Realizing the Potential

Integrating two organizations into one that produces 1 + 1 = 3 results is a major task … one that deserves the title of a Red Zone maneuver.  Integration is really a “make it big or break it bad” situation.

A Definition of Merger/Acquisition

It’s not often that writing (and reading) financial news becomes a humorous exercise. However, the topic of mergers and acquisitions seems to inspire a certain creativity among journalists covering the topic. Some pertinent headlines from The Economist:

• “Stop Me Before I Merge Again,” discussing the disastrous results that led to a little-protested Congressional moratorium on rail company mergers in the U.S.
  
  
• “Road Rage,” speculating on merger mixes and matches among the world’s leading auto makers.
  
  
• “Oil Mergers: Rigged,” describing recent coups of British Petroleum’s CEO in taking over Amoco and (impending at the time) ARCO.

Global merger and acquisition activity across almost every industry has reached unprecedented heights. Sounds like hog heaven for investment bankers, attorneys, and CPAs, but what about shareholders and other corporate stakeholders? To continue quoting The Economist, a July 2000 article, “How Mergers Go Wrong,” noted that many of these mergers are, “like second marriages, a triumph of hope over experience” and have “even higher failure rates than the liaisons of Hollywood stars.”
KPMG research has found that as many as 80 percent of the deals struck over the past 10 years never created the value that management or shareholders expected. A McKinsey & Co. study found that nearly 80 percent of all mergers failed to recover the costs incurred in the deal. Nevertheless, CEOs and boards seem as undaunted by statistics as those sweethearts on the silver screen. According to Thomson Financial Securities Data, the value of corporate mergers and acquisitions worldwide runs into trillions of dollars per year. And for the period 1981 to EOY 2006, more than 500,000 major mergers and acquisitions took place worldwide.

Click to continue reading about:

  Integrating Mergers and Acquisitions

  10 step Red Zone Game Plan for Integrating Mergers and/or Acquisitions

  Executive Roles for Integrating Mergers and/or Acquisitions

Or Just go to Amazon.com and order Red Zone Management by Dutch Holland

How We Can Work Together

Holland & Davis is very flexible in the way we work with clients. We've outlined several kinds of engagements that might meet your needs for support in integration of Merger/acquisitions.

1. Initial Conversation – Holland & Davis is readily available to engage in a one to two hour phone conference to talk through your company’s situation, what you might do about that situation, and how Holland & Davis could be of assistance.
   
   
2. Webinar on Integration of Mergers/Acquisitions – We offer an introductory webinar with an overview of Integration, what the issues are, and what kinds of solutions are being used as best practices. We then answer your questions in real time. Have as many in your room as you want… it's OK with us. We will have to talk about the length and purposes of the webinar to make sure we have met your needs.
   
   
3. Integration Assessment – Holland and Davis is willing to travel to your location, use some of our structured tools, make an integration assessment, develop some high level recommended actions … and then present the work to you for your consideration. One big twist, we would recommend that you name two or three of your folks to be with us every minute and to take an active role in the assessment, development of recommendations, and play a leadership role in the summary presentation.  
   
   
4. Peer Review of Your Projects/Initiatives – We are available to take a look at any of your specific integration initiatives and give a value-added opinion about what is working and what might be done to add strength and acceleration to your initiative.  What initiatives might we add value to? … combining Information Technology Systems or Creating One Culture. Again, one big twist, we would recommend that you name two or three of your folks to be with us every minute and to take an active role in peer review, development of recommendations, and play a leadership role in the summary presentation.  
   
   
5. Leadership / Participation in Your Initiatives – We can play a role in your ongoing Integration projects, adding leadership, methodologies, tools and/or project personnel. We only have mature players… with 20+ years of business experience, knowledge of our methodologies, and cool heads.  Or we can just work with you during the scoping and planning of your Integration initiative … just let us know what meets your needs best.

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To engage in an initial conversation about your Integration needs, please call Mike Campbell or David Skarke at 713.800.3663. I am confident we will learn something from you and hopefully you will learn from us too!