Merging people, personalities, and cultures is difficult. It is imperative that leaders have clear roles and can gel as a new team together. The immediate objective is to create a “we” culture instead of an “us and them” culture. Most of all, leaders need leadership training to ensure strategy, planning, communications, and integrations are successful. By doing so you will save time and money.
Mergers continue at historic rates, and trained leaders are vital. In 2021, there were 24,412 M&A deals in the U.S., amounting to $212 billion. This number is up from 17,869 in the previous year according to Statista Research. Globally, M&A deals topped $5 trillion for the first time ever, comfortably eclipsing the previous record of $4.55 trillion set in 2007, Dealogic data showed.
According to Pritchett LP, the key M&A problem areas for leadership are:
Lack of pre-planning: This contributes to the failures more than half of the time.
No formal M&A integration strategy: A clear overall integration strategy must be developed first.
Failure to prioritize workstreams: Every workstream will be considered as important taking the focus away from actions that deliver the most value.
Weak communication planning: Communication is usually the worst managed aspect of integrations. People are often left out of the loop or receive mixed messages.
Poor synergy program management: Synergies should be validated, and then rigorously tracked and reported.
Inadequate resourcing: This causes integrations to take longer, cost more, delay synergy realization, and burns people out
No end-state transition: The process for handing off integration work should be well defined and communicated.
M&A integration leaders need the following skills according to Ernst & Young:
Anser Advisory’s Leadership Development Program LDPx™ is a proven 10-year system that takes top industry leadership models and breaks them down into tangible and applicable concepts. The curriculum covers a variety of topics around the three phases in the Leadership Development Training Arc™ — Leading Self (phase one), Leading Teams (phase two), and Leading Vision & Strategy (phase three). We practice the concepts we teach so they can be immediately applied and make an impact on your organization. Participants will be taught by our executive team, and other successful industry leaders, to enhance leadership skills, improve decision-making, build high-performing teams, and use strategies that propel organizations.
Anser Advisory is an ENR Top 50 Program Management firm, and Great Place to Work® designated 2021 Best Workplaces in Consulting & Professional Services™, specializing in capital program advisory and consulting services, organization preparedness, strategy, funding, process development, program controls and project, program, and agency construction management. Anser Advisory offers clients solutions that address owner pain points across the capital development cycle from pre-planning through construction and closeout within a diverse range of social and civil infrastructure end markets.
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