7. Be aware of the need to assist leaders answering questions from other stakeholders. There are numerous potential stakeholders, dependent on the size of the deal. More stakeholders get involved the larger the deal, and this We have slipped up in the past by is especially true in talent-based deals with a high price not putting enough attention on tag, a relatively low employee headcount and with the high risk of the key employees walking out the door. the people part, particularly what priorities and actions we wanted Examples of other stakeholders are the board, but also them to change. We used to speak investment firms or fund managers covering the company about changing behaviors in the and potentially activist investors. These stakeholders are past, but that was too vague and not asking deeper questions about leadership, talent, culture and cultural integration once news of a deal is announced. time dependent or urgent enough Answers such as: “We met with them and they are a for many to make changes a priority. great cultural fit” or “Our cultures are very similar” may We had to be explicit. We found that be truisms but are not good enough answers for these without the people changing, our stakeholders. The work will prepare leaders better to brilliant strategies, tactics, plans and address the cultural questions and stating that there is a team working on the cultural integration challenges is a checklists were not nearly enough.” very powerful answer by itself and often enough to avoid Integration leader, Human Resources further external questions in this area. 8. Prepare a checklist of common challenge questions. The best of business case explanations can be derailed if the difficult cultural questions are not anticipated ahead of time. The two most common are the ROI question, and the question about how the M&A approach aligns with existing 6. Present the business case to the top stakeholders internal cultural initiatives. Added to this there is also first. Typically the top stakeholders are the leadership the need to keep up to speed on the latest research and requesting the funds to pursue the deal and any deal developments in the broader area of “culture” in a business committee overseeing the deal (those approving the context. Culture is one of the most written about topics funds). With their approval, culture becomes part of the and many outside commentators constantly feed ideas process, and not an “initiative” to be debated separately to leadership so there is a need to understand current within each deal. thinking and then explain what’s relevant in this thinking and what’s not for M&A work. None of these issues should be a threat, given the explicit and therefore narrow M&A focus of the business case but it does continue to show the need to keep abreast of developments. 6 willistowerswatson.com