Most leaders enter a merger or acquisition believing they know what they're dealing with. They've stress-tested the synergy projections, sat through the management presentations, and built the integration plan. What tends to derail a deal, however, rarely shows up in any of those places. It lives in what leaders fail to notice about the people around them—the culture quietly signaling something no one is saying out loud, the human reality that no spreadsheet was designed to capture.
Step Forward draws on decades of M&A consulting work and an unlikely source of leadership wisdom: the cultural disorientation of learning to live a part-time life in rural Italy. When you buy a home in a village of seventy people and navigate a language you barely speak, you learn quickly that the generous Sunday feast your hosts lay out tells you almost nothing about how daily life actually works on a Thursday. Every business leader who has ever sat through a polished acquisition presentation and then encountered the operational reality afterward will know exactly what that feels like, and this book is built around learning to close that gap before it becomes a crisis.
Organized around the three phases of M&A—Scouting and Due Diligence, Integration Planning, and Integration—Step Forward traces how the demands on leaders shift as a deal unfolds, introducing three personas along the way: the Reserved Leader, the Resilient Leader, and the Relentless Leader. Each chapter pairs reflective questions and concrete actions with stories that make the leadership lessons stick.
Step Forward is one of those M&A books that tells you what the spreadsheets and diligence checklists don’t—the social or people issues of a deal that really make or break it. Cianni brings real-world experience and practical insight you can use at every stage. If you’re a CEO who wants to get the full value out of a deal, this is a smart, straightforward read.
Al Altomari
Pharmaceutical executive
Two-time CEO of public companies
“The Consultant’s Compass is a must read for anyone thinking of making the move from a corporate career to consulting. It is a difficult transition and Mary’s wise, balanced, and pragmatic advice will help people be informed and avoid the many potential potholes. Mary herself embodies the very best of what it takes to be a great consultant—the ability to simplify the complex, inspire confidence through deep credibility, and a genuine care for her clients.”
Jo McConnell
Senior People and Transformation Executive
Board member of private and public biotech companies Step Forward is an insightful and strategic road map for avoiding the many pitfalls raised in M&A, covering not only the financial and operational issues in deals but diving deep on the most critical human issues that enable and support deal success. This should be required reading for anyone embarking on their first deal. I wish I had it thirty years ago when I started working on deals.
Perry C. Papantonis
Senior managing director and Global M&A leader, WTW
Step Forward is a standout contribution to the M&A leadership space. Dr. Mary Cianni captures what most deal playbooks miss:
the human and cultural realities that ultimately determine whether value is created or destroyed. This book is both engaging and highly usable, offering leaders a clear way to think, communicate, and lead through the M&A moments that matter most. I strongly recommend it for executives, integration leaders, HR partners, and anyone else supporting complex transactions.
Klint C. Kendrick, PhD, SPHR
Fortune 500 HR M&A executive
Host, Master Your Merger podcast
Having had the good fortune to work closely with Mary as a senior leader on some large, complex global mergers, I benefited greatly from her thoughtful insight and practical ideas. Now, with this book, a wider audience of leaders will be able to tap into her wisdom, enjoying charming anecdotes from her professional and personal life, with helpful how-to examples along the way.
A must-read for current and aspiring leaders!
Anne Donovan Bodnar
Former CAO and CHRO, Willis Towers Watson
Have you ever wondered about the enigmatic world of consultancy and whether it might be the right fit for you? If the title 'consultant' has ever piqued your curiosity, then this book is your passport into that realm.
Drawing from firsthand experience, the author takes us on a journey from initial skepticism to eventual admiration for consultants. With a memorable encounter as the pivot, she recalls an old colleague's dismissive description of consultants: "They ask you for your watch and then tell you the time." Yet, her personal experience was vastly different. She met a consultant who was insightful, engaged, and who connected the dots in a way that seemed effortlessly brilliant.
In this enlightening book, you'll not only gain an understanding of what it truly means to be a consultant, but you'll also be equipped to decide if the thrilling world of consultancy is your calling. Dive in and explore the multifaceted realm that beckons those with a passion for problem-solving, innovation, and strategic partnership, and a true and deep connection with clients.
“Whether you’re an aspiring consultant or are several years into your career, there’s no one better than Mary Cianni to hold your hand through everything from embracing opportunity, dealing with imposter syndrome, and managing challenging clients and projects… Mary provides the perfect tutorial for refining the hard and soft skills needed to reach the consultant’s ultimate goal of becoming a trusted strategic advisor and partner to their clients.”
Martine Ferland
President and CEO, Mercer
“The Consultant’s Compass is a must read for anyone thinking of making the move from a corporate career to consulting. It is a difficult transition and Mary’s wise, balanced, and pragmatic advice will help people be informed and avoid the many potential potholes. Mary herself embodies the very best of what it takes to be a great consultant—the ability to simplify the complex, inspire confidence through deep credibility, and a genuine care for her clients.”
Jo McConnell
Senior People and Transformation Executive
“Mary is one of these inspirational people you meet one day and who influence your life for a long time to come. Not only has she been instrumental as a consultant in a transformation project I was leading, but her experience and impact made me think about my future at the time, and then made me move a few years later from corporate leadership to strategic consulting. Mary’s book is a real guide and compass for those who have the boldness to make the change to consulting. I can identify many of the experiences Mary describes—especially the courage to relearn and the fact it’s not about selling and telling but listening and asking the right questions—and I wish I had been able to read The Consultant’s Compass when I made the journey myself.”
Jean-Christophe Font
Consultant, Kinetic Consulting; Former Chief Talent Officer, Nestlé
“Whatever technical skills we have, all consultants learn by doing; it is our experiences, our successes (and our failures), and how we engage with clients, prospects, and colleagues that allow us to grow. Mary shares insights from people who have been there and done it, telling relatable real-world stories that help us understand what ‘consulting’ means in practical jargon-free language. Aspiring and seasoned consultants, whether at big consulting organizations, sole practitioners, or internal consultants in large corporations can all learn from this. After all, learning from experiences (your own and others) and applying these to the next unexpected problem is what consultancy is about.”
Steve Allan
Experienced Global M&A Consultant