subject: Mergers and Acquisitions in Europe [print this page] Yes . Lets go for it together! We will be more successful jointly. Driving this process means answering some of the following questions below: Do you have the money for this? Are you genuinely interested to acquire your friends or to merge with them? What would be the criteria to make this selection? Is there a mutual benefit and/or complementarity? Would your friends be receptive anyway for such an idea? Did you investigate alternative friends? Will there be an organizational re-structuring? What would be the people impact? Did you make any thoughts on the operational process? Is a common go to market approach required? How will the current customers react? Will you fish for customers in a geographically clustered way? What would be the new differentiator looking for new clients? Did you check the potential new end-to-end process? Ever thought about the communication process internally and externally? Will there be a change in DNA of the involved companies? Would you need to call upon local lobbying in order to complete the story? What will be the reaction of the business authorities (ex. European Community)? You could be the great master driving this process but for some reason it just does not work.what could be this unsolved mystery? Did you consider the element of business culture when you try to walk from A to B? Like many others, you might have made the same mistake! The key reason of failure of mergers and acquisitions in Europe is indeed the lack of cultural knowledge. Just thinking that our friends will do it our way is not too intelligent. Hopefully its not too late now. Follow below recommendations and process improvements to make it work: Make sure to be aware of and to truly understand the cultural differences between either parties Check if it is a country thing, a business environment element or both Take these cultural aspects into account to assure best practice Prepare your mergers & acquisitions strategy including business culture Call upon highly specialized companies to assist you if needed. Your idea might be too valuable to have it demolished by a bad preparation. The game of Cowboys and Indians is over ..Cu-Factor can be your saviour!
