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:

  1. Integration Progress/Success       
  2. Customer Satisfaction   
  3. Operating Results/Stock  
  4. Resolution of “Individuals’ Issues”  
  5. Management Structure   
  6. Communication                                            
  7. Retention of Talent  
  8. 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

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