Culture During Mergers and Acquisitions

How do you maintain company culture through a merger and acquisition? Do you blend two cultures, or adopt one?

The merging or consolidation of companies leads to significant organizational change. One of the biggest changes can be to company culture. Maintaining a strong culture as two organizations become one is crucial. This Deloitte study says that ‘culture has emerged as one of the dominant barriers to effective integrations’ and that culture has been found to be the cause of 30% of failed integrations.CultureIQ culture strategist Rea Abrahams recently tackled the topic during a ‘fireside chat’ with a panel of trusted culture experts. Read on for our recap of the conversation and their advice for managing culture through a merger or acquisition situation.

But First, Some Context

We held this ‘fireside chat’ in a recent webinar, where our panel answered the culture questions our attendees had submitted — we had over 200 to sift through! You can watch the hour-long webinar here. We also discussed how to scale culture as you scale your company, how to motivate leaders to embody culture, and 2018 culture trends we’re looking out for. Our panel of culture experts included: Chris WilliamsManaging Director at Root, Inc, a creative consultancy helping organizations face strategic change, onboarding, and culture transformation. Brandon SmithA speaker, writer, executive coach, and professor focused on eliminating workplace dysfunction. Brandon writes about culture and workplace health on this blog, The Workplace Therapist. Tania LunaA partner at LifeLabs, which specializes in trainings for companies going through rapid growth. Tania is also the author of ‘Surprise: Embrace the Unpredictable & Engineer the Unexpected.’Robin ZanderA consultant, event organizer, and cafe owner working with individuals and organizations to maximize their potential. Robin is also the author of ‘Responsive: What it Takes to Create a Thriving Organization.’