The Leadership in Action Series: On Strategic Leadership

Getting It Together: The Leadership Challenge of Mergers and Acquisitions

Günter K. Stahl

Mergers, acquisitions, and strategic alliances are supposed to create new, stronger organizations, but history shows that such combinations often fall far short of expectations. Cross-border integrations, such as those between Western and Eastern companies, are particularly difficult to manage. Here the CEOs of two multinational firms that have been there talk about the factors that set winning corporate combinations apart from the rest.

Every merger, acquisition, or strategic alliance promises to create value from some kind of synergy, yet statistics show that the benefits that look so good on paper often do not materialize. The result, more often than ...