M&A and Post Merger Integration

Has much changed?

Famously in 2011 Harvard Business Review stated, “The M&A failure rate is between 70% and 90%." A critical element was "whether and how to integrate them.” Has much changed? Looking through a #data lens, when it comes to operationalizing an #M&A strategy, a single view of the truth is paramount to align stakeholders and eliminate culture siloes furthered by spreadsheet wars. At one PE owned company we found: Growth by acquisition was the goal but they experienced impediments due to siloed data. Data was difficult to access, find, and lacking integrity. Duplicate records prevented a 360-degree view of the customer’s history, market value, contacts, and buying centers. Key data elements such as physical and billing address, tax IDs, industry / sector, and even email or phone numbers were often incomplete, inconsistent, or simply missing from the records. As a result, critical insights tied to marketing campaigns, lead management, cross-selling and upselling, and customer profitability analysis were compromised. In a world of personalization, data integrity was corrupting marketing, sales, subscriptions, renewals, and other key financial analysis.
 
Bringing together disparate organizations to generate greater value is the promise of M&A and Post Merger Integration. With unrealized expectations there’s greater pressure on #PrivateEquity Firms to bring management discipline, improving operations, and financial performance. 
In working with PE Firms to support Post Merger Integration, data can be either a godsend or a pitfall.
 
To mitigate risk, we recommend:
1) Having the required data & information centralised, secure, accessible, and easily consumable. 
2) Align data efforts to strategic growth and valuation improvement goals
a. Valuation Realisation is an OUTCOMEof ongoing data discipline.
3) Become data-drivenn by demonstrating and visualising the link between data integrity and business process outcomes, decision making, and insights. 
4) Gain Trust for the newly merged organization so that every employee has a single view of the truth. By doing this you will eliminate the “spreadsheet wars” and bring the new teams together. 
a. Cultural alignment can be accelerated when all are on the same page.
5) Integration of systems depends on trusted and managed data
6) To exploit Advanced Analytics and AI for the new merged entity, systems must consume from a foundation of trusted and current data. In short, AI without an Information Architecture is futile.
 
Additional ideas and recommendations can be found here: www.amino-data.com/PEandVC