Throughout most of the past two years, acquisitive companies turbo-charged their due diligence processes as mergers and acquisitions (M&A) values topped the record highs set in 2015 ($3.96 trillion) and 2007 ($3.67 trillion), per data from White & Case. After the pace of dealmaking decreased in late 2022, the need for speed has shifted to the time it takes a deal to achieve its projected returns.

While investment bankers and other M&A specialists disagree on their projections of the M&A landscape in 2023, virtually all boards of directors agree on one thing: They want to see results sooner rather than later.

Meeting this expectation falls squarely on the CFO. As the primary internal sponsors of M&A transactions, finance leaders must ensure due diligence efforts are comprehensive enough to satisfy the shortening timelines for returns on acquisition that more boards and investors demand. This means CFOs will need to exercise and emphasize different M&A muscles in 2023 than they have in the past 24 months.