FAQ - How could AQ help someone going through a merger and acquisition?

The question to explore is what was the purpose of the acquisition and what's the outcome you're trying to achieve in the wake of that disruptive event? As the acquirer... as the acquiree... or perhaps as an opportunity to change who we are in this newly joined entity.

For many acquisitions, the question is how do we integrate the acquired company into my culture?

For a few, it's how to preserve or take the best from their culture (one of our pioneer clients has this concern).

Maybe the outcome is to retain the intellectual capital of the teams we've acquired.

For others, it's how do I engage in ethical redundancy (reskilling/upskilling)?

So it's less about the event and more about the outcome. If we drill down a bit farther into different departments and sub-issues, there's a lot to consider:

• culture integration
• operational changes
• systems integrations
• leadership and staffing changes
• change management strategy (and internal communication)
• customer and market perception (and external communication)
• legal and regulatory compliance

To unpack this a little and highlight a few sub-dimensions:
Cultural Integration
1. Company Support: Why are we doing this and what are our values.
2. Hope: What is over the horizon and how are we going to get there.

Operational Changes
1. Mental Flexibility: The ability to adapt thoughts and behaviors when faced with new information or challenges is crucial for integrating operations.
2. Unlearning: The willingness to discard old processes that are no longer effective or relevant in the combined entity.

Systems Integration
1. Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals are necessary to tackle the complex task of system integration.
2. Mental Flexibility: Adjusting thinking and approaches to accommodate new systems and processes.

Leadership and Staffing Changes
1. Emotional Range: Handling sensitive issues like layoffs or leadership changes requires understanding and managing emotions effectively.
2. Hope: Maintaining a positive outlook and inspiring confidence about the future of the new entity among the staff.

Change Management Strategy
1. Mindset: Cultivating a growth mindset that embraces challenges and sees failures as opportunities to learn.
2. Resilience: The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties and setbacks during the change process.

Customer and Market Perception
1. Company support: to communicate externally what this new entity stands for
2. Thinking Style: Strategic thinking to align external communications with the organization’s long-term goals and market positioning.

Legal and Regulatory Compliance
1. Mental Flexibility: Adjusting procedures and practices to meet new legal and regulatory demands.
2. Resilience: Dealing with potential setbacks in compliance without losing focus on the overall goals of the merger.

There are probably many other things to consider and ways to explore it. It's a complex ecosystem and every merger is different.