Ensuring Acquisition Success — by Dan Lynn

By Dan Lynn

While working at AT&T earlier in my career, I was fortunate enough to participate on several very strategic projects. Many were code-named projects like "Raptor", "Eagle", "Maple", "Seagull", etc. Many involved Merger and Acquisition evaluations.

Great projects, great learning experiences.

I remember working with one really smart guy from Mercer Management Consulting. At the time he told me that Mercer had completed a major analysis to determine why some acquisitions work and others don't. While obviously there are a lot of different factors, one major way to increase the odds of success is to quickly integrate the communications systems - phone systems, email systems, intranets, etc. The quicker you integrate the communications systems, the quicker the teams are integrated and the synergies realized. However, he commented that in most deals, communication system integration isn't always highest on the priority list.

Well, it's been about 30 years now since I worked on those projects. So, I initially didn't remember the important piece of advice from my good friend at Mercer. And what did I quickly learn through my own acquisition experience? He was right on the money. Access to key systems, Outlook calendars, contact lists, forms and key files is so critical to accelerating the pace of integration and realizing its benefits. It is incredibly important - especially when the location is remote.

I hope this is a useful piece of advice when you think about a merger or acquisition.