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Merger & Creation

or the challenge of the blended family

The growth model which involves acquiring and integrating other businesses offers a formidable opportunity for a company to move forward, if this is in line with its strategic plans.

It enables it to offer new expertise to its clients and to have access to additional resources.

But the incorporation of complementary strengths through external growth can also be the source of a new dynamic for the company. And this is especially true in a time like the one we are living in, in which businesses need to catch their breath and regain their positive energy.

RELATIONAL DYNAMICS AS A SOURCE OF VALUE CREATION

The merger-creation model that gives birth to a new entity, one built on the company histories preceding it, is the integration model which allows for the " super group's" value creation. It’s the one we choose when we don’t want to lose the identity of one business in favour of another, but instead choose to pool strengths in order to create a new one.

The prerequisite for this is to correctly identify and promote the expertise of everyone within the new group, while building common bridges when the teams meet. Its success requires both the transformation/creation of the company's organisation (and in this respect digitalisation is a key aspect of the system), but also an increase in management skills, as well as the creation of a shared workspace allowing for dialogue and co-construction.

MANAGEMENT IS A CENTRAL ASPECT OF A SO-CALLED “ORGANIC” BUSINESS MODEL

It’s obvious that at the time of the merger between two companies, it’s essential to redefine their organisations and their processes.

The structuring of the teams and the digital resources (if possible built jointly), are key aspects of the new group's start-up mechanism.

Managing such a project also requires a lot of agility and adaptability beyond the strategic framework because, in essence, it is a living entity that grows over the course of the different successes encountered and beyond the themes and the perimeter defined at the outset. It’s very difficult to define the phasing of the different stages, the right timing, upstream. It can only emerge from interaction and discussion between the teams.

Managers are therefore an essential component in all of this. They must imperatively give thought to the values of the emerging company, proudly fly its colours and, for this to happen, we must give them the means to understand and jointly construct it.

A STORY OF INTEGRATION THROUGH SHARED EXPERIENCES

To realise the ambition of any integration project, it's essential to build a common basis for all the employees participating in the new adventure that is just beginning: a brand identity, values but also a head office. A true flagship. A symbolically unifying place, which can even extend its footprint onto other company sites, shared spaces for interaction designed to allow the teams to get to know each other and experience life in a project simultaneously.

HUMAN-CENTRIC

Looking beyond the different models, a company merger is above all a human-centric project, based on common values and shared trust, for enhanced collective efficiency. The precondition for success is obtaining the backing and enthusiasm of the whole human ecosystem that makes up the company: senior managers, management and teams, but also customers and suppliers.

It’s important to know that according to a Gartner study, a 2% increase in employee satisfaction rate leads to a 1% improvement in customer satisfaction. Obtaining the teams’ commitment to a new business project is therefore clearly a 100% business matter, and one which must be central. And it is all the more challenging when several identities must learn to build their future together.

The era of "employee-centric" management, which puts employees at the heart of processes and planning, is therefore upon us. It will help companies to become less compartmentalised and more innovative.