M & A Roadmap for Success

Our M&A Roadmap for Success© is as close as we come to a “post-merger integration checklist.” If this disappoints you, we need to tell you that in this kind of work the harsh reality is that there is no checklist. Our consulting firm recognizes there are no sequential cookie cutter or cookbook solutions that ensure a successful merger or acquisition.

Vector Group’s , M&A Roadmap for Success©, evolved from an original design for a specific client to more clearly define and leverage the role of a properly staffed, skilled, and focused Human Resources team in driving the success of present and future acquisitions and bringing desired results.

Undoubtedly, somewhere in the integration effort a group, if not HR then some other entity in the Integration team must be in a position to lead aspects of the acquisition process. This group’s efforts must be centered on the people issues (organizational culture) that so oftentimes cause failure. The people strategy for the Roadmap poses Objectives and Deliverables that will identify and surface possible challenges with intended outcomes. HR remains as an artifact in this document but other groups or teams from other functions who may direct M&A activities may easily be substituted.

The Roadmap is a guide to the acquisition process beginning with Target Identification of potential new businesses to buy and ending with the successful cultural integration of the acquired company. Just as a building plan would work, the Roadmap brings a logic and a means to successful creation of a new entity.

Be aware that the Roadmap is not prescriptive but does offer numerous tactics and tools that an integration team can use in assessing the potential risks and increasing the potential benefits of a specific acquisition. Portions of the Roadmap do provide some systematic directions but overall brings a way of thinking and doing in terms of bringing in a new organization to any company.

The original Roadmap identified nine phases in the process but we can easily customize this generic model for any particular company who has a dedicated team for mergers and acquisitions:

• Phase I -Target Identification
• Phase II -Target Evaluation
• Phase III -Pre-Go/No-Go Decision Meeting
• Phase IV -Due Diligence
• Phase V -Integration Planning
• Phase VI –Go/No-Go Decision Meeting
• Phase VII -Share / Asset Purchase Agreement
• Phase VIII -Integration (First two weeks)
• Phase IX -Integration (First year)