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

CHAPTER 13

Synergy Program Management

In this chapter you will learn the following:

• What activities define synergy.
• How to manage synergy programs within the IMO framework.
• How to use some simple tools and templates for tracking and reporting synergies.

Almost every merger or acquisition includes cost savings and business benefits arising from synergies (essentially, positive business outcomes as a result of the merger). Synergies can take many forms: employee reductions, revenue enhancements, plant rationalizations, store closings, purchasing optimization, and much more. The list can be quite extensive, and synergies are typically the number one driver of the merger or acquisition.

IMOs are seldom responsible for generating original synergy projections, but they are almost always involved in helping to manage synergy program realizations. Setting up a robust platform to help realize synergies is a critical IMO deliverable and one that should be carefully managed. You could do everything else right, but failing here would result in the IMO being perceived as underdelivering on its overall integration objectives.

A synergy is a cost savings or a revenue increase that the combined companies would not have achieved as stand-alone companies. Synergies result primarily from the following opportunities:

• Increased scale of the combined companies.
• Labor cost (internal and third-party) reductions as a result of overlapping functions, efficiencies of scale, or process improvement from ...