Key Acquisition Integration Challenges for Cross-Border Transactions

As cross-border mergers and acquisitions become a common way of creating international growth and expansion, it is critical for companies to be able to achieve success in the post merger integration phase. It is increasingly apparent that what ultimately makes mergers work is the people collectively working together for a common mission.

As a result many managers, often from organizational development backgrounds, concentrate on managing and aligning the different corporate cultures by creating a new common vision. This is quite difficult, especially when different mindsets from different national cultures and languages exist on top of the differing corporate cultures, then the task becomes increasingly complex.

It is clear that cultural differences play a very significant role in this. These mergers and alliances are fundamentally different from domestic ones, and have to be viewed in a slightly different manner. Since virtual data rooms, primarily used during the due diligence phase, have the ability to host information in numerous languages, this platform for cross-cultural communication and collaboration should be maintained during the integration phase.

By attending conferences and workshops and studying the results of other successful and failed mergers, executives can better prepare themselves and their teams for the project ahead. By testing their own limits and knowledge of M&A practices, executives can approach these complex tasks and target a litany of new business opportunities.

Source: ACQUISITION International— April 2012 — Dan Bradbary