Mergers and acquisitions are a team activity: their success is ultimately contingent on contributions from across different areas of the organisation. That being said, strong leadership is imperative. CEOs play a critical role in orchestrating efforts and owning results when integrating a target company into their business. It is a challenge to strike the delicate balance between offering strategic guidance without becoming too entangled in operational execution. At Scion Consultants, we have gained insight into how CEOs can best leverage their time to have maximum impact.
In the pre-deal stages, CEOs must be fairly hands-on. First and foremost, it is their responsibility to develop a top-level vision for what a successful integration looks like — considering value metrics, synergies and cultural amalgamation — and ultimately decide whether the deal is worthwhile. Only a select group of individuals are involved in this early due-diligence phase, so the CEO has to pick the opportune moment to involve relevant stakeholders such that BAU commercial activity is not heavily disrupted. Once underway, the CEO must then assign leaders per functional workstream and communicate high-level plans to the integration team so that they can execute accordingly.
Post-close, however, CEOs should mainly participate in an advisory capacity via steering committee meetings. This group consists of C-level executives providing direction, guidance and oversight to the integration team to ensure the programme remains on track, as well as approving plans, prioritising initiatives and signing off on high-impact decisions. This cadence ensures the CEO only receives need-to-know updates, saving them from being involved in the more detailed weekly meetings for each workstream.
Having said that, in our experience it is crucial that the CEO is closely involved in designing the organisational structure of the new combined company, making necessary role/title changes for key players within the newly combined management team. This can often be a sensitive area, and therefore requires insight and delicate handling from a business leader.
The main skill required from a CEO that underpins everything is communication. Without a strong communicator at the helm of your organisation, messaging will be unclear, your staff will feel confused and/or unheard, which in turn leads to attrition. It is particularly critical for CEOs to speak directly with employees from the acquired entity, so they experience face-to-face contact with leadership from the get-go.
Effectively, your role as CEO is to act as a visible cheerleader for the deal — both behind the scenes and in front of your staff — by delivering regular clear, incisive updates and advice throughout. This will help to instil your teams with excitement for the journey ahead.
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