You might recall in the last podcast, that Robert and Toby got on a roll in talking about value creation during post-M&A integration so you won't be surprised that this is the topic for today's podcast.The Dastardly Duo hold firm to their belief that insufficient attention is paid to real value opportunities beyond what Rob describes as the 'bleeding obvious' And you'll hear Toby berate Rob for not respecting the huge amount of work that goes into identifying value opportunities.But I digress because in this episode Rob and Toby start to explore what they call the Three Phases of Value Creation and reaffirm their belief that more can be done to realize post-deal value. Moreover, Toby proposes that there is an additional function needed that he calls the VMO (Value Management Office) and you can read more about that idea hereAnd finally, what are those Three Phases?Value Protection: Taking action to make sure that the value identified in the deal thesis is fully realized and that mistakes or poor decisions don't arise that would erode value.Value Creation: Which is what Rob refers to as 'Bleeding Obvious'. This is the value derived from synergies, operating efficiencies, cross-sell and up-sell potential, organization restructure, and systems/process efficienciesAnd lastly Value Innovation: The opportunities that present themselves once the two entities have been integrated and the combined strength of the whole opens up previously unseen potential. As always, we hope you enjoy our podcasts and we invite you to comment if you have something to offer or indeed disagree with our observations. Lastly. let us know if you have a story to tell and we would be delighted to have you on the podcast as our guest.