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OPINION
Successful M&A communication is achieved through strategy, storytelling, and staying human in the face of complexity. How to achieve a double-win merger
O n a quiet Friday afternoon in January 2022, a “Quick Connect” meeting landed unexpectedly on my calendar for the following Monday. The meeting title was brief and unspecific, which led me to spend the weekend speculating about its purpose. When Monday morning arrived, I learned something that would shape the next six months of my professional life: our firm was entering into a merger with an equal-sized professional services firm, and I was being brought into the inner circle to help lead the communications strategy.
Dan Schwartz
But long before the merger was finalized, the real work had already begun, crafting a communication strategy that could preserve our culture, build trust, and help achieve the business goals of the merger. The stakes were high – not just for revenue or market positioning, but for the people who had built these firms into what they were. That first meeting with my supervisor set the tone for what was to come next. I wasn’t just being informed – I was being invited to help make it successful, and I was thrilled at the opportunity to contribute to such a strategic milestone in our firm’s history. But as the famous saying goes, “With great opportunity comes great responsibility.” I knew I had an obligation not only to the executives leading the merger, but also to honor our people throughout the process – a win-win for both business and our employees. WHAT’S THE DOUBLE-WIN? Mergers are known for triggering a mass of conflicting emotions –
excitement, uncertainty, hope, fear. And for good reason: according to a Harvard Business Review article cited in Forbes , nearly 70 percent of mergers fail to meet their strategic goals, often due to poor cultural integration and communication missteps. The “double win” we aimed for was ambitious:
Retain our top talent
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Build trust with our people
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■ Keep our culture intact through high change
■ Support executives in achieving strategic growth through the merger To pull this off, we needed a communication plan that wasn’t just about disseminating information – it had to engage hearts and minds around a strong purpose and a solid “why.”
See DAN SCHWARTZ, page 4
THE ZWEIG LETTER AUGUST 11, 2025, ISSUE 1597
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