MERGE, Part 3: Realise. Agree the target state and get Day One ready

Part three of five. Map found the work; Estimate costed it. Realise is where it becomes a plan.

What goes wrong here

Delaying integration planning until after legal close is repeatedly highlighted as a risk to failure; effective integrations set the integration thesis, the Day One plan and the hundred-day roadmap before close (source).

Cost synergies typically take 12 to 18 months to land, revenue synergies 24 to 36, and full IT integration commonly takes at least a year (source).

Yada, yada.

That's all the 'standard' rhetoric on this state of a merger integration. But in practical terms, it's a lack of progress, often driven by a lack of buy-in across workstream owners that causes problems. Usually because most workstream owners already have a day job and are already operating at "110%" (their quote, not ours). So what's in it for them to over-perform? For the board there's incentive, but for workstream leaders it's a new team and more responsibility.

Realise aligns the cadence and the people before Day One, using Lens: Merger OS and Kolbe to replace guesswork with a plan the team can actually run.

The second problem we see is the difference in cadence. The board and their investors are expected to be entrepreneurial. Fast decisions, driven by the 'deal' rush'. But most workstream leads are there to grow their business organically, typically with high levels of governance.

So rushing into an integration without awareness of cultural cadence is an Integration Director's nightmare waiting to happen.

The best approach in mergers is calm, not speed. Because quality and judgement win.

What Realise is

• The target state, agreed. How much of the two businesses will be combined, and how much left alone. That is a strategic choice, not a default. A deliberate operational choice, always wins.

• One integration office. A small senior team that owns the plan, the interdependencies and the escalations, with a rhythm that suits the work. See finding the right meeting cadence.

• The first hundred days for stability, not for doing everything at once: customers, colleagues and the decisions that cannot wait. This is not by planning the 100-day plan; everyone can do that. It's about winning stakeholder buy-in.

• The people who have to deliver it. We use Kolbe to see how each team works, so the plan fits the people. More in motivation during integration. This increases the awareness of the cultural cadence of the differing parties and, more importantly, helps understand differences.

Merger synchronisation in Realise

Because the same people did Map and Estimate, nobody has to rebuild understanding from a report. That continuity is the point of merger synchronisation: one firm, from diligence to delivery.

Next week: Go Live. If you are working on a plan now, talk to us about synchronising your next deal.