Your M&A Integration and Separation Partner

With remote work becoming the norm, leveraging diligence findings early will greatly inform the operational and financial red flags that need to be addressed as you assemble your integration team, define workstreams and begin developing detailed plans.

A "non-event", that's what Day 1 should be. The reality is, there are hundreds of small, yet critical items that must be addressed on Day 1 - control of cash, change of control, IT security, financial reporting, internal and external communications. As the name implies, Day 1 is just that, the starting point from which detailed integration or divestiture plans are further developed and executed.

The Program Management Office (PMO) is the foundation from which everything is managed, developed and communicated. Responsible for building the project structure, governance model and workstream tools / templates, the PMO is the nerve center and playbook from which all activities that drive a successful integration originate.

There's value everywhere. Have you identified where? Increased buying power, facility consolidation, lease negotiations, public company costs, headcount shuffles. But what about revenue synergies? Product pricing adjustments, cross and up-sell opportunities, new product introductions that all lead to new and achievable value.

 With the right strategy around culture and employee experience, you can boost your ability to attract, engage and develop high-performing employees. It's critical to  align your employees' experiences with your company's purpose, brand and culture. Every interaction is critical during the disruptive period of merging or divesting a business.

Who's leading the charge? Has your target operating model been defined and communicated? If you're like most companies, this can be a fragmented process. Establishing top to bottom governance, team structure and leveraging the right tools will set the foundation for future success.

We lost our best sales employees... Our top 10 customers just jumped to a competitor... Our primary supplier doesn't know what's going on... All easily prevented with a solid communication plan. Simple, direct, regular communication is a first and major step in preserving key relationships during your M&A journey.

Two sides of the same coin. In either case, the separation and integration approach used to manage these events is fairly similar. Acquisition events require detailed integration plans, divestiture events require detailed separation plans with a focus on transition service agreements (TSAs) until the businesses can be fully disentangled.

It takes an army - HR, IT, FIN, SAL, MKT, LGL, R&D, OPS and other functional leaders. What about quote to cash, procure to pay, T&E, record to report? Sound familiar? all of these (and more) need to be pulled into your integration team structure and carefully choreographed to identify dependencies, risks and milestones to incorporate in your detailed plans.

Starting in 1999 at EMC and most recently as a Partner after 15 years at KPMG, Brendan Collins has been an M&A leader for over 23 years. He's led the successful integration and separation of hundreds of complex, global transactions across multiple industries. Brendan continues to remain passionate about M&A and the significant value that well-planned and executed deals can create.

M&A is complex, let's keep it simple. By leveraging our leadership and your resources, we partner with you to increase the speed of integration, roll out your operating model and help you build an internal M&A capability. Our approach will save you significant consulting and hiring fees and create a team of experienced internal M&A professionals.