M&A Integration
Predicting cultural challenges for integration success
An astounding 70-90% of mergers and acquisitions fail, according to Harvard Business Review.1 Without a robust integration strategy to successfully unite two company cultures, many organizations set themselves up for failure.
According to Mckinsey, 95% of executives describe cultural fit as critical to the success of integration. Yet 25% cite a lack of cultural cohesion and alignment as the primary reason integration efforts fail.7
Marlee can predict the likelihood of cultural synergy with 90% reliability and, in a revolutionary first, maps out a tailored integration plan to support M&A alignment. Read on to discover common cultural and business challenges in post-merger integrations – and how Marlee helps organizations navigate the integration process.
Why is culture important to capture deal value in M&A integration?
Culture is a critical but often forgotten aspect of M&A integration (also known as post-merger integration). As much thought should go into cultural integration as the financial and legal aspects of a merger – ignore it at your peril.
Without giving company culture the attention it deserves, major organizational problems are almost a given. What is culture? Think of it as the ingrained aspects of an organization, such as leadership and communication styles, and company-wide behaviors, mindsets and social structures.2
At one end, you might have an established company with a traditional approach that prioritizes rigid processes and maintaining the status quo. On the other, the target company could be a fledgling start-up with an agile approach, out-of-the-box ways of doing things, and pioneering team members.
In jarring cultures like these, post-merger integration issues can easily arise. Add to this poor communication between integration leaders and employees, the departure of important personnel, underutilized talent, lack of motivation, and growing disharmony between the two parties and problems inevitably emerge.
Not only can cultural discord create friction, it can also sabotage the value of the deal and future success. Naturally, any M&A agreement is undertaken to boost a company’s value – either through increased scale or cost savings – but when people aren’t properly considered, obstacles to successful post-merger integration arise and business output can drop.
Organizational culture directly affects the employee experience. As a result, the customer experience, business relationships and shareholder value are all impacted.3
Put simply, when there’s cultural friction, an M&A’s potential value decreases or disappears entirely, becoming one of the 70-90% of deals that fail.
Often, these challenges only arise after the deal is done. That’s why it’s essential to consider the cultural alignments and disparities of each organization well in advance. Organizations can then engage the right leadership, dedicated integration teams and advisory services to provide counsel on merging the two companies more effectively – and mitigate the risk of failure.
Beyond the initial cultural assessment, leaders and companies need to take steps to ensure a seamless and efficient M&A integration journey both during the M&A process and afterward. This is not to say there won’t be hiccups during the integration phase, but knowing what problems could arise and having an effective integration plan in place can empower leaders to pre-empt and identify potential challenges before they do real damage.
How culture mapping can add value to mergers and acquisitions
Navigating the cultural challenges around M&A integration is a delicate procedure. Deeply understanding both team cultures well ahead of the deal and having a disciplined approach to successful integration is vital.
This is where Marlee comes in. The Marlee Culture Map allows you to dive into the fundamentals of each entity – the acquiring company and the target company. Using data, Marlee’s 20+ years of research, and predictive analytics, the Culture Map pinpoints and forecasts personal and team motivations and attitudes. The comprehensive model and report indicates performance with statistics you can rely on in a contextualized setting.
When it comes to M&A integration, the benefits you can expect from the Marlee Culture Map include:
Identify cross-cultural alignments
Knowing the similarities between the two entities enables you to optimize and build on them, and make these areas more efficient
Recognize gaps between entities
Identifying in advance potential points of conflict or miscommunication or where the integration is at risk of breaking down
Reach goals sooner
Determining the right leadership team for the newly merged entity can help your organization kick its goals faster
STEP 1: Assessing the team making the acquisition
Analyzing the culture of the organization making the acquisition on both an individual and company-wide level is an important first step. The goal of this part of the process is to deliver a snapshot of the current state of the acquiring organization.Working styles, employee communication preferences, and cultural values and affinities are all unearthed, along with other key cultural attributes that make an organization tick. Marlee's technology even pinpoints XFactors (strengths or what makes a team or organization unique) to help determine the odds of success. Crucially, organizational or team blind spots are also identified. This allows Marlee to forecast any challenges.
STEP 2: Assessing the team being acquired
An identical evaluation of the target company is the next step. Similar to Step 1, Marlee analyzes individual and organizational work style motivations. Examples include communication styles, approaches to working, decision-making and cultural values and affinities. This can be performed across the entire organization or just on the leadership/C-suite team, depending on the needs of both entities.
STEP 3: Mapping cultural similarities and differences
Using empirical data gleaned from the first two steps, Marlee assesses the similarities and differences between the two cultures. This uncovers where they overlap and where any issues are likely to arise.This step also includes a complete analysis of what the newly merged culture will look like, an incredibly useful tool.