When It's Not the Time to Learn on the Job
by Mark Herndon, President, M&A Partners
Based on the recent survey conducted by M&A Partners, "The State of M&A Integration Effectiveness 2014," integration project staffing was cited as both the #1 “most important breakthrough or best practice with integration,” and simultaneously listed as the #1 “greatest remaining obstacle to overcome for more consistent integration success.”
There are plenty of reasons for this finding. It’s hard. Every acquirer struggles with this issue. Most don’t have an adequate understanding of the true costs of integration, nor an accurate view of the true requirements of integration. Add to these factors the sheer practical difficulty of allocating your best resources to the integration effort. It’s tempting for executives to assign junior resources and use integration as “OJT.” But when you’ve got hundreds of millions or potentially billions of dollars on the line, much less the very real and present risks to customers, talent and partners…in all due respect, this is no time to learn on the job!
Read the entire article HERE.