About business leadership Developing people who can lead the cultural 6. The business leaders must take ownership of culture. assessments The key here is that the business takes ownership of 7. Educate them to ensure they understand M&A deeply. “culture as a business challenge” rather than leaving it in The lack of understanding of the M&A process and its the hands of any function or delegating it to the integration phases; all the dynamics relating to speed, confidentiality, management team. There is nothing special or unique ambiguity, lack of access to people broadly; and the about culture challenges, and this means culture needs to challenges of working with leaders who often hold take its place alongside many other competing priorities conflicting views or no views at all need to be understood and challenges. But it cannot be a stand-alone item, blind and processed before understanding where “culture” fits. to what other challenges exist in a deal. 8. Train them to prepare and educate other leaders. Help them understand the reasoning, process, issues and benefits of the work. Do this before any transaction surfaces because it is not easy to get consensus during the actual transaction, especially with leaders relatively inexperienced in either M&A or “culture.” 9. Give those running the investigation the authority to act and intervene. They are the leaders responsible for defining and controlling the culture discussion at the start. But it is nearly impossible to make an impact in this area if they do not have the authority and support to do so. How advanced acquirers approach culture in M&A 5