Post-Merger Integration Books

Author: Price Pritchett, Ph.D.

Named “one of the best business books of the year” by Library Journal.

After the Merger provides a clear look at the tasks and problems of post-merger integration. It is first book ever written on merger integration strategy.

This hardbound volume provides a level of detail that will help your team navigate the many potential pitfalls of the integration process. After the Merger is packed with proven strategies that allow you to turn the instability created by a merger or acquisition to your advantage.

Specific topics explored include:

• 6 errors that managers make again and again—and how you can avoid them
• Best practices for handling the 4 major categories of a merger—everything from “rescue” to “raid”
• Ways to defuse cultural time bombs that can destroy mergers
• Separate checklists for managers in both the acquiring and target companies
• Time-saving checklists for executives on both sides
• Importance of conducting a disciplined Merger Talent Audit

By Price Pritchett, Ph. D.

Merger integration is a hazardous zone. Things happen fast. There are so many moving parts. It’s a high-risk environment where mistakes can damage your own career, or cause unnecessary problems and pain for many other people.

Now for the upside: In the M&A game you can become a hero. An MVP. It’s a unique playing field where talent and high performance shine through. Do things right, and you can really make a name for yourself.

MY TARGET AUDIENCE

I’m writing primarily to the people responsible for executing a successful integration. You might be the CEO, another key executive, or someone in the Integration Management Office. Maybe you’re a specialist in change management, organization development, culture, or communications. You might even sit on the board of directors—you’ve got skin in this game ... 

A Field Manual for Management

Mergers: Growth in the Fast Lane presents 10 guidelines for managing the unconventional high-velocity growth associated with a merger or acquisition.

Many of the "right moves" in this environment are counter-intuitive...the right answers won't necessarily be the obvious answers. This is a field manual designed to show your staff how to manage more entrepreneurially, and will deliver the concise, powerful guidelines you'll need to manage growth through the merger. Specific topics explored include:

• Dealing with differences in corporate culture
• Managing resistance
• Keys to merger-specific communication
• The dangers of being "politically correct" in merger management

Smart Moves: A Crash Course on Merger Integration Management by Price Pritchett

Smart Moves lays down the ground rules your management team will need to protect the "3 P's" — productivity, people, and profits. Statistics suggest that roughly 75% of all mergers prove to be either a disappointment or an outright failure. This book sketches out a series of specific actions designed to dramatically improve your odds of success.

Get specific coaching on how to:

• Start managing the transition when the deal is announced
• Control the amount of destabilization
• Offer "quick impact training" on merger management
• Put dollar signs on decisions
• Make everyone responsible for merger success

A Guide to Managing Mergers and Acquisitions

Making Mergers Work identifies the most common mistakes in corporate marriages and the price tags they carry. This book provides the step-by-step insight needed to manage throughout all three M&A integration stages, with specific instruction on team-building and managing differences in corporate culture.

Topics include:

• Cutting the high cost of mismanaged mergers
• Avoiding the most common management mistakes
• Managing employees through the three merger stages
• Managing resistance to change and much more

High-Velocity Culture Change delivers 22 specific guidelines on how to manage your part of the organization for high-velocity culture change. You’ll also learn how to avoid the management traps that cause most efforts to fail.

This handbook will prepare you for the rigors of the agonizing process that is called culture change. It will also prove how and why the pain is well worth the cost. Learn to:

• Achieve dramatic culture shifts in record time
• Put the day-to-day responsibility for culture change where it belongs
• Generate broad support for the culture change effort

Our rapidly changing world calls for a culture with quicker reflexes. More Speed. Agility and flexibility. The future requires a shift to new responses. It's time to change the way we handle change.

Culture Shift provides an entirely new mindset for your staff, quickly transforming behavior through the entire organization to create a more flexible, adaptable culture.

This eye-opening message instructs your people to “stop doing what comes naturally,” and “do what works.” The 16 compelling guidelines offer a clear blueprint for creating a culture that thrives on change.

Some examples include:

• Stay Cool
• Take the Initiative
• Get Going
• Try Easier
• Take More Risks

Could be that new technology calls for basic changes in how the business runs. Might be your existing culture has problems – like troublesome ingrained traits that must be changed to protect the organization’s future. Or maybe it’s a merger, which means some serious cultural issues will need to be resolved.

Whichever, it’s gonna get sticky. Culture’s a tough cookie to deal with.

This handbook tells you what to expect, why things happen, and how best to meet the challenge of culture change. Nobody’s ever spelled out these ten ground rules before. They may surprise you…and they may not be what you want to hear. But you can bank on it – they’re your best bet for dealing with the situation. Read the handbook carefully. When you’re going through something like this, it pays to do your homework.