Merger Integration

There is so much pressure in mergers to deal with urgent financial, operational, and HR administrative issues that the talent and culture side of post-merger integration is almost always under-managed. 

This costs organizations millions of dollars in reduced employee engagement, productivity, retention, communication, and teamwork. No matter how brilliant your acquisition strategy, if your employees are not ready, willing, and able to implement it, “culture eats strategy for breakfast” (Drucker). 

Advanture can help you reduce the time it takes for your two teams to gel as one, for your new employees to become fully productive and collaborative, and for the newly combined team to embrace your vision, strategy, and core values together.

Study after study puts the failure rate of mergers and acquisitions somewhere between 70% and 90%. (C.M. Christensen, HBR).

• 50% of executives in a Marsh Mercer Kroll study cited organizational cultural differences as the most significant post-deal issue they faced.
• 58% reported they did not have a specific approach to assessing and integrating culture in a deal. 
• None (0%) reported that its cultural integration practices were effective. 
• 33% blamed “cultural integration issues” as the reason their deal failed (Aon Hewitt).

Research from the 80’s & 90’s is almost exactly the same. We have known this is a problem for decades but haven’t made much progress. Until now. 

You can’t underestimate the stress and uncertainty employees experience during mergers. In a study by the Hay Group:

• 78% of acquired company employees opposed the mergers 
• 38% expressed dissatisfaction with the post-merger climate
• 22% described the early months as “culture shock”
• 16% labeled it “trench warfare”
  

What happens in times of great stress? You lose your best players because they are the most employable. Turnover, on average, costs 100% of annual salary, and at least three times more for top performers.

But there is no magic bullet. If your talent bucket is leaking, it is not enough to keep filling the bucket. You have to fix the leak. Post-merger integration, done properly, mitigates the risks, reduces avoidable costs, and saves time which can be put to much better use pursuing new business opportunities.

Advanture is perfectly suited to help organizations deal with the people side of merger integration because of our unique experience and capabilities:

• Aligning culture with strategy (org. & team levels)
• Leadership and organizational development 
• Talent management 
• Change and transition management 
• Collaborative practice
• Emotional and social intelligence 
• Re-authoring identity stories (from Narrative Therapy)