Overview
Strategic synergy. Efficiency. Market power. These common arguments for mergers and acquisitions often prove much easier in promise than in practice. Once the ink on the deal is dry, the real challenge of integration begins—and while many acquisitions eventually succeed, many others fail or are plagued with issues that could have been avoided or diminished.
Pivotal Resources’ expertise in integrating and streamlining business activities, and in driving change, provides the critical focus and balance that is often lacking in executing a merger. Our approach ensures the right goals and measures of success are achieved, and in the most expedient way, helping overcome the risks and constraints common in the integration effort.
The Challenge
The intense pressure to deliver in the wake of an acquisition tends to drive short-term behaviors and priorities that undermine the long-term success of the combined organization. Among the common pitfalls:
- Vague objectives that hamper priority-setting, aggravate conflicts and lead to misaligned solutions
- Reorganization and head count reductions that slice away muscle and bone, not just fat
- Rushed consolidation of IT, HR or Finance platforms without regard to the most effective business processes—or the opportunity to assess and share best practices
- Failure to manage uncertainty and build acceptance (in both organizations) hampering productivity and encouraging resistance
In many cases, after a few cursory efforts to align the merged businesses, the integration is abandoned—leaving a years-long legacy of parallel cultures, systems and practices.
Pivotal’s M&A Solutions
Our versatile, results-focused approach can streamline your integration effort while optimizing processes to achieve a more effective and efficient organization. Recognizing that “making the numbers” is a top priority, we focus on how that goal can be best achieved through a series of manageable efforts that preserve and enhance the operational and competitive strengths of the merging organizations. A key difference: We pay attention to the breadth of business and customer issues that are a key to success, not simply head count or systems changeover.
We also balance “getting it done” with careful stakeholder and change management that builds acceptance of new practices and structures.
Our M&A Integration solutions and expertise include:
- Translating expectations of the deal into a well-defined vision, value proposition and integration strategy
- Identifying and prioritizing “100-day projects” to get the integration off to a fast, but effective start—with follow-on efforts as needed.
- Building a representative, capable integration team and appropriate leadership
- Identifying the change acceptance and cultural “fit” issues impacting eventual success
- Leading/facilitating integration projects, applying such disciplines as voice of the customer, best practice sharing, process redesign “workouts”, data analysis and measurement systems development
- Forming a comprehensive communication plan to keep key stakeholders up-to-date and build support/reduce stress
- Assessing progress and refining the integration plan to achieve goals and avoid the struggles of leaving an operation “half-integrated”
Change Leadership at Work
No integration approach can eliminate the hard work and challenges that are part of any major organizational change. But Pivotal’s expertise can help you go much more smoothly and help you deliver on the promise, rather than explain why “results did not meet expectations.” Our consultants can support you around the world and whether your organization is large or small.
If the old paradigm has been that M&As are successful, at best, 50% of the time, the new paradigm should be that M&As are successful most, if not all of the time!
For more information on how we can help, read the following article Pete Pande, CEO of Pivotal Resources, wrote for Forbes.com in January 2008: Mergers And Acquisitions: How To Avoid A 'Merger Gone Wrong'.