Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity is booming. From the $68 billion CVS-Aetna deal to the $27 billion merger of Microsoft and LinkedIn, 2017 set records with more than 50,000 deals, valued at $3.7 trillion. This momentum is continuing into 2018 with the bidding war for UK media company Sky ($24–$30 billion) and Microsoft’s $7.5 billion acquisition of GitHub.
How to Make Your Post-Merger Reorg a Success
Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are more frequent than ever and larger in size. While they can offer a tremendous opportunity for expanding a business and creating value, they can be extremely disruptive. Handling the organizational changes well is particularly critical to realizing the benefits. Yet making the organizational changes necessary to deliver success is not trivial. What ensures that M&A-driven reorgs are successful? Research shows that they share many of the characteristics of other types of reorgs: success (or failure) depends on the clarity of objectives, the comprehensiveness of the design (structure, people, and processes), and the robustness of implementation planning. The most important factor in M&A-driven reorg success is having a detailed plan with specific change activities and milestones.