Why Global M&A Is Really a Test of Leadership Capacity

Indian companies are making a more assertive move into global acquisitions, with Sun Pharma’s planned $11.75 billion acquisition of Organon sitting alongside Coforge’s $2.35 billion acquisition of Encora and Tata Motors’ earlier purchase of Iveco. The signal is not simply “Indian companies are going global”. It is that growth, capability, supply chain resilience and market access are now being bought rather than built. (Reuters)

What’s Happening

Reuters reports that Indian outbound M&A is accelerating, with 56 outbound transactions worth $3.9 billion in the first quarter of 2026, after 162 deals worth $18.2 billion in 2025. The deals span pharma, technology and industrials, and are being driven by access to products, R&D, technology, customers and distribution. Reuters also notes that corporate balance sheets are cleaner than during the early 2000s overseas acquisition wave, with median debt-to-EBITDA for rated Indian corporates at 0.5 times as of March 2026. (Reuters)

What’s Being Said

The market commentary is cautiously positive. Advisers quoted by Reuters argue that this cycle looks more disciplined, with a mix of internal cash and moderate leverage. There is also a strong strategic logic being attached to the deals: companies are buying capability where it is hard to build domestically and buying global scale where organic growth would take too long. The caution is around execution and debt discipline, particularly where a historically conservative balance sheet moves into a more leveraged position. (Reuters)

What I’ve Noticed

The important leadership signal is the shortening patience for organic capability building. Boards are no longer only asking whether a business can grow. They are asking whether it can grow quickly enough, with enough control, in markets that are becoming more fragmented and less predictable.

That changes the quality of the decision. Acquisition becomes less about ambition and more about compression. Compressing time to market. Compressing capability gaps. Compressing exposure to supply chain and trade friction. But every compressed decision carries a hidden cost. The organisation still has to absorb the complexity at normal human and operating speed.

To Pressure Test this:

Ask the executive team to name the three capabilities the acquisition is meant to create, then ask who will own each one eighteen months after completion when the deal team has moved on.