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Does anyone have experience in or recommendations on how a new, inbound management team should prepare to take over a company, post-acquisition? What are the most important things to consider in the first 100 days?
For a new management team, my view, the most important thing post-acquisition is to keep business as usual within the first 100 days- do not try to put too many changes/ integrations actions to the acquired business before you really understand it. Keep the employee retention and keep the business as usual.
Agreed with the most recent response. The first 90 days are key. If there are obvious issues that have high risk, then make the changes needed. Otherwise, try to approach all decisions regarding employees with care.
I am of the idea that during the first 100 days or so even possibly earlier, the new management need to take steps quickly to make the necessary changes even in the face of resistance. Without knowing what are the resistances, the longer the drag into the future, will mean more problems in the future. Rather,I believe that nipping the bud is key.
In my view, the new management shall have made the plan for 100 days before they start their day 1. This will require deeply studying the key issues, challenges, strengths and weaknesses of the organization, loose hanging fruits etc. from Day 1, the new management needs to attack and achieve the quick wins. Also, communication has to be the most important part of their daily life for first 100 days. New Management shall avoid any changes which may divide the organization, make employees insecure.
Understand that to clean house, you can still keep some top performers on the leadership team if they fit the new, incoming culture. They’ve seen a lot over their time and know the business intimately, so they can be helpful in not repeating past mistakes.
in the first 100 days, I would suggest to say run the business as usual, try to retain expert employees and start solving the major issues by gradually .
Be considerate of what already exists and what you still dont know. Take the required time to learn. Dont make too rushed decisions. The 100 days rule has its merits.
I would think that the new management should identify the key employees and initiate discussions with them on the future plans. Any major change in operations should be carefully planned and the benefits should be clearly explained to the relevant employees.
Least disruption to the acquired organization is key. If management change need to take place, have a plan in place with duration and milestones. Focus on how to avoid interruption is BAU while gaining confidence of the workforce.
Business as usual to avoid any disruption to operations and commercial activity. The last thing you want to do is value destruction. Each M&A is different, where some require heavy integration. Culturally, both organizations can be very different and might require a more delicate approach to integration. Ensuring key employees are identified early in the process along with prioritizing your high risk high impact issues and having a proper IMO in place is critical to a successful integration
Suggest a few things –
1) Strong plan around data. Will be much harder to obtain and organize. Have a plan for everything you need to run the business, client, billing, financial and get it into a place you can access it, even if it has to stay in a clean room until the deal closes.
2) Overlap and shadow, begin to establish relationships. Do everything you can pre-deal without crossing the boundary for what can be shared. If the deal has been announced publicly then all internal relationships should be fair game.Depending on the type of acquisition, if it is not a hostile takeover. You would want to keep the business as stable as possible thus not scare off customers or high potential talent within the organisation. That being said the new management team cannot waste any time and need to clearly state their vision for the business going forward and how they plan to integrate the two organisations. In my experience identifying and managing any fallout or misalignment as early as possible is crucial.
In addition to ensuring stability of operations and customers I would suggest having a plan to truly understand the culture of the employees that are remaining. You want to avoid re-creating the wheel due to the introduction of new management, which will add frustration for employees that are likely already hesitant about the change.
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