This book examines the dynamics of the sociocultural processes inherent in mergers and acquisitions, and draws implications for post-merger integration management.

Financials alone don't make an M&A deal work. Equally important is what's behind them--an organization's people. How to understand this reality and benefit from it is the thrust of this unusually comprehensive, practical, readable, but conceptually rigorous book. Daniel and Metcalf see HR executives as change agents during the delicate maneuverings before a deal is done, and then after, when it's time to tackle the fine-grained problems of integrating disparate corporate cultures and the people who vitalize them. They examine the recent and ongoing waves of mergers and acquisitions across industries, setting them in the broader context of organizational change. With concepts, theory, and real-life examples drawn from their long, impressive experience as consultants and executives, Daniel and Metcalf provide step-by-step guidance through the stages common to all corporate combinations. They define and explain the roles to be played in the process by HR professionals and executives elsewhere in the organization, and show how, by interacting productively with each other, they will thus maximize the total contribution to the success of any corporate transaction.

This eye-opening study, based on the authors' direct and personal observation of a bank merger, has three basic analytical focuses: the human issues presented by mergers at both an individual and a cultural level, the organizational issues that these human concerns raise, and the resulting implications for managing the merger and acquisition process. With keen insight the authors delve into a complex web of reactions. The intrigues, cultural clashes, hostilities, and tensions that emerged from this friendly merger are mind-boggling. The dynamics that characterized the dual nature of the merger run the gamut of human responses to a stressful situation: trust and betrayal, openness and deception, hope and despair, support and retaliation - all driven by nascent opportunities or restricted options. This impressive study has many lessons to teach about the role that human resource considerations should play in any large-scale organizational change.

Mergers, acquisitions, and alliances continue to be almost an everyday feature of the contemporary business scene, yet at least half prove to be unsuccessful. The authors show the contribution that psychology can make to our understanding of the merger phenomena - how it affects organizational performance, and how it affects the managers and employees involved. Mergers, Acquisitions and Strategic Alliances is intended as a guide to successful organizational marriage. Great emphasis is placed on the issue of cultural compatibility as it concerns partner selection, integration practices and venture outcomes. The book also focuses on cross-national mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures. With the increasing economic activity within the European Union and between the unions of other countries, there is a need to know more about the corporate and national cultures in these strategic alliances. The authors have drawn upon an extensive body of research based on recent cases in a wide cross section of industries across Europe. The book is unique in showing the actual effect mergers and acquisitions have on people, and consequently on the performance of the 'new' organization. It will be particularly relevant for decision makers - those who are involved in planning and implementing a large organizational change, and those responsible for ensuring successful integration afterwards. It would also be extremely useful for postgraduate management students, personnel executives and management consultants.

"The Management of Mergers and Acquisitions is far away from the perfect, polished presentations of the merchant bankers in which value creation is all too often just the result of a well-executed PowerPoint presentation. Philippe Very takes us into the real world where management is the key word - management of the expected and the unexpected, of rationality and emotions, of processes and people. He combines the expertise of the researcher with live business cases. This makes his book extremely easy and enjoyable to read and at the same time builds the knowledge and the understanding of the reader quickly and effectively. A perfect vade mecum that every stakeholder in a merger and acquisition should read: bankers, consultants, buyers, sellers, CEO’s and management." Richard Simonin, Chief Executive Officer, Harrods Ltd "Having worked with Philippe on a number of research projects, I have the highest respect for his abilities, motivation, and character. What he writes, I want to read." Mike Lubatkin, Professor of Management and Wolf Family Chair in Strategic Entrepreneurship, University of Connecticut, Professor of Management at EM Lyon "Philippe Very delivers a detailed guide to the entire merger and acquisition process – from identifying a target to completing the integration phase. His highly original style, combines cliffhanger fictional stories with authoritative research results. Both M&A professionals and business students will take away a deeper understanding of the M&A process along with action points based on real-life problems." Dr Stephen Gates, Principal Researcher, The Conference Board "At last, a lively and entertaining management book. With little or no business experience, the case studies will give you a feel for the complexity of M&A situations. With more experience, you will quickly identify with challenges that you have faced yourself. In all cases, however good your planning and anticipation skills, expect to face the unknown. You are dealing with organizations and people: each one has expectations, frustrations, and an ego." Eric Bonnot, CEO, Audax – Basic System

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) experts Tim Galpin and Mark Herndon present an updated and expanded guide to planning and managing the M&A process. This comprehensive book is unique in providing the tools to address both the human and operational sides of integration. Based on the authors' consulting experience with numerous Fortune 500 companies, this resource will help organizations capture deal synergies more quickly and effectively. Augmenting their step-by-step advice with helpful templates, checklists, graphs and tools, Galpin and Herndon provide sound guidance for successfully integrating different processes, organizations, and cultures. The authors also address pre-deal do’s and don’ts, people dynamics, common mistakes, communications strategies, and specific actions you can take to create measurable positive results throughout the integration process. The revised edition not only updates case studies and presents recent integration research, but it also adds new tools.

