OVER 25 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE AND RESULTS IN ADVISING ORGANIZATIONS AND THEIR LEADERS
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MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS Services

If 75% of mergers and acquisitions fail, what makes the other 25% succeed?

Dubbed a "merger maven" by Fortune magazine, Mitch is recognized internationally as an innovator in developing approaches to making mergers, acquisitions, and alliances work. Since 1981, he has helped executives achieve the financial and strategic objectives of their combinations and partnerships by addressing human, cultural, and organizational issues. Mitch works directly with senior executives, as well as with internal Human Resources and Communications professionals. And, Mitch offers informative and engaging programs to all employees on the merger, acquisition, and alliance process.

Mitch has worked across all industry groups and in all types of combinations, including friendly and unfriendly deals, the acquisition and integration of smaller entities into larger organizations, the “reverse acquisition” of intetgrating larger entities into smaller ones, and even the very rare case of true mergers of equals. With experience in over 100 combinations, Mitch provides services at each stage of the combination process:

PRE-COMBINATION PHASE

As the deal is conceived and negotiated:

  • Conducting cultural due diligence
  • Helping buyers clarify their M&A strategy and selection criteria for targets
  • Building a consensus among merger partners regarding the intent of the combination
  • Focusing executive attention on the factors that matter most in merger success
  • Articulating the desired "cultural end state" for the combination
  • Aiding executives in determining the key structural, strategic, and cultural options related to integration success
  • Building a shared view of the cultural characteristics to be retained from the pre-combination organizations and/or to be developed in the post-combination organization
  • Providing counsel to executives on tactics for managing employee-related issues, including retaining desired talent and handling the distraction from performance caused by combination-related stress and uncertainty
  • Training internal resources for their roles in making mergers, acquisitions, and alliances work

COMBINATION PHASE

As integration planning ensues and implementation decisions are made:

  • Designing an appropriate transition management structure
  • Launching integration planning teams in a positive and productive manner
  • Clarifying transition team charters, working styles, deliverables and timetables
  • Helping executives and transition managers prioritize integration requirements and allocation of resources
  • Alerting executives and transition managers to key challenges in the integration process and identifying opportunities for positive action
  • Assessing executive talent and determining selection criteria and staffing processes
  • Providing counsel to individual executives regarding their personal fate in the combination and their leadership role during transition
  • Diagnosing and surveying employee perspectives on integration process and progress
  • Minimizing incidents of culture clash
  • Developing comprehensive communications programs
  • Working with internal communications professionals to design and deliver an integration communications program
  • Working with internal Human Resources and organizational effectiveness professionals to enhance their capabilities in facilitating integration
  • Designing and delivering workshops and training programs for senior managers on the stresses and strains of the M&A process and on how to maintain productivity and morale amidst the confusion and chaos of the transition period
  • Working with internal staff to cascade interventions and programs through the employee ranks

POST-COMBINATION PHASE

As teams come together, the new organization settles in, and the combined entity and its people regroup from initial implementation:

  • Working with partners to bring the desired post-combination organization to life
  • Locking in the desired post-combination culture
  • Developing a sense of "one team" going forward
  • Building team work at the top and through the ranks
  • Identifying and addressing any lingering "integration hot spots"
  • Designing forums to share merger management insights and learnings for future integration efforts
  • Conducting "merger post-mortems" to understand why previous combinations produced disappointing results and develop an enhanced approach to combination management

In addition to working on specific combinations, Mitch also assists firms that anticipate future mergers, acquisitions and alliances by conducting workshops that acquaint executives with the integration process and the human and cultural issues that need to be managed to realize desired financial and strategic objectives.