It is a well-known fact that fewer than fifty percent of all mergers and acquisitions achieve the results and returns that front-end analyses would suggest. Communication breakdowns, cultural mismatches, and other “people” issues are often the culprits, but these so-called “soft” concerns are often neglected in the due diligence and integration phases.
Because Performance Insight strives to be a long-term, strategic business partner with its clients, we are intimately familiar with not only the business context of our clients’ organizations, but also with cultural and other “people” issues that so often derail mergers or acquisitions. With this background knowledge, we are able to perform appropriate due diligence to assess the fit between the two cultures and assess and overcome the barriers to integration success. Because we take the time to get to know key leaders and contributors in your organizations, we are situated to assess, select, and develop individuals poised to lead and manage the integration process. Further, our broad experience facilitating such situations prepares us to help you develop effective communication plans to ensure employees on both sides are both clear and excited about the future of the merged organization. We work with our clients to develop and implement a systematic, comprehensive Integration Plan that incorporates culture, organization structure, and business strategy components. Working closely with key contributors, we help build in accountability and cross-organizational problem solving through Integration Initiative Teams. Process check points and continuous feedback loops are built in to ensure the plan can be fine-tuned as necessary. We also often combine this solution with Leadership Development Programs or Teambuilding, involving participants from both organizations in order to foster collaboration, cultural assimilation, and the use of a common framework going forward.