Mergers & Acquisitions Integration Handbook, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 8Executing Your Integration Plan

In this chapter, you will learn about:

• Defining the overall integration strategy
• Developing the functional work plans
• Project management tools
• Prioritizing integration workstreams
• Functional work plan quality
• Executing Day 1
• Cross-functional dependencies
• Integration status reporting

The execution phase of the plan is typically defined as the bulk of the people, process, and technology work that commences post-close. This should be thought of as the execution of what you planned during the pre-close phase, as waiting until close to truly begin your planning work is not a best practice. However, execution can’t truly begin until there has been a change of control and the deal is actually executed (e.g., purchase and sale agreement is signed). For the purposes of this chapter, we will define execution as the bulk of the work done after close.

Prior to beginning the execution phase of your integration plan, make sure you have the pre-planning activities outlined in the previous chapters wrapped up, especially in terms of the following:

• Collecting and reviewing transaction data for both AcquireCo and TargetCo
• Creating and approving the integration project charter for your IMO
• Formulating the integration team organizational structure as well as its members’ roles and responsibilities (i.e., governance)
• Securing third-party execution support where required

DEFINING THE OVERALL INTEGRATION STRATEGY

A helpful way to define the overall integration ...