I think the challenge is that finance is “beautiful and simple” in the sense that you can put it on a piece of paper and you can calculate the outcome. People and processes are “messy and unpredictable”. You can make all the great plans in the world but you will still never be able to predict the outcome and the only certain thing is that they will not do exactly what you expected them to. I think acknowledging that difference is important. And then maybe meet them at their playing field. Some of the scenarios they envision are most likely making assumptions about people’s behavior. Trying to make them add assumptions about learning costs (lost orders, project delays, loss of big customers etc.) all due to lack of integration efforts, might make them acknowledge that integration efforts are worth while. The challenge for you as integration responsible, would be to measure the effect of integration (again, if you want to speak the language of the financing community) – but it would be really strong to show how the efforts are making a difference.
