Let me first set the typical context (understanding that in an M&A, very little is typical) for this in-house training program, which often is a 2-day session with the designated functional leaders of both companies:
You have completed the due diligence effort, reached a definitive agreement, and will be publicly announcing in the next week that you have an agreement in place and anticipate closing the transaction in XX days (i.e. 30, 60, 90). You have also spent time as a senior management team outlining your overall integration strategy, key milestones, approach, priorities, structure of the integration effort and identification of functional integration leaders from both sides. Because the deal won’t close for a period of time, during this pre-close period you need to operate as two separate companies, but jointly work together to better understand each other’s business and develop the go-forward functional integration plans.
On the date of announcement and through that first week, the focus is on communications to all the key stakeholders regarding all the initial questions, issues and concerns they have about the deal (especially the employees in the acquired companies) as well as stabilizing the two businesses to minimize business interruptions. During this and prior periods there have been a series of executive planning and coordination meetings to get alignment and to prepare for mobilizing the two organizations on the planning and stabilizing work to be done.
Given the context outlined above, the week following announcement, when things have settled down a bit, is the time to bring those key functional resources from each organization together to train them “just-in-time” for the work they need to perform. A significant portion of this training session deals with the work to be performed, the tools to be used, timing of activities to be performed, structure for managing the integration effort, and roles and responsibilities. However, another significant portion of this session has to deal with the emotional and political aspects that are constantly bubbling up in an M&A, especially at this early stage of the two organizations starting to work together. Embedded in this onboarding and training workshop for these cross-company functional teams is a significant amount of change management tools, techniques and practices so that both the rational and the emotional elements of the integration effort are properly dealt with.
Here is a typical agenda (understanding that the meeting agenda needs to be customized for the nuances of both this specific M&A as well as for the two particular companies involved):
- Opening Remarks and Agenda Review
- Meeting Objectives
- Introduction of Team Participants and Expectation Setting
- Review of Strategic Context for the Functional Integration
- Acquisition Rationale
- Integration Objectives
- Key Priorities and Milestones (Pre-Close, Day One Post-Close)
- Overview of Two Organizations and What We Have Learned to Date About Each Other
- Key Strengths to Leverage
- Similarities and Differences
- Key Opportunities
- Overall Integration Approach: Process, Timeline and Deliverables
- How We Will Manage the Integration
- Management Structure
- Functional Teams
- Roles and Responsibilities
- Coordination, Communications and Reporting
- Working Together
- How We Will Work Together
- Review of Governances
- Do’s and Don’ts
- A Review of Tools, Templates and Methodology to be Used
- Discussion of Near-Term Deliverables, Support Tools and Content Requirements
- Functional Group Break-Outs and Planning Discussions
- Report Outs, Open Items and Issues to Address
- Review of Calendar and Outline of Next Step Actions
- Meeting Wrap-Up
Hopefully, the agenda outlined above with specific discussion items demonstrates the value of this training session for mobilizing and aligning the cross-company functional teams on not only what needs to be done and how it will be done, but also how the two organizations will work together in a collaborative fashion to effectively plan and execute the integration effort.
Contact us for more information if this type of in-house workshop interests you. We can also discuss with you the variations of these team training sessions depending on the particular nuances of your M&A.