Mergers, acquisitions, and alliances continue to be almost an everyday feature of the contemporary business scene, yet at least half prove to be unsuccessful. The authors show the contribution that psychology can make to our understanding of the merger phenomena - how it affects organizational performance, and how it affects the managers and employees involved. Mergers, Acquisitions and Strategic Alliances is intended as a guide to successful organizational marriage. Great emphasis is placed on the issue of cultural compatibility as it concerns partner selection, integration practices and venture outcomes. The book also focuses on cross-national mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures. With the increasing economic activity within the European Union and between the unions of other countries, there is a need to know more about the corporate and national cultures in these strategic alliances. The authors have drawn upon an extensive body of research based on recent cases in a wide cross section of industries across Europe. The book is unique in showing the actual effect mergers and acquisitions have on people, and consequently on the performance of the 'new' organization. It will be particularly relevant for decision makers - those who are involved in planning and implementing a large organizational change, and those responsible for ensuring successful integration afterwards. It would also be extremely useful for postgraduate management students, personnel executives and management consultants.

Just as mergers and acquisitions begin to take off once again, this book reminds us that the emotional side of business is often at the heart of success and failure. With a terrific mix of case studies and in-depth conceptual thinking, Managing Emotions in Mergers and Acquisitions addresses the most fundamental of all issues in M&As how and why people sometimes disrupt the best merger plans, simply because they are, well, people. Sydney Finkelstein, Professor of Strategy and Leadership at the Tuck School at Dartmouth College, and author of Why Smart Executives Fail This is a very welcome addition to our knowledge on M&A process. This is an in-depth study on emotions, how these are effected due to M&A activity in two firms and how they influence the process itself. It helps us to understand, what emotions are? How we can deal with them? And, Why do M&As so often fail? It offers state-of-the-art knowledge on this complex phenomenon. The four cases present in depth and extremely rich insight into how emotions actually work and influence the success/failure in M&A process. In conclusion, it is a timely and innovative book which is a must read for anyone interested in mergers and acquisitions. Pervez Ghauri, University of Manchester, UK Research suggests that an increasing number of people experience organisational changes such as mergers and acquisitions as highly emotional life events. Indeed, given that, as the authors prove, 70% of all mergers and acquisitions fail to reach their initial goals largely because of neglected people issues, it is a must for every manager and M&A researcher to understand the emotional side of such change processes. This fascinating book explains how managerial behaviour and communication styles influence the emotions of employees and affect their readiness to contribute to a successful post-merger integration. It combines emotion theories from other disciplines with recent M&A findings, and offers practical implications through illustrative case studies. Academics and practitioners will find the combination of management literature with psychology and sociology literature of great interest.

A comprehensive new framework for winning at Mfrom up-front planning to postmerger integration The challenges of mergers and acquisitions can be daunting-but the opportunities and benefits they offer forward-thinking companies can be tremendous. Winning at Mergers and Acquisitions offers a critical new approach to strategic M&A based on the authors' pioneering concept of marketing due diligenceSM. Covering every stage of market-driven M&A planning and integration, this book shows how to look beyond the quick hit to focus on long-term growth rather than short-term cost-cutting. Featuring dozens of real-life case studies-including both failures and extraordinary successes-plus inside comments from leading M&A specialists, this book contains crucial guidance on: * Predeal planning-how to identify your strategic needs and pinpoint the merger candidate(s) that will help you meet them * Sizing up targets for acquisition-how to examine the essential marketing, sales, and product issues that will determine a good company "fit,".strategically and culturally * Revenue enhancement planning-how to identify ways to drive top-line growth and develop action plans to generate near- and long-term revenues * Filling the pipeline-how to prioritize and actualize the critical steps necessary to drive shareholder value * Developing communication programs-how to design and execute communication strategies to garner support for the merger by employees, customers, and other stakeholders * Building a comprehensive postmerger integration plan-how to align diverse corporate cultures, develop training and reward programs, and move beyond the turf wars and lack of productivity that hamper the success of mergers and acquisitions. Last year more than 7,000 mergers and acquisitions were completed, with a collective price tag estimated at more than $800 billion. And although they are known as highly effective means of achieving corporate growth and strategic advantage, these transactions are fraught with pitfalls: Statistics indicate that a third of these deals will fail and another third will not bear out the expectations of the merger partners. What can businesses looking to undertake strategic mergers and acquisitions do to ensure that they do not fall victim to confusion, multimillion-dollar losses, declining market share and profits, or any number of other negative results of failed transactions? The answers are in Winning at Mergers and Acquisitions, a pioneering step-by-step guide to growth-driven planning and swift, effective post-merger integration. Challenging the conventional emphasis on cost-reduction synergies, this book presents the authors' groundbreaking blueprint for mergers that yield strategic synergies and high returns in meeting long-term growth, increased market share, and revenue generation objectives. Mark Clemente and David Greenspan explore in detail the marketing, sales, and organizational issues that are vital aspects of successful M&A ventures. They take executives through the entire strategic M&A process-from setting objectives, to evaluating target companies, to aligning corporate cultures in an effort to ensure problem-free integration. They show how to maintain a sharp focus on the markets that will be reached by the merger-and they offer invaluable advice on charting a steady course through the often tumultuous period of integration, when organizational chaos can cause the merged company to lose momentum, market share, and the backing of customers, prospects, and shareholders. Winning at Mergers and Acquisitions is essential reading for CEOs, managers, deal makers, and others looking to capitalize on one of the most important methods of effecting corporate growth in business today-while staying focused on the people, product, and process issues that power that growth.