Mergers & Acquisitions

Hi community! 

Had a good conversation yesterday with a peer that is undergoing an integration from an acquisition his company did over a year ago. This company's leadership chose to wait one year after acquisition before making changes to the acquired organization. So the question came up, is it better or not to wait a year before making any changes to an acquired organization and let the dust settle before introducing integration activities. 

I have my thoughts on this and would love to hear others input on it.

Do you recommend change right after acquisition or wait? (What would you advise executives to consider when making this decision?)

What do you see as the pros and cons of starting integration activities right away versus down the road? 

What have you experienced that you would tell leaders to 'watch out' for in either scenario? 

Looking forward to your insights! 

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Leslie Ellis
leslie@meaningfulchangeconsulting.com
Founder & CEO
Meaningful Change Consulting, LLC
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Hi Leslie,

It's been a while since I've responded here. I finally can take a breather from the personal events happening in my life. 

Do you recommend change right after acquisition or wait? (What would you advise executives to consider when making this decision?)

In my experience, if you know you will be making changes, you should not wait. I would advise executives of the natural human response of the resistance to change. Waiting gives folks the opportunity to dig in and resist change. Groups of resistors can form an alliances making future change much more difficult. This is all natural human response to change.

What do you see as the pros and cons of starting integration activities right away versus down the road? 

There are lots I'd list in each column. I'd say it depends on the change, but I find the pros column outweighs the cons in most cases.

What have you experienced that you would tell leaders to 'watch out' for in either scenario? 

Watch out for the resistors that folks gravitate to for guidance. These folks need to be identified early so you can get their buy-in.

Thanks for posting such a great set of questions!

Teresa Gretencord

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Teresa Gretencord
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Hi Leslie, 

Really good questions you've posed here!

In my experience, we 'always' want to integrate sooner rather than later, and usually do. However, timing depends on a number of deal factors. If it's a bolt on acquisition, we'll move them in as soon as possible. Renewal seasons and other business activities can influence this also because we need to be sure we don't disrupt things so much we lose the value we just gained. On the flip side, we've had acquisitions of tech startup types of companies completely unlike us where we've done little to no integration sometimes for years. If we had integrated them soon after acquiring, we'd have risked crushing their culture and watching key talent supporting the platform walk out the door. To arrive at the right decision, leadership needs to understand the risks and opportunities, synergies and dyssynergies of a fast or slow strategy matching what the deal model requires. Whatever the integration strategy, honesty and transparency in communications is crucial. Please, don't tell people nothing will change. Even if integration is in the distance, there will inevitably be some amount of changes coming before then. Create and maintain trust now to serve you in integration, especially when resistance is expected.

Does this resonate or are you thinking differently? I'd love to know.

Becky

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Becky Persak
Aon
Head of M&A - Leadership, Culture & Change
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100% Both of you answered with great responses. I was just curious. 

I know I tend to fall within the group of 'make the change closest to the drivers of the change' otherwise we find that you need to re-up the energy to make integration changes a year or more out.

Thanks for the responses ladies!

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Leslie Ellis
leslie@meaningfulchangeconsulting.com
Founder & CEO
Meaningful Change Consulting, LLC
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Original Message:
Sent: 2024-06-26 10:33
From: Rebecca Mox-Persak
Subject: To change or not to change (now) a new acquisition

Hi Leslie, 

Really good questions you've posed here!

In my experience, we 'always' want to integrate sooner rather than later, and usually do. However, timing depends on a number of deal factors. If it's a bolt on acquisition, we'll move them in as soon as possible. Renewal seasons and other business activities can influence this also because we need to be sure we don't disrupt things so much we lose the value we just gained. On the flip side, we've had acquisitions of tech startup types of companies completely unlike us where we've done little to no integration sometimes for years. If we had integrated them soon after acquiring, we'd have risked crushing their culture and watching key talent supporting the platform walk out the door. To arrive at the right decision, leadership needs to understand the risks and opportunities, synergies and dyssynergies of a fast or slow strategy matching what the deal model requires. Whatever the integration strategy, honesty and transparency in communications is crucial. Please, don't tell people nothing will change. Even if integration is in the distance, there will inevitably be some amount of changes coming before then. Create and maintain trust now to serve you in integration, especially when resistance is expected.

Does this resonate or are you thinking differently? I'd love to know.

Becky

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Becky Persak
Aon
Head of M&A - Leadership, Culture & Change
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