The M&A Integration Process: Five Discrete Stages

It is helpful to look at the integration process as a logical sequence of steps designed to help bring the two organizations together.  Breaking the integration process into five discrete phases—envision, assess, deploy, manage, and close—makes it easier to get mentally organized for the overall task at hand.

Envision

This initial stage is all about laying the groundwork for successful integration.  The steering committee focuses on building the project structure to link the objectives of the integration with the strategic intent of the merger.  A formal project structure is defined, and an overall project leader is assigned.  People are tapped to serve on the merger team, and that group is given the charter that will guide its activities throughout the project.  Task-force teams also are identified, and appropriate operating charters are developed for each team.  The steering committee and merger team work together to create an integration strategy that identifies critical content areas where task-force teams will focus their efforts.  The overall schedule for the integration project should be established, too, along with the various timelines denoting when certain integration activities should take place.

Assess

The merger team carries responsibility for managing the process of evaluating current operations and recommending changes based on integration requirements.  So this stage is characterized by diagnostics and analysis.  Granted, the due diligence effort generated some degree of data about how the integration process might be carried out.   But this is an opportunity for a more in-depth, close-range examination.

If it wasn’t done in the envision stage, now is the time to . . .