Step 2: Determine M&A Integration Governance
Post-Merger Integration Teams
Good governance is about setting up the post-merger integration team structure and protocols so the right people get involved at the right times, take the right steps in the right sequence, provide the right information, and achieve the right goals, as opposed to having the teams scattering in all directions absent any coordination. Even in a chaotic scenario, some teams may still do a good job while others may not. In any event, people will be operating in silos producing plans and status reports at different times with different information in different formats. Senior managers will find it very difficult to track progress, surface and resolve issues, and hold people accountable because they do not have a clear picture of what is going on.
You bring order to what will otherwise would certainly be disorder by establishing a clear hierarchy for the integration.
The typical chain of command for integrations consists of three layers:
- A steering committee (offers guidance and direction)
- An integration management office (provides central coordination of the teams)
- A variety of additional teams usually organized by function (I.e. sales, human resources, finance, and information technology, etc.) or by business unit, product line, process, or geographic location (plans and integrates their areas).
Roles and responsibilities for teams should be defined so people can be held accountable. Plus, decision-making protocols and escalation paths should be communicated so integration issues can be resolved quickly.
The presentations, tools, and articles in this section cover examples of governance models, integration structure, rules on data sharing, and the duties of integration teams. The documents can be easily customized to explain your integration hierarchy and decision-making protocols to your teams.
