Business results are driven by culture and relationships. Knowing this distinction, and understanding how to cultivate an organizational culture that wins is critical to that success. One of the clearest examples of this is the impact of radical shifts in relationships and sudden collision of cultures that occurs during Mergers and Acquisitions (M & A). They can provide a company incredible opportunity to integrate new capabilities and operational synergies, almost literally overnight – enabling them to evolve infinitely faster than the market or organic growth could allow.
However, delivering the intended benefits of an M&A opportunity can be a challenging proposition. Studies show that most mergers, 70% or more, fail to deliver their intended benefits. Research demonstrates that no more than one-third of mergers or acquisitions are a clear success, one-third are clear failures and the remaining third demonstrate no benefit at all from the transaction.
Post-merger and acquisition activities often fall short of putting in place the most important element to effectively execute the intended business strategy — transforming the culture of the organization. That’s not surprising. Whether the post-merger or acquisition focus is on combining cultures, adopting the cultural traits of the acquiring organization or creating a milieu where the two company cultures operate effectively as two distinct, yet integrated cultures, leaders must become proficient at managing to create an organization that sets the conditions for success in both the long and short-term.
The Mastery Technologies team distills decades of culture change processes, many of them honed by our Special Operations officers who led in complex, dynamic combat environments defending freedom from terrorism, and world-class entrepreneurs who buy and sell businesses globally. This team synergy offers a suite of customizable solutions that ensure the culture piece is right, and becomes a foundation to grow a company, not just turn it — empowering an enterprise to be both profitable and sustainable.
M&A Results That Matter:
For Pfizer Pharmaceutical, we designed a training system to integrate corporate cultures of various personnel who were being merged following a series of acquisitions and corporate mergers. ET was involved in the design and facilitation of corporate programs focused on interpersonal skills, conflict resolution and self-promotion from a team-based model. ET designed the new curriculum and facilitated implementation of the programs. We also provided executive coaching for senior managers to assist in the integration of the new competencies. These programs, consisting of several distinct seminar courses, are now a standard part of the sales education curriculum sponsored by the University of Pfizer.