Agenda
- Merger Integration Report Card – 1st 60 Days
- Survey – Concerns Raised
- Next 60 Days: Integration Challenges
- Recommendations from Managers
- Executive Dilemmas
- The Tough Questions
- Recommendations for Next 90 Days
- Next Steps
Merger Integration Report Card – 1st 60 Days
Rate on a scale of 1 (Poor) to 5 (Excellent) the following areas:
- Integration Progress/Success
- Customer Satisfaction
- Operating Results/Stock
- Resolution of “Individuals’ Issues”
- Management Structure
- Communication
- Retention of Talent
- Cultural Integration
Survey – Concerns Raised
- Lack of communication
- Culture clash
- Lack of clarity on management structure
- Product overlap
- Different business models
- Site closures
- Relocations
Integration Challenges
- Operationalizing decisions made in 1st 90 days
- Culture conflict
- Loss of talent
- Process dysfunction
- Burnout and checkout
- Old style management in a new and different organization
- Failure to put “aces in the right places” (performance problems)
- Honeymoon ending
- Financial pressures as synergy target dates approach
Recommendations for Managers
- Communicate more
- Reconcile the culture differences
- Announce a permanent management structure
- Reconcile product overlaps
- Decide on a common business model
- Announce which sites are going to close and when
- Resolve the open relocation issues
Senior Executive Challenges
- Tough decisions, no easy answers, and it’s lonely at the top
- What’s right for the customer vs. what’s needed by the organization
- Management styles = success for the old businesses, but what style is needed for the new business?
- Executives have different stakeholders than the rest of the organization (i.e., the board, the street)
- Two approaches to decision making
- Two business models
Tough Management Questions
- Do you really know what you want your business to be and have you clearly communicated that to the rest of the organization?
- Are you willing to adjust to what the organization needs for success, or do you want the organization to continue to adjust to you?
- Do you have the stomach to make some really hard decisions and stick to them?
- Are you willing to create the culture the organization needs to be and hold people accountable for our values?
Recommendations for Next 90 Days
- Firm up senior management structure
- Design a thorough communication plan
- Define concrete actions for integrating the two cultures
- Resolve product overlaps