What does culture have to do with M&As?
We are told that mergers and acquisitions are often less successful than anticipated. One of the reasons given for such failures is a cultural mismatch between the different partners, in fact, in cross-border mergers, 83% of mergers fail.
We assume that cultural fit implies that the organisational cultures of the parties involved are similar. The challenge with the concept of a “cultural misfit” is that often we forget that within one and the same organisation there are many sub-cultures, each differing with regards to the various layers of culture.
The Culture Onion
Organizational culture touches upon the outer 3 three layers of the so-called, “culture onion” - working practices exemplified by symbols, heroes and rituals.
So when we merge organizations – which parts do we actually merge? About which (sub-)cultures are we actually talking?
These are just some of the topics our CEO, Egbert Schram, discusses in this “The Impact of Culture on M&A” webinar.