does not exist online may as well not exist at all. This is something that John Farrell and Associates has been keen to help its clients face, aiding them in their pivot towards presenting a new, fresh, creative face in the developing online world, expanding their potential market segment by appealing to more areas of it and with a far wider reach than can be achieved offline. Additionally, by implementing the top-down knowledge of technological and digital services that it can provide to its clientele, it shows them how this online world of digital outreach is one with huge room for exciting further growth. Therefore, John Farrell and Associates wishes to assure clients that continued expenditure on digital marketing and the services therein is indeed wise. A strong market that is growing by the day, and one that is promising the development of the entire corporate infrastructure in this developing online business world, the current trend is one of seeing new and interesting companies enter the market other than the traditional holding companies, heralding yet another upcoming shift in the status quo. Although the pandemic has made for slowed growth for some of the medium and large sized holding companies, this has meant a scrambling of such businesses to expand their portfolios through acquisition activity, presenting a whole new kind of growth opportunities for smaller businesses. Clearly, for a business like John Farrell and Associates, one that represents small to medium sized marketing services businesses, this is creating a whole new realm of influence into which it and its clients can move, taking advantage of the opportunities that are currently popping up at breakneck speed. As aforementioned, John Farrell himself has been the cornerstone of his organisation’s impressive development. His leadership style, in essence, is business-like, no-nonsense, and to-the-point, allowing clients to enjoy a business partner who doesn’t weigh down interactions with unnecessary jargon, instead offering streamlined advice and well-developed processes that have each been tried and tested by previous clients. Additionally, he refuses to allow his business to stagnate, ensuring these services are updated and refocused with every change that occurs in the wider world; all this is aided by John Farrell’s fortunate position in being able to work with people he wants to spend time with exclusively. This creates an intrinsic network of people who make up his clients. Consequentially, numbering amongst this group is an exemplary marketing move in and of itself, as this market leader’s endorsement of your work is a big mark in favour of a company and its professional leaders. Early on, one of the challenges faced by John and his company was the consideration of whether or not to work with public companies. Critically, he did not want to work with public companies by the time in his career when John Farrell and Associates was beginning to gain its notoriety and make a huge impact on the wider industry, mainly due to the percentage of time such companies spend on governance and compliance related activities. In short, this circles back to the founder’s operational model of only working with those clients that he himself truly believes in and is excited to work with. Governance and compliance simply was of no interest, and so it was left off the docket, allowing for the careful crafting of a portfolio of privately held organisations that he is a direct marketing and outreach partner to, adding value to them due to his ability to enhance the go-to-market propositions of these clients and building shareholder value. Moreover, the founder wishes to promote this mindset amongst budding new professionals in the industry, too. John Farrell’s success has, in part, been due to his intrinsic knowledge of and staunch stance on adding value to his clients’ enterprises. Fundamentally, he encourages newcomers to the industry to have a really in depth think about what value they can add to marketing firms and outreach providers, how they can help such clients to reach new heights and offer the best, most market relevant advice possible. Staying focused on the target market they wish to reach and delivering their value-adding solutions to a designated target market means a more defined and dedicated approach that reduces the risk of a more hit-or-miss scattershot effect that can sometimes result in a new business missing their target population completely.