Considerations post-M&A

Tony Hanlon:
Hello, everyone. Tony Hanlon here from WH Ireland with my thoughts on leading successful change.
Tony Hanlon:
If I look at lessons for mergers and acquisitions on the post deal side, then for me, that can be summed up by, I use five s's in my head. And those are the strategic logic, the spirit of the integration, the scope and speed of your integration, and the synergies you want to mentor, you achieve.
Tony Hanlon:
So the strategic logic looks back at why did you undertake the acquisition in the first place and what therefore does success look like? Did you buy a new capability or did you buy a firm that by combining the two, you believe you could have a more efficient cost base? The approach is going to be very different.
Tony Hanlon:
Spirit varies massively, depending again on that strategic logic. Is this one firm buying another aggressively to cut costs, or is it buying a firm that can do something that you can't? And then the spirit of that merger would be very, very different.
Tony Hanlon:
Scope, are you going to subsume the unit entirely so that it becomes part of your business, your existing business, or are you effectively going to leave the new acquisition relatively standalone? And again, that'll link back to your strategic logic and your spirit.
Tony Hanlon:
Also it links to speed. Is this something you're trying to do quickly in order to realize synergies and cost savings, or do you need to do this slowly over time and really get the cultural and technological aspects right?
Tony Hanlon:
And finally, the fifth "s", "s" for "synergies", if you have a very clear synergy or cost saving or revenue improvement target as part of your post merger integration or post acquisition integration, then you really do need to focus on that. If you go into the integration, believing that, "Well, I'll integrate the two businesses and just hope that the synergies fall at the bottom," then I think you're likely to be disappointed. You really do need to track them in detail and go after them.