The Credit Professional Fall 2015 | Page 27

Mergers and Acquisitions: Smooth the Process With Planning and Open Communication By Bruce Werth Throughout my forty-three years of employment, I have been through the merger/acquisition process on three separate occasions. The first was a merger of two groups, with our company being the more dominant of the two, financially and geographically. On the remaining two occasions, I worked for the group being acquired. Interestingly, on all three occasions, the key to a successful reorganization was not a matter of how well the newly-acquired entity dealt with operation integration. Rather, success hinged on how well and how quickly new processes were embrace by the workforce impacted by forced integration. In today’s global market place, mergers and acquisitions are key tools for acquiring technologies and products. They are also a shortcut to improving productivity and profits, honing a competitive advantage, and reducing overall expenses. The success of these “takeovers” is determined by a number of factors, but resistance to them has the potential to negatively affect the workforce, harm company credibility, and ultimately impact shareholders. These problems can be minimized with careful planning with regard to how staffing, communications, training and customer relationships will be handled once the merger or acquisition takes place. are at least two groups of employees involved. Often these groups come from distinctly different cultures and uniquely different managerial styles. Certainly, adapting to a new culture is challenging, but this is especially so when uncertainty exists with regard to what the future may hold and whose job may be on the line. During any merger or acquisition struggle, there Continued on page 28 October 2015 27 The Credit Professional