The most important rule in M&A is to not destroy value, which is why you need to take the time to develop your processes and plan for when things go wrong. From my experience, the most prevalent issues are about people – how they react to change, their resistance to it, and how they react when something doesn’t go according to was planned.
We assist our clients to set up a system that allows them to recognize potential visit here issues early and react quickly. This could be such things as having a weekly meeting during which the IMO and functional work streams examine the progress made against the plan and raise concerns and risks to the SteerCo.
After the process of solving issues has been established, it’s important to focus on the implementation. It is crucial to ensure that everyone knows what is expected of them and how they will be evaluated, and when. It’s also about clearly defining accountability (i.e. ownership of the end results) and decision making authority for the entire integrated business.
It is essential that the CEO and senior managers are able spend at minimum 90 percent of their time focused on core matters and not be distracted by integration activities. One method to achieve this is to select an experienced leader to oversee the Decision Management Office (IMO) who will be able to triage decisions and coordinate the work streams. This person could be from the organization that acquired the company or a rising star within the merged company who has the support of their boss to make this commitment.