AOL and Time Warner. Daimler Chrysler. Sprint and Nextel. Quaker Oats and Snapple.
You see where this is going, right?
I admit: the role of Monday morning quarterback is not very challenging – particularly in these four cases. If nothing else, they serve as a prime reminder that even the highest flyers can – and do – fall, and fall hard.
There was a small amount of pure bad luck – the dot-com bubble burst AOL’s value, high gas prices stopped Chrysler’s SUVs in their tracks – but a large number of merger integrations fail for completely foreseeable reasons – and a good dose of human error.
In this Process Street post, I’m going to look at the three pitfalls and why they have such a huge impact on the success (or lack thereof) of your post-merger integration.
If you just came for the free template, you can grab it below:
Click here to get the Post-Merger Integration (PMI) Checklist workflow!
This workflow is designed to walk you through every stage of the post-merger integration process from pre-planning to post-mortem. While the step-by-step process will ensure nothing gets forgotten, it also provides ample space to document important decisions and data. Features like Dynamic Role Assignments, Due Dates, and Approvals keep everyone on the same page and make it immediately apparent if something is headed off course.
Unexpected obstacles will always pop up, but the PMI Process Checklist will help you prepare for the worst and make your integration run smoothly.
With that out of the way, let’s go through the most common ways it can all go wrong:
- The harsh truth of post-merger integrations
- PMI Pitfall #1: The people problem during integrations
- PMI Pitfall #2: With great change comes huge risk
- PMI Pitfall #3: How diligent is your integration due diligence?
- PMI Checklist: M&A integrations simplified
Let’s talk about some bad decisions!
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