We know that culture matters in
merger and acquisition (M&A)
success (Stahl & Voigt, 2008).1
However, in our 30 years as
researchers and consultants
on the M&A process, we have seen that managing
culture usually gets a low priority by
executives who are overwhelmed by the
operational aspects of integration (Mirvis &
Marks, 1986; Marks & Mirvis, 2010). Yet,
when asked with 20/20 hindsight, most of
those same executives acknowledge that underestimating
the importance and difficulty
of combining cultures was a major oversight
in their integration efforts (Cartwright &
Cooper, 1996)