M & A support – Cultural Merge

Even the solution-oriented design of ONE organisational unit and its culture as part of a change process is a challenging undertaking for management: commonalities and differences between seemingly self-evident assumptions about cooperation and on the factual level must be seen, understood, superimposed and brought together in a way that is compatible. A meaningful solution must be developed that defines strategic goals against the background of the organisation’s vision and mission, translates these into operational goals and measures, defines roles and responsibilities, adapts the communication structure accordingly and ensures binding implementation in day-to-day business.

If TWO or more organisational units or even independent companies are to be merged, in addition to the legal and financial framework conditions, a whole range of organisational cultural conditions must be taken into account, which require sensitive control and management.

Answers must also be found to substantial and often subtle fears and anxieties among the workforce: First and foremost, the fear of “rationalisation” and the fear that one’s own organisational unit could be “eaten up” by the other, stronger unit, as well as the related fear of losing one’s own organisational cultural identity.

In merger support, our aim is to make cultural implications discussable in a dialogue-based process so that solutions can be found that make a successful merger, which is experienced by the workforce as comprehensible or even meaningful, more likely.

• Raising awareness and sensitising people to the cultural ties of the organisational units that are being brought together. In concrete terms, this means establishing a platform for understanding on which those involved – both management and staff – recognise and appreciate the basic principles of their previous cooperation, mutually identify challenges, fears and anxieties and jointly define and shape the new identity of togetherness and cooperation.
• Shaping a dialogue process that deals with self-perception and the perception of others, i.e. the images and assumptions that exist in relation to
  • one’s own organisational unit
  • the images that exist in relation to the organisational unit of others
  • the interaction between the two units before, during and after the merger
• Developing a vision for a common identity after the merger
• Establishment of a new operating system, i.e. the rules of cooperation and transfer into concrete prototypes and measures with clear tasks, roles and responsibilities
  Follow-up process(es) to make the merger binding