Is Your Firehouse is on Fire?

Acquiring a company and not performing a carefully designed, strategically focused, long-term integration process is like building a fire house and not installing a sprinkler system. Sure, the occupants know how to fight fires but is the money saved really worth it?  Don’t the fire fighters have better things to do?

Under-Appreciated and Overlooked

Here’s an interesting quote from a blog by Mike Rogers, who runs an M&A boutique called The Revenue Group.  He lays out the five essential steps in building a successful acquisition.  Consider his point #5, short and sweet:

Integration – This is the most under-appreciated and overlooked task in the entire process and it requires a specific skill set.  It’s easy to lose focus once the deal closes as each of the execs goes back to their normal jobs but it’s important to assign a program manager to stay attentive to the details.  That’s the best way to ensure that the deal produces the expected ROI.

I don’t think the Merger Verger could have made it any clearer himself.

For Mike’s original blog posting click here.