In their book, Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls  Tichy and Bennis identify the stages of the decision making process: sensing a need, getting it “framed and named,” mobilizing others, making a judgment and seeing the execution through.   Good judgment doesn’t just happen, says Noel Tichy, a business professor at the University of Michigan. “When we [...]

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Based on recent research  by Kellogg School of Management, contrary to expectations, decentralization might be the best strategy when the need for coordination among divisions is paramount.  In an age of cheap communication, decentralization is best even when coordination among divisions is critical. Centralization can be a good choice if the divisions are heterogeneous or if managers are especially [...]

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Our article: Seven Steps to Merger Excellence was published this week in Ivey Business Journal online magazine. To read it click here.
Also, our article: Two Firms-One Identity (in German) just came out in the October issue of PersonalMagazin. (Germany’s most widely read human resources journal.) It is based on our article:  Leading Cross Cultural Re-engagement
Reminder: We will be [...]

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The meeting was going poorly. Marcus had laid out his plans for the company. The Acquisition was only days old. Marcus was holding his first on-site meeting with the company acquired and his core team. The purpose of the meeting was to establish transition and integration plans.
Marcus was convinced his strategy was the best [...]

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We were amazed and pleased to read McKinsey’s recent Integrating steel giants: An interview with the ArcelorMittal postmerger managers. This article actually describes our process and philosophy almost exactly. They are talking about how they (the two people in charge of integration) enabled rapid and successful post-merger integration with significant milestones achieved the [...]

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Everyone is looking at the recent announcement Microsoft unfriendly take-over of Yahoo with great curiosity. And why not; they make two great conglomerates to “pick on”? When I read a recent post on IR Web Report that they considered that blogging by employees as a great source of determining corporate culture, I was [...]

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Below is a fun and entertaining video that clearly explains the principles of synergy and innovation in relation to mergers and acquisitions. It was produced as a marketing tool (I suspect) for Acatel and Lucent after their merger in April of 2006. It ends saying that there is no equal. But has [...]

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Mergered Tryst

In the beginning
the ending was there to see
but at the ending
twas the beginning that had come to be
Started with a written kiss
Down the path to wedded bliss
Arranged lovers not ready to consummate
Resisting the beckoning created fate
In the chaos of sudden tryst
This becomes that and that becomes this
rancorous notes become harmonious tune
by arcane ritual, by [...]

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Dave Smith picked up the phone with something less than excitement. That could hardly be a surprise; it was, after all, his fourth cold call of the morning and the first three had not been ego-builders.
“Guten Morgen,” he began in almost perfect German, “May I speak with the Sales Director?” After being put through to [...]

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By Scott Moeller
(This article first appeared in Personnel Today magazine)
It looks as though more mergers and acquisitions (M&As) will have taken place in 2007 than ever before. But two things never change about M&A deals: first, that a large number will fail to deliver what the architects of the deal promised and second, that many [...]

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