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Integrating two teams

Tent in the snowThe business challenge

A European electronics manufacturing company acquired the China business of a leading American global player. The challenge they faced was to successfully integrate two operations that had different processes, different factories, and different cultures, at a time when the daily operations were already under pressure to increase volumes at lower cost.

How IWNC helped

IWNC helped the company meet this challenge through a six-step process:

Step One: Pre-acquisition vision and strategy workshop

Before the acquisition took place, IWNC facilitated a workshop with the senior management team of the acquirer with the purpose of clarifying the Vision and Strategy of the new company.

Step Two: Post-acquisition workshop

Once the acquisition had been finalized IWNC ran a workshop with the senior management team of the new combined entity. The outcomes of the workshop were:
  • Clear understanding and communication of the company’s vision;
  • Identification and communication of the opportunities for significant synergies and clarification of a strategy to secure those synergies;
  • The Integration teams got to know each other and started to understand each other’s areas of responsibility;
  • A better understanding by all executives from both companies of the cultures of the previous organizations and the desired culture of the new merged entity;
  • Higher levels of trust, teamwork and communication among members of the new management team; and
  • Clarification of plans and commitments as individuals and a team to the future vision and plans.

Step Three: Follow-up workshop with the senior team

A follow up workshop with the same team was held with the purpose of:
  • Tracking progress to date on the Integration Plans;
  • Continuing the ongoing development of the team; and
  • Refining plans in the light of lessons learned since the Integration.

Step Four: Vision – values – strategy cascade

A workshop for middle managers was then held with the purpose of:
  • Communicating and developing buy-in and commitment to the new vision, values and strategy for the new organization;
  • Communicating the benefits to the managers of staying with the company and being an integral part of this “journey”;
  • Gathering input from the managers about how the values of the new organization should be demonstrated and rewarded through behaviors; and
  • Developing of team and individual action plans for how the vision can be achieved, the strategy implemented and the values lived in their parts of the organization.

Step Five: “Cultural Ambassador” training

Senior management selected 21 “opinion leaders’ from throughout the organization. IWNC brought these opinion leaders through two customized train-the-trainer workshops, with the purpose of:
  • Coaching the participants on the role they could play in transforming the cultural of the integrated organization; and
  • Coaching the participants on how to play the role of back-up trainers in the upcoming Cultural Integration workshops.

Step Six: Cascading vision, values and goals

IWNC and the Cultural Ambassadors co-ran a series of 25 “Vision – Values – Goals” workshops with the purpose of:
  • Communicating and generating buy-in for the vision and values of the new organization;
  • Enabling the participants to discuss and agree on behaviors that demonstrate the values and behaviors that do not demonstrate the values;
  • Building energy, excitement and commitment to the new organization; and
  • Developing team and individual commitments for how the participants and their teams could work more effectively to ensure the organization achieved its objectives.

The result

The integration of the two companies after the acquisition was a major success. In addition to the continued successful growth of the combined enterprise, unplanned staff turnover remained low, and the culture of the new organization gelled quickly and remains strong. The organization model and processes remain in place and are working effectively. Best practices from the two organizations were shared and have been successfully implemented. From this strong foundation, the company in China has continued its development as a healthy and growing organization and today is the most profitable part of their global business!

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