The Art of M&A Integration: 

A practical guide to achieving success in business integration

This workshop provides participants with the knowledge, frameworks, tools, structures and best practices necessary to be more effective in M&A integration.  Insights into the human dynamics of the acquisition and integration process and the lessons learned in managing people across the life cycle of the transaction will be communicated along with concrete, clear and practical tools and techniques. The participants will leave the workshop with insights, methods and tools to more effectively plan and manage a business integration within their organizations.

In most cases, companies can “stack the deck” for successful M&A integration. The focus of the M&A Leadership Council is to build understanding and competency, and share knowledge about what is required to achieve success in a M&A transaction. This 2-day interactive workshop is one of the vehicles the M&A Leadership Council deploys to leverage the expertise of their subject-matter experts to the benefit of those executives and middle managers who need to build their knowledge and toolkit.

 The aim of this workshop is to provide participants with the following:

• Understanding why M&As often fail

• Lessons learned and critical success factors in effective business integrations

• Setting a framework for the Integration Strategy and Approach

• Understanding and managing through the various stages of the integration

• Addressing the critical people and cultural issues in an M&A

• Installing the structure, tools, and resources for integration management

• Building, measuring and monitoring the key performance metrics to capture synergies and           mitigate risks. 

This is a practical workshop with the following course outline: 

DAY 1- Morning Session

• Program objectives and expectations

• Why M&A deals fail

• The Case for effective Integration

• Critical success factors

• Due Diligence in the Acquisition

• Integration strategy and approach

DAY 1 – Afternoon Session

• Operating through the stages of the integration

• Effectively managing the integration effort

• Case Studies: practical application of lessons learned (Guest Speaker)

DAY 2- Morning Session 

• Sourcing financing for SME's (Guest Speaker: Jo Haigh)

• Addressing the critical people and cultural issues

• Communications policy, procedures, and guidelines: internal and external

• Synergies and performance measures

DAY 2- Afternoon Session

• Case studies: practical applications of lessons learned

• Reports, break- outs and group discussion on case studies