Mergers are an ideal time for transformative growth, as companies join forces to strengthen and expand their offerings. But in reality, the acquisition integration process is often fraught with challenges. A staggering 70 to 90% of M&A deals fail, wasting time, money, and resources. Preemptively identifying any potential issues is crucial to ensure success in any post-merger integration.
Amid all the financial and technical concerns of an integration, it can be easy to disregard a key pillar of integration: talent and culture. Yet around 30% of integrations fail because of workplace cultural differences. Now, amid talent retention struggles, culture is an even more vulnerable failing point than before.
Why Cultural Integration Matters
“In private equity, the drive to stay on a certain timeline comes with risks. If you don’t handle them with care, those risks can hurt the acquiring company as well as the one that’s been acquired. Often, when you lose the people, the knowledge of how that company operated walks out the door, which immediately results in operational performance issues. Which in turn results in poor performance with your customers, which could then negatively impact revenue.”
— Thomas Hahn, three-time private equity C-suite executive and consulting expert
Too often, cultural assessments and investigations into company culture are viewed as a luxury that companies cannot afford during the acquisition and post-acquis...