#65 Post-merger Integration 2.0
Consultant McKinsey & Company reports on two seemingly unrelated facts of the global business world: first, many transnational mergers go down the drains, and second, the age of Asia continues to dawn. At the intersection of these two topics, evidence is emerging that Asian companies approach post-M&A integration slowly and cautiously, sometimes to the extent that there are no integration efforts at all. It may be too early to tell, but the hands-off approach that only focuses on a hand full of key performance indicators rather than on fully blown integration that often leads to distraction, inefficiency and demotivation, seems to generate better results. With stronger emphasis on the need for internal control, post-M&A integration seems to be a distinctly western objective. Maybe here’s a lesson to be learned from Asian companies? Maybe the fact that we better start to learn from Asia is a lesson in itself?