HBR December: Integrate

Harvard Business Review (December2009) will be reviewed this week. Here's the FOURTH POST:

Don’t Integrate Your Acquisitions, Partner with Them (Kale, Singh, and Raman) We know from the research that about two thirds of mergers don’t go smoothly. Heck, 50% of marriages head south, so why expect better results when whole organizations climb in bed together. The authors’ early research suggests that rather than do a top down pogrom, treat it more like a partnership than a hostile takeover. They suggest that companies with more collaborative culture are likely far more suited to this approach and merger success. The authors used the 2005 Tata Chemicals merger with Brunner Mond in the UK as such a “partnering approach.” The authors supply a list of immediate steps, the first 100 days, and longer-term measures (see pp. 112-113).