M&A Deal Strategy: Governance for Execution

Deloitte's 2026 analysis of over 200 M&A leaders reveals a critical 'mandate gap' where governance bodies are expected to drive value creation but are empowered only to coordinate—a structural flaw that erodes execution quality, especially as AI accelerates deal speed. The report prescribes three governance imperatives: resolving trade-offs, accelerating decisions that matter, and keeping execution on track under pressure. The lesson directly applies to any board operating system: governance without real decision authority becomes an observer of complexity, not a resolver of it.