The Human Side of M&A

Source: Partner Insights

The following contains excerpts, reproduced with permission, from an article by August Aquila. Once the financial terms have been worked out, Aquila explains, it's time to turn your attention to the “soft side” of doing a merger. He offers a 24-point checklist of questions to ask. Here are the first 12:

1. Has an integration team with senior leaders and staff from each firm been created?
2. Have senior leaders determined how the new firm will operate?
3. How will you capture feedback on what is working and what's not working?
4. Have you thought about how your new and existing employees will behave?
5. Which groups in the new firm will feel ignored or even threatened by the merger? How will you proactively address their concerns?
6. When employees have questions about the merger, the new organization, etc., whom can they go to for answers?
7. How will you make sure that consistent information is distributed about the merger? Having an official communication vehicle can stop many of the water cooler rumors.
8. How will you deal with those employees (new and existing) who are negative about the merger? You will need to clearly set and define the limits. Act quickly so the negativism does not spread.
9. What will you do to ensure that the two firms (i.e., the people from each firm) form a new firm? Both firms will lose some things in the merger. Mergers are about creating a new entity.
10. Every merger disrupts the status quo. How will you deal with this?
11. Productivity usually decreases after a merger. What will you do to make sure that it does not spiral out of control?
12. New and/or existing partners may try to make power plays. How will you handle these events?

For the complete article, read “The Morning After Checklist.”

From Partner Insights, Aquila Global Advisors, LLC, June 2014, http://www.aquilaadvisors.com.