|
“Building a trusting business environment is critical for success”
The main goal of companies is to create value. If well managed, mergers help companies to achieve higher efficiency, productivity, and profit by creating opportunities for growth. According to a research conducted with the participation of 115 companies around the world, 58% of mergers result in failures. Mergers involve two critical phases that effect the outcome. Based on researches, 30% of the outcome is effected by activities during the precombination phase, while 70% depends on activities during the post merger period.
All merger interventions are complex change initiatives, and post merger integration activities are key elements for the success of the change.
As in all change management interventions, the challenging dynamics of post merger period requires a well structured planning. Management should have a clear understanding about the change, and be prepared for the outcomes.
Companies often ignore the importance of developing a merger integration plan, assuming that the employees will adapt to change with no preparation. However, employees are directly affected by the change. Therefore, successful integration requires extensive planning.
The effectiveness of human resources strategies and practices are highly important for the success of post merger integration phase. The main tasks of human resources strategies are to communicate change openly, and in a timely manner with all levels of the organization, and to motivate the members of the organization to support and adopt to change.
Cultural integration activities are also crucial for the success of merger interventions. These activities mainly involve the assessment of companies’ cultures through questionnaires and interviews and identify the key areas that will accelerate the integration process.
Creating a trusting environment for employees and customers is another critical factor. Constructing an environment in which employees and customers feel safe and satisfied help companies to sustain change and make it part of the corporate structure. During this process, it is necessary to:
- Manage expectations.
- Communicate decisions with right channels in a timely manner.
- Give consistent messages about strategies to all stakeholders.
- Assign management as change agents.
Post merger integration projects involve three major phases: 1. Identifying organizational strategies, 2. Establishing integration plan, and 3. Implementing plan. In all of the phases, the critical success factors are to encourage employees to participate in to the process, clarify expectations, and share information consistently and openly.
|