03 — Integration
The deal closed. Now you have two of everything.
Two sales organisations, two ways of deciding, two sets of people who each believe they are the acquirer. The synergy case assumed none of this.
What this usually looks like
- Decisions get made twice and stick neither time
- Your best people from the acquired side are politely updating their profiles
- The integration plan tracks systems and headcount, and nothing about how the two groups actually decide
- You are the leader of both and trusted fully by neither
- The word "culture" is being used to describe problems that are actually about authority
What we would do about it
Make authority explicit, fast
Most integration pain is unresolved decision rights wearing a cultural costume. We write down who decides what, publish it, and watch the temperature drop.
Coach the leader who has to hold both
You cannot be equidistant and you cannot be seen to have a side. That is a genuinely difficult behavioural problem and it is workable.
Work the combined team as a team
A merged leadership team is a new team pretending to be two old ones. Six months of team coaching is markedly cheaper than the alternative.
We had a hundred-day plan for the systems and nothing at all for the fact that both leadership teams thought they had won.
Chief Commercial Officer, specialty distribution
Questions this raises
How early should coaching start?
Before close if possible, and certainly inside the first month. By month six the informal norms have set.
Can you work with both sides?
Yes, and we usually should. We are explicit with everyone that we are engaged by the combined entity.
Chemistry call
Start with a conversation, not a contract
Thirty minutes with up to three coaches, free, with no sponsor in the room. You choose who you work with — we never assign.