Post-Merger Integration Strategy

Written by Himanshu Aggarwal | Nov 18, 2019 2:59:57 PM

Several studies have revealed the success rate of company mergers at less than fifty percent. This high failure rate can be attributed to poorly conceived deals or deficient processes to integrate the two merging entities.

Post-Merger Integration (PMI) has been widely accepted as one of the most daunting challenges in the business world. The complexity in the process is due to several factors:

Inherent mistrust between merging organizations
Shareholder pressure to generate quick ROI
Integration with minimal operational interruption

Therefore, to ensure successful integration, a holistic approach is needed, capable of overcoming these obstacles, if not fully at least substantially.

For any such strategy to achieve desired results, it is imperative for it to at least remain true in spirit to the objectives and assumptions of pre-merger conditions. Once that is instilled within the strategy, it comes down to developing an executable plan at an overarching level, as well as a granular level. At this juncture, there are two critical dimensions that we need to be cognizant of:


People Integration	Process Integration

Often dictated by shareholder concern, and business cost pressures, planners move forward focusing almost entirely on process integration. However, they forget that it is people who run businesses, and therefore a one-dimensional integration of process alone will be superficial, and it will snap at the slightest of hiccups.

This brings us to the next question of how to get people integration done. People have a lot of inertia, which in this case is also coupled with institutional memory inertia. Moreover, as stated above, merging entities don’t really trust each other.

Therefore to bring about people integration, a plan must be engineered to create a virtuous cycle where process integration achieves a few quick wins. These wins, in turn, will inspire people to come together, who will feed on this win and diffuse positivity within the larger organization to drive deeper process integration, allowing the cycle to continue.

Therefore, a successful PMI strategy needs to focus on the right areas, along with that act as a catalyst to induce the desired reaction.

CGN Global has successfully helped clients, across the world to overcome integration challenges. Our versatile team of consultants, combined with their subject matter expertise and change management knowledge, have delivered unprecedented results, by maximizing the value captured during post-merger integration.

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