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B E S T P R A C T I C E S
To merge cultures, build community Zweig Group experts give advice on how to ensure a smooth transition after an M&A deal, because merging cultures doesn’t just happen.
top reason that deals crumble by the largest com- panies in the world. It’s hard for executives accli- mated to fact-based analysis to hear this, but the truth is that the only advice worth hearing is that you’ve got to listen to your instincts. I have never spoken to someone a few years after a merger who says, ‘You know, I’m so glad I ignored my gut feel- ing about that deal.’ It’s unscientific, I know, but you have to trust your judgment and your team’s judgment when you’re meeting a potential M&A candidate.” FOCUS ON OPEN COMMUNICATION. Zweig Group’s 2015 M&A Survey of A/E/P and Environmental Firms asked firm leaders who have recently gone through an acquisition to identify the most difficult part of integrating acquired firms. Although answers vary, the most common challenge when merging cul- tures is communication. See MERGING, page 10 “Presenting the advantages that an acquisition offers to the target firm’s employees is a great way to get people to buy into your culture.”
By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent
C ultural integration is the greatest challenge in merger and acquisition deals, but it’s not some- thing that people want to talk about when they start to get excited about the business potential. It’s widely acknowledged that most deals fall apart due to cultural integration issues, yet it remains an aspect of the transaction that deal makers continue to set aside for later. So, to find out the best way to get started, we turned to two of our in-house experts to see what words of wisdom they had to share. TRUST YOUR GUT. Jamie Claire Kiser, director of M&A services a t Zweig Group , says that leaders who put deals together sometimes mistakenly believe that cultural integration will just happen. But, it’s as strategic a component of evaluating a firm as any other. “I’ve heard of other M&A consultants who devel- op objective standards or, in one case, a ‘10- point test’ to evaluate cultural fit without even visiting the firm,” she says. “If it was that simple, then fail- ure to integrate cultures wouldn’t be cited as the
THE ZWEIG LETTER OCTOBER 12, 2015, ISSUE 1123
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