One basic rule of effective change management is to overcommunicate the benefits. In
M&A, this means not only selling people on the business case for the deal, but also on why the lead company’s culture is appropriate for the combined organization. The more that people see a direct link between the lead company’s ways of operating and enhancements in getting work done, the more they are likely to accept them. Employees may even welcome the new culture if a case is made for how it will address perceived weaknesses in the target’s ways of doing things—such as when an established firm with big marketing muscle takes over a start-up with a great product but little marketplace experience.