PRITCHETT Consulting: Mergers, Acquisitions, Divestitures

You wouldn't think of skipping financial, legal, or operational due diligence. You should devote the same kind of effort to cultural due diligence.

We're NOT advocating the typical "culture survey" or "culture gap analysis," which are usually dead-end streets that prove to be a waste of money. Our 95/5 Culture Methodology focuses clients on the few cultural attributes that are mission critical so they don't get sidetracked by all the rest of the "cultural noise."

Announcement Planning

Too often investors sell rather than buy an acquirer's shares after a deal is announced. PRITCHETT can help you craft a merger announcement that helps protect shareholder value and effectively communicates the core message to all stakeholders.

Staffing, Transition, and Retention Planning

Deciding how to staff the combined organization is the most delicate task in merger integration. There's almost always a need to eliminate redundancies and take out costs. There may also be a need to identify and retain people who are needed transitionally, but not indefinitely. PRITCHETT advisors help you develop a staffing process that is fair, fast, and appropriate for your deal.

Organizational Design

Whether it's a major restructuring or some minor tweaking to the way you're currently doing business, PRITCHETT advisors can recommend organizational design solutions that will optimize the business performance of your combined company.

Integration Plan Design

Typically, three to five key value drivers determine the success of your deal. PRITCHETT can help you identify those value drivers and design an integration plan targeted at delivering the most critical results. Don't settle for a simplistic functional integration process that may leave you consolidated but without value creation. Insist on a value-driver approach to integration planning. The difference between integrations that succeed and those that fail or disappoint is a clear, compelling focus on value creation.

Day 1 Planning

A well-executed Day 1 can buy a lot of goodwill with employees and customers. It also reassures analysts and quiets the skeptical press. Our consultants can help you develop an air-tight Day 1 Game Plan that will help build trust, instill confidence, and retain key talent.

Integration Publications

Whether you are planning or in the midst of a merger you will only get one chance to make all the right moves. The best-selling mergers books from PRITCHETT provide clear instructions for handling the integration process so you can make your one chance pay off.

Integration Training

People at all levels need a clear understanding of the natural side-effects of mergers—a sense of what typically happens, why it's so predictable, and how they should deal with the situation.

• Management needs guidelines for the intense leadership challenges that are unique to mergers.
• People in charge of the transition need specialized training on integration fundamentals.
• The workforce needs an orientation on merger dynamics and change.

PRITCHETT's merger-specific training is tailored to each level of the organization and to key work groups that have highly specialized integration possibilities.

Ongoing Communication and Planning

Mergers create an insatiable demand for more information. Our senior advisors can save you hours of time by providing communication solutions that are field-tested under difficult merger conditions. From announcement to "integration complete," PRTICHETT has communication tools and techniques to keep people focused, productive, and engaged.

Integration Project Management

We provide the organizing structure for the integration effort, give advice and counsel during execution, and help you determine what will constitute "integration complete." Our approach helps you declare victory and celebrate success.

Cultural Integration: Reconciling Differences and Achieving Alignment

Serious flaws in the way culture integration efforts are launched often doom the chances for success. The wrong "opening moves," misplaced priorities, and the lack of a robust methodology usually mean the cultural end game is at great risk from the very outset.

PRITCHETT's 30 years of experience helping clients wrestle with myriad cultural challenges, in mergers big and small, has taught us to keep the cultural focus on operating results. Our approach is designed to help you avoid the most common cultural mistakes.

"Focusing on operating results does far more to
reconcile culture problems than focusing on culture does
to deliver the operating results you desperately need."
—Price Pritchett
Mergers: Growth in the Fast Lane

Post-Merger Audit

Rarely does integration fully optimize your business. The reality is you can't afford to go slowly enough to get everything perfect during the first pass. That's why we recommend you take a second look after you've successfully completed integration. PRITCHETT consultants can perform an effective Post-Merger Audit to identify further opportunities for synergies, efficiencies, and growth. This second pass can often make the difference between so-so and spectacular results.

Merger Integration Consulting

Cultural Due Diligence