Defining Specific Attributes That Can Drive Higher-Performance Results
By Mark Herndon, President, M&A Partners
It’s time to talk about the “True North” of culture, those foundational values, beliefs and behaviors you must understand and embed in your organization if you want to drive high-performance results. Components included in the final bedrock level of our Cultural Iceberg model (see Defining Culture – An Integrator’s Model), get at the real “you,” organizationally speaking, and these attributes have a pervasive and powerful impact on just about everything else. Unfortunately, many acquirers never get to this point at all. Either they are reluctant to do anything about culture due to failed prior attempts, or a valid assessment deteriorates into a battle over “right/wrong” and “us/them” instead of keeping focused on the ultimate objective – aligning and mobilizing the entire NewCo entity on those attributes that matter most.
