S2 - Ep1 : Why is Culture the Biggest Uncertainty in M&A Integration?
Play โ€ข 56 min

Interview on "Why is Culture the biggest uncertainty in M&A Integration?". ย 

Culture is often the biggest hurdle to conduct an M&A Integration. ย ย 

But what is culture? Some people term it "the way we work here". While it may sound simple but in reality, it is a combination of several elements. ย ย 

In this interview, Karunesh Prasad, Founder and CEO, Change Et Al, delves deep into what culture is and how organizations must approach cultural integration. ย ย ย 

Show Notes:ย 

  • While there are commonalities amongst integration, each M&A has its own uniqueness. Be it geography, industry, product line, there are several variables in play. These variations create uncertainties in each integration initiative.ย 
  • "People", "Process", and "Culture" are different in each of integration, and within an integration, it can differ even at a P&L level. Whatever the strategic rationale of an acquisition may be, if the cultures donโ€™t align, there will be issues with integration.ย 
  • There are so many discussions and negotiations in an M&A process that often the initial rationales get sidelined. ย 
  • Howโ€™s an M&A integration different from other kinds of transformations like shared services or ERP implementations? In shared services or ERP, there are one or two main sponsors like the CFO for whom the transformation is one of their main organizational objectives whereas in M&A integration, there are multiple executive leaders that are involved and it is multi-layered across the organizational vertical hierarchy.ย 
  • What is culture? It translates into how decisions are made, how communications are conducted, entrepreneurship vs organizational leadership, and several other things.ย 
  • There is no one-size-fits-all approach to cultural integration. However, there should be a cultural integration framework. The starting point of integration needs to be an approach, short-term and long-term milestones. ย 
  • It is critical to have a script for announcements and employee meetings. Doโ€™s and Donโ€™ts of an announcement.ย 
  • How to blend internal and external resources to play to their strength and make it successful for their organization. In this interview, Karunesh bares it all on how to manage "Culture" during an integration" ย 

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Change Et Al is a change management consulting company and we created Change Et Al Academy to provide learning intervention to enable organisations to change. 4A Model of Change was created to simplify the way organizations manage change.

Karunesh Prasad - https://www.linkedin.com/in/karuneshprasad/ย 

https://www.changetal.com/ย 

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The host of the interview is Anirvan Sen, CEO - Fifth Chrome, https://www.linkedin.com/in/anirvansen/ย 

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This interview is part of a series run by Fifth Chrome, a firm that enables experienced professionals to build "Future Capabilities for Business to thrive".

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