Introduction

The challenges that Jason faced during his quest to obtain the Golden Fleece were more to do with the obstacles he encountered on his journey, rather than the acquisition of the fleece itself. Jason's experience has parallels with the challenges often faced by those involved in mergers and acquisitions; challenges that, in the past, have resulted in over half of them failing to achieve their financial objectives. It appears that having clarity of purpose for an acquisition, by itself does not guarantee success. The threat to successful acquisition is more often in the practical problems encountered while attempting to integrate the acquired company.

Major factors in increasing the chances of acquisition success are the appropriate design of the integration and the effectiveness of the methods used to manage it. Integrating organizations in areas that are unlikely to yield any direct business benefit is likely simply to increase integration costs and risks. A key to improving acquisition success involves bounding the scope of integration initiatives to areas that deliver direct business benefits rather than assuming full integration or assimilation is the desired goal.

This chapter looks at some practical steps to achieving the expected business benefits of any acquisition through well-designed and focused integration initiatives. The variety and complexity of mergers and acquisitions makes it impractical to...