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When it comes to mergers and acquisitions (M&A), signing the deal is only step one.
The real value depends on the adoption.
IT leaders must align not just networks and data, but two corporate cultures, dozens of business processes, and often entirely separate identities.
As you can imagine, this is no easy task. But just how challenging?
- Forbes estimates a 30% average M&A failure rate.
- PwC says only 14% deliver significant financial, operational, and strategic value.
When M&A’s fail to meet objectives, it’s typically due to poor adoption planning. In other words, decision-makers don’t give enough thought to how changes in M&A scenarios will impact stakeholders and the broader employee base.
Here’s how to successfully navigate the first 100 days and beyond.
The First 100 Days as the Adoption Window
Make no mistake. The first 100 days post-close can make-or-break your M&A. This period is uniquely fertile for setting tone and momentum. But it’s also where costly missteps are common. You need to move quickly and without chaos clarity before potential resistance sets in.
Here are your action items:
- Define Your 100-Day Goals: Establish clear objectives and metrics (e.g., financial targets, customer retention, employee engagement, technology cutovers, cultural milestones) so all stakeholders know what success looks like from day one.
- Form a Dedicated Integration Team: Assemble leaders from each company into a cross-functional integration management team, with clear roles and governance to make quick decisions and keep the project moving.
- Balance Continuity With Rapid Integration: Maintain business-as-usual by running current systems in parallel while phasing migrations to avoid hiccups that derail operations.
- Deliver Quick Wins: Identify and implement a few high-impact integrations first, then tackle more complex dependencies as the early wins build confidence that change is working.
Related: How to Integrate Systems After an M&A.
Key Adoption Priorities in M&A
Even the fastest rollout will flounder without addressing the core areas that drive user adoption.
Make these your top priorities:
- Identity Migration: M&As often leave a tangle of domains, directories, “zombie” accounts, and credentials, which create gaps in your security. Therefore, you need aggressive system consolidation to streamline authentication, identity, and access management across the new entity.
- Communication and Trust: Communicate early, often, and clearly about what is changing and why, using town halls, email newsletters, intranets, and team meetings tailored to different audiences. This will reduce fear, provide clarity, and build trust.
- Change Champions: Engage leaders and influential employees at every level to make them early adopters so they can guide colleagues. Train your champions on both new technology and cultural expectations, and give them a direct channel to the integration team if they need clarity on anything they don’t understand.
When you hit the ground running with identity migration, open dialogue, and empowered champions, the workforce adapts more smoothly, setting the stage for the “quick wins” in the first 100 days and beyond.
Playbooks for IT Leaders
To operationalize the above-discussed priorities, you need a proven playbook. That’s what we will discuss in this section.
How to Navigate Application Modernization
M&A integration is a rare opportunity to modernize systems. Depending on your situation, you may choose to retire all or some of the legacy applications, migrate to the cloud, or leverage a hybrid infrastructure. No matter the approach, strategically embed artificial intelligence (AI) in high-impact areas. By doing so, you will essentially be “provisioning aerial reconnaissance and precision weapons for your team”, cutting weeks off the modernization process.
Use Proven Change Management Frameworks to Align Culture and Process
Insights from frameworks such as the Prosci ADKAR® or Kotter’s 8-Step Model can be extremely valuable on the journey from vision to actual behavior change in M&A scenarios.
With the Prosci ADKAR® approach, for example, you create:
- Awareness about why the M&A is happening.
- Desire for employees to support and participate in the initiative.
- Knowledge of their day-to-day work will change.
- Ability to perform all necessary skills in the new environment.
- Reinforcement of new behaviors to make the change stick.
The idea is to treat change as something that happens to people, not to organizations.
Create Measurable Adoption Milestones
Finally, define clear adoption metrics and track them religiously. Here, you’ll want to look beyond financial KPIs and focus on user-focused KPIs, such as active user rates on the new systems, training course completion rates, workflow turnaround times, and employee engagement survey scores.
Related: Navigating Change in M&A Scenarios (Challenges and Solutions).
Beyond the First 100 Days
Remember, change in M&A scenarios is a long-term, not a one-off project. In the weeks and months that follow, IT leaders should institutionalize the new state by:
- Keeping communication alive by maintaining a merger FAQ site or regular “ask me anything” sessions with relevant leaders.
- Rolling out ongoing learning opportunities, such as refresher courses or more advanced training on integrated systems, and open forums for feedback.
- Embedding change champions into the steady-state governance structure for high-level oversight.
- Continuing to track the KPIs created in the 100-day plan. Ideally, conduct quarterly reviews of these measures and adjust the strategy if adoption lags.
The idea is to turn M&A change into a continual improvement process. Because at the end of the day, M&A success isn’t just about integration, it’s about adoption that sticks.
Ready to bulletproof your M&A?
Leverage The NRI Advantage To Successfully Navigate Change in M&A
NRI is the leading partner of companies that view success in their M&A as non-negotiable. We have the tools, expertise, and experience to make your integration seamless and ready for what the future holds.
Schedule a discovery call to learn how you can ensure your M&A brings an edge.
