Mergers & Acquisitions Integration Handbook: Helping Companies Realize The Full Value of Acquisitions

CHAPTER 10

Effective Communication Planning

In this chapter, you will learn the following:

• Objectives and guiding principles for effective integration communication.
• How to create a communication matrix for your integration.
• Roles and responsibilities for communication planning within the integration management office.

Communication planning is one of the most written-about subjects in integration-related books and articles because it’s one of the most important activities of integration. Often it is the subject that IMO leaders struggle with the most. This is mainly due to the following:

• Information itself is closely guarded or unavailable, so meaningful content becomes hard to get in the first place.
• Senior executives do not always buy into sound or frequent communication planning, and they disregard pleas for meaningful content and news.
• Communication is always great when the deal closes and on employee day one, but it typically will quickly fade after that.

Because having a proper communication plan is key, this chapter addresses the steps you can take to ensure that the communication portion of your plan is as robust as the rest of your integration plan.

COMMUNICATION PLANNING OBJECTIVES

The following objectives can offer you the tools you need to create a solid foundation for your communication plan:

• Define what the employees from both organizations can expect during the integration process.
• Ensure that the employees understand the integration goals and processes.