[Lisa Hall]

Have you had certified change management experts involved in your integration? If so, what value did they provide?

[Thinus]

We have used certified change management experts in the past to help create and guide the process, but it is exceptionally important that the internal teams take responsibility and that there are senior change champions within the teams. In more recent times we have seen a trend that moves away from specific external change management experts, both within M&A and also within project management. The expectation falls on different parts of the internal teams to drive this and overall cultural change to be driven by the leadership team.

[Chris]

Lisa,
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We looked at the option of hiring a change management expert, but decided to learn internally and deploy a matrix model for our m&a activities. It was necessary that key stakeholders were educated around change management, and agreed upon a central process. We have a small internal m&a team ( not really a PMI, but close enough ), and it is their job to keep everything on track. For the first 90 days, it’s a weekly cadence, and then it switches to monthly.
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I think we did a good job based on what I have read regarding acquisition success rates.
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Our biggest learnings have been around culture. You have to be shrewd in that area, and make sure you package out individuals who are influential and not willing to adopt the primary culture of your corporation.
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Chris

[Author]

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