What mergers can do for you.

T word ‘merger’ often is associated with a big company buying a smaller one or two large companies coming together. But it is not only large companies that can succeed through acquisitions—even startups can use mergers as an effective way to grow their businesses. As a small team leading the startup Ocimum Biosolutions, based in Hyderabad, India, a decade ago, my colleagues and I could have opted to grow the company internally. But early on, we decided to take the path of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) to expand our company. We had difficult choices to make as our business grew, and we learned invaluable lessons. Here, I share some of my experience and show how Ocimum evolved from a small company into a globally integrated genomics firm.