Achieving Successful M&As – Integrating Targets and Creating NEWCO with Change Management
- Brainz Magazine
- Aug 4
- 2 min read
John Gelmini, aka John Alexander, is an international consultant, trainer, and interim transformation leader. He has completed 80 engagements since 1995, has helped raise £650 million, and jointly wrote Can You Handle the Truth.
We know from Professor Aswath Damodaran of Stern Business School in New York that 80% of M&A transactions fail. Surprisingly, the figure for failed post-merger integrations is even higher, 85% according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. There are many reasons for this, but the three biggest are:
Failure to drive through the necessary change on the part of CEOs and Managing Directors who “blink” at the point of resistance and are thrown off track.
As Machiavelli said in his 16th-century book, The Prince: “There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things."
A failure on the part of the deal team and the integration project team to assess the true state of change readiness and, from that, apply the correct change process.
A failure on the part of the CEO and the acquiring Board to appreciate the need for speed and communication before, during, and after the integration process. In the past, speed was not a factor to the extent it is today, as there were fewer competitors. Nowadays, 50% of companies didn’t exist two years ago (source: McKinsey).
Integrations that take more than a year risk being derailed by competitor activity, while doing things faster can lead to staff attrition and a massive productivity dip. Thus, timing is critical, as is the right methodology for change.
There are many frameworks, but generally, they fall into two categories:
1. A “Big Bang” approach
2. Managed transition
Truedil’s work and its M&A courses are designed to help companies choose the right approach based on workforce composition, corporate positioning, and the risks of proceeding too quickly or too slowly.
Read more from John A. Gelmini
John A. Gelmini, Mgt Consultant, Interim Leader & Business Mentor
John Gelmini, aka John Alexander, is an expert at optimising productivity, profitability, and sales in culturally diverse and monochrome environments. As an ex-GE Capital troubleshooter, John understands how to effect transformation in challenging environments in the corporate, public, NGO, and foreign government sectors with strategic insight and speed. He is the founder of TRANSFORMATION and believes in "mission completion" to time, budget, and accelerated roadmaps to benefits realisation.
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