Cross Talk – Organizational Cultural Differences
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In your opinion, what are the primary cultural barriers that can hinder the realization of combined value in M&A post-acquisitions? What ways/methods have overcome the issues?
First, I’ve only been involved in US to US acquisitions; I can imagine international acquisitions would create another level of cultural differences to be aware of. So, in my experience, as limited as it is, I’ve seen mainly differences in organizational structure overall and reporting synergies. Many companies operate in a more horizontal organization with great employee autonomy than more vertical organizations. Cultures more accustomed to running their business without a larger corporate oversight can often cause communication and functional reporting issues. Not to mention frustration amongst teams that drive business partner relationship strains. A solution we have attempted to use with some success, was keeping the peer-to-peer relationships going for a time beyond the finalization of post-merger activities. Along with this, often documenting and investigating differences as they come up, often help both companies develop more empathy in these areas.
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