The M&A cultural practices of advanced acquirers

The intent of the series, The M&A cultural practices of advanced acquirers, is to share the current state of leading practices in cultural work, specifically and only for the M&A situation.

The content is based on the findings from a unique and highly experienced group of M&A practitioners and this first paper shows how they first brought that structure and discipline to cultural discussions through capturing in one place the parts of culture that have the greatest impact on a transaction. 

This was accomplished by creating a cultural framework built for M&A purposes, to facilitate the structured and organized discussions in this area taking place. This framework formed the platform for ongoing cultural investigations because it more precisely maps culture’s impact on deal outcomes, goals and risks. As one participant commented, “Culture is a business imperative for us; it is not 
investigating culture for culture’s sake.