Organic growth can be slow and hard to come by. In sectors that are periodically most affected by political uncertainty, trade disputes, and other geopolitical changes, customers can end up deferring their buying decisions, which makes new revenue elusive. In other instances, revenue expansion requires substantial investment in R&D that may not pay off for years. Sometimes, growth is constrained by the inability to attract needed talent or the absence of important intellectual property. With growth an imperative, some small-cap CEOs turn to mergers and acquisitions (M&A) as a solution.