Post-merger integration
You’ve decided to make an acquisition. You’ve done your homework and found the right company with the right strategic fit. You’ve completed your diligence reviews and examined the numbers from every angle. You’ve considered all of the likely market reactions. In short, you’re convinced this deal represents an excellent opportunity.
But you also know it won’t be an easy road.
You suspect the two corporate cultures might not mesh as tightly as you’d like. You already know there will be extensive job overlap and your people know it too. You fear that the best-and-the-brightest at both companies may already be headed for the exits. Your competitors are watching closely and ready to seize your key customers. Your diligence reports have revealed a number of issues in the target which will require urgent and significant change.
In short, you anticipate more than a few challenges during the all-important integration of work-practices, decision making, human resources (HR) policies and processes, technology, operations and organisational reporting relationships. Indeed, the very strategic rationale for the deal may be at risk if you cannot overcome these challenges.
Common issues
- Loss of market share as competitors go after customers and staff
- Loss of key talent, as often the best and brightest leave due to uncertainty
- Elongated dip in productivity and increased costs of transition
- Disruption, fear and uncertainty among leaders and staff
- Misaligned organisation structures, decision making processes and systems
- Clash of cultures, companies continue to operate separately
- Failure to realise potential benefits of integration, including cost savings
- Robust and well controlled transition from the due diligence phase to integration, ensuring that all relevant due diligence findings are captured and addressed
How we can help
- Our experience and research indicates there is a common set of key success factors in merger integration:
- Speed: putting the fundamentals of the integration effort in place as early and as quickly as possible
- Active communication to rally leadership and staff around new shared vision and strategy
- Strong governance processes
- Ensure continuity of critical operations and no loss of services during transition
- Take advantage of early wins quickly, for instance, cross-selling
- Rapid migration to the new operating model
- Focus on the customers and employees
At PwC Vietnam, we can assist you in some of the areas mentioned below:
- Establish merger framework: Establish shared strategy / financial goals and setup project management and governance structure to support merger integration
- Conduct integration planning: Identify and manage risks / impact to business of merger integration, define target operating model and establish benefits tracking approach
- Execute integration plans: Deployment of customer / employee programs, as well as end-to-end integration of Business, IT and Operations
Your benefits
- Alignment amongst leadership team on merger synergy to get expected outcomes
- Timely realisation of deal benefits
- Increased retention of key talent
- Managed risk
- Minimal disruption to business / no loss of critical services
- Rapid stabilisation and integration
- Accurate communications to all stakeholder groups
