Post-Merger Integration in India & Ireland
Industry & Scope :
- Product, project & service business for Security, Fire Safety & Building Automation in India.
- Merger of the already existing respective local division of the acquirer, i.e. a globally active technology group, with the leading local supplier in India.
- Included R&D and manufacturing for security products at field as well as at station level.
Role / Function :
- Integration Manager, being responsible for the entire integration in India as well as for the subsidiaries.
Business Context :
- The transaction was structurally complex, since it combined a carve-out with a reverse take-over and a legal set-up as a joint venture in combination with an earn-out scheme.
- The Post-Merger Integration was even more demanding as the different sites
to be integrated were spread across entire India :
- main office and R&D of acquired company in Chennai,
- main office of acquirer in Mumbai,
- 10 branch offices,
- factory in Pondicherry.
- Also, the foreign subsidiaries of the acquired company had to be integrated
to a different extend in :
- Ireland & UK
- Singapore
into the respective country organizations of the acquirer. - Significant differences in corporate & national culture as well as initially limited support by some relevant stakeholders.
Actions :
- Setting-up and leading the PMI organization with more than 40 workstreams, actively supporting the workstream leaders, as well as leading some crucial workstreams personally.
- Paying a lot of time and effort to the cultural integration and the communication efforts
to reach-out to all employees across India and the subsidiaries, as well as to ensure the buy-in of all the involved parties. - To preserve the unique strengths of the acquired company, a 'light integration' approach was implemented, requiring additional coordination efforts with the headquarter organization of the acquirer.
- To manage the high complexity, a stringent risk management and mitigation program
was implemented.
Outcome :
- Already in the first year of operation the financial results in terms of revenue and profitability were overachieved.
- The integration itself was also completed successfully with minor deviations from the original plan only.
- After some initial difficulties, the acquisition was well supported by all stakeholders.
