People engaged in business as usual simply do not have the time to engage in full-fledged integration activity. On top of that merger integration is a competency in itself. The more than 50% failure rate of integrations is testimony to the fact that the integration really deserves a lot of dedicated and structured attention and a Project Management approach to get things done on time and within budget. Not doing so can not only cause the integration to fail but might negatively impact even the existing business of a company as people are likely to be distracted because of the M&A. Presenting the business case of how the value can be enhanced by getting the goals and synergies accomplished within a certain time period should convince the leadership of the importance of having such dedicated resources.
