Culture

When we ask in our latest M&A research, “What were the biggest Challenges you faced?” the word used most frequently in response is “Culture”. One key conclusion: organizations must consider M&A culture integration well before deal time to minimize cultural risks. Identifying potential cultural alignments, enablers, mismatches and disruptors as early as possible is sure way to accelerate value creation in transactions.

In best-case acquisition scenarios, the acquiring entity fully understands its own current culture. Also, the acquiring entity has a clear view on what cultural attributes will be important for future success. Importantly, this is well before potential partners are on the scene. This way they can reliably assess cultural impact and cultural fit as a part of the due diligence process to identify any “show stoppers”, and to determine a realistic timeframe, level of effort and investment required for deal implementation.

In a true “merger of equals”, ideally both parties will know themselves and work together to determine the cultural attributes important for the future success of a combined organization.

Organizations experienced at growing by merger or acquisition have this down pat. Less seasoned campaigners end up working this out as they go along. We will meet you wherever you are and take a pragmatic approach to minimise cultural risks in you current deal. At the same time we will work with you to build awareness and capability for succussful M&A culture integration in any future deals.