Improving Integration Performance and Synergy Extraction

Who are the key players in the M&A process? This chapter explores the respective roles of senior management, the deal team, the integration team and the external advisors and how they interact during an acquisition. This approach is based on recent cases, research findings and the views and experience of both the author and prominent practitioners. Several theoretical models commonly employed to simplify the integration process, such as John Kotter’s theory of change management and Haspeslagh and Jemison’s matrix (Haspeslagh and Jemison, Managing Acquisitions: Creating Value Through Corporate Renewal, Free Press, 1991) are here reviewed with a more pragmatic eye. Whilst change management is an essential consideration in light of the particular pressures of new employers, systems and management, such models fail to include some of the major risk factors and points of weakness. With essential advice for improving the outcome of integration processes, this chapter includes a more extensive case study that analyses and evaluates the stages of a hostile bid and input of the earlier identified key players. The resounding unpopularity of such scenarios highlights why hostile bids are both unusual and rarely successful.