Step 6: Develop Culture Integration Plans
You can’t keep everyone happy when it comes to culture change in a merger. So, here’s the deal. Don’t get scattered trying to address all the cultural preference items people make noise about. And don’t tiptoe around the delicate culture issues if they’re crucial and need to be hit head-on. Focus sharply on what’s mission critical.
Ordinarily, only about 5 percent of the cultural issues truly qualify as mission critical. What does that mean? This small handful of traits accounts for about 95 percent of culture’s influence on operating performance. These are the “vital few.” The cultural matters that remain are more or less noise, the “trivial many.” And it’s a mistake for the organization to get distracted by these lightweight issues. Why? Because this remaining 95 percent that’s basically noise will soak up people’s attention, yet account for only 5 percent of culture’s overall impact on business results.
In this section, we offer research that offers important clues for cracking the code on culture in M&A. Plus, we provide tools that identify the few, meaningful cultural differences that should be be addressed in a culture integration plan.
Free Access
Research
Over 130 executives participated in this PRITCHETT M&A study on culture due diligence.
Talent retention, productivity, and psychological readiness in acquired organizations.
Articles
Top ten key considerations.
Assess personnel to ensure proper casting in the new merged organization.
The impact of M&A on culture and the challenge of culture change.
Video
Tool
A penetrating look at key pressure points that can threaten the culture integration process.
Partial or Restricted Access
Videos
Length: 2 minutes 52 seconds
Who Should Perform the Cultural Audit and Report the Findings?
Length: 2 minutes 16 seconds
Tools
An inquiry into the day-to-day operating fundamentals that reflect the cultural basics of how the business is run.
A survey focused on cultural traits often determined to be mission-critical.
The 3 page document discusses how the Integration Team should conduct the Operating Style Analysis in order to understand the similarities and differences between the two companies.
The 2-page Operating Style Analysis Word template follows the instructions.
An assessment of how an organization’s culture influences its ability to function as an adaptive system.
