Business Integration

Successful business integration is about making the value of the whole greater than the sum of the parts.

If integration of processes, systems and people is not followed through speedily and effectively, the consequences can be catastrophic.

Certainty of success is increased by ensuring:

  • Financial and non-financial benefits are planned and validated before integration commences
  • Organisational design, key leadership roles, responsibilities and rewards are decided at the outset
  • People impacted understand the vision and strategic context with the workforce is engaged around the strategy, with everyone focused on the future not reflecting on the past
  • Integration politics are avoided by establishing 'cabinet responsibility' with stakeholders engaged and their expectations managed
  • People know how it will impact them personally and where they will stand post-integration, if they are at risk they will want to know - those not at risk want to know what is expected of them
  • Integration activity is thoroughly planned, swiftly implemented and stability quickly established
  • 'Club cultures' are disarmed and behaviours aligned to the strategy and business plan
  • Issues are surfaced, confronted and options presented to the person empowered to decide
  • Sensitivities are managed, risks mitigated and contingencies planned
  • Responsibility for benefit realisation is handed over to business-as-usual owners at the earliest opportunity
  • Integration benefits are 'baked' into the budgets, KPIs and personal targets of the people responsible.

    • Even though there might be good strategic fit, business integration is always proportionally more difficult when there is a significant overlap of capabilities.

    A business may have a surplus of good people but not necessarily those with the specialist skill sets, know-how and resilience to drive a successful integration.

    Verdandi work for you and with you to organise, plan and deliver the integration programme.

    Benefits

  • Minimal diversion of the leadership team from their business-as-usual roles over a period of intense activity, allows them to focus more effort on the running of the new business and realisation of planned benefits
  • Full and effective use made of the organisation's existing capabilities and available resources
  • Meticulous planning, rapid resolution of issues and containment of risks mean that all aspects of integration are properly addressed and a timely integration is assured
  • Value is realised in line with expectations.

    • What we do

    Our people are affordable, widely experienced with strong leadership skills, breadth of business understanding and depth of technical appreciation - people with expert ability and subject matter expertise who know your industry and can be trusted to deliver the required outcomes safely.

    We fill knowledge gaps and provide extra capability boosts in areas where you need it, when you need it and for only as long as you need it.

    We use our flexible and adaptable methods to demystify the integration process, and speed you through the transition.

    How we do it

    The capabilities of the new business are formulated in a clear strategic vision of the strategy, target operating model and customer value proposition and communicated to the people impacted.

    We agree what is required to integrate and stabilise the operation - what has to be done differently, new or stopped in respect of processes, systems and behaviours.

    Project workstreams are organised around key deliverables, not business functions, using multi-skilled teams and strong leadership.

    Your key business managers are involved in sponsor and stakeholder decision making roles, leaving them time to focus on the running of the business, resolving issues and benefit realisation.

    We organise and, if necessary, train, mentor, coach and partner your people so they can sponsor, plan and run projects, fully participate and feel part of the transition.

    Each integration project is planned around a 90-day stabilisation deadline - points raised in Due Diligence are individually addressed. Through meticulous planning we prove if each integration project can be accomplished within the target.

    In complex technical areas, such as IT, where the challenge may be the greatest, we use experts to agree a realistic timescale with costed options presented for decision.

    Aligning culture to the strategy and business plan means a change for many stakeholder groups. This is always challenging because it requires actions to change the 'rules of the game' - the unconscious rules of the organisation that everyone learns when they join yet are never taught; everything that operates behind the scenes and drives behavior in each business. We use experts to create a communication strategy and plan, take business actions to shift the thinking and behaviour and use leaders to demonstrate the new culture.

    We leverage your shared-service resources, including Marketing, IT, HR, or Legal, whether these are internal or outsourced, and expedite decision-making.

    If re-mapping of business processes, is required to ensure regulatory compliance, we do this with you.

    If a new target operating model and new business change plan is needed we will work with you to develop this.

    Verdandi will manage the entire integration for you for as long as we are needed, adding value from the day we start to the day we finish.

    What our clients say…

    "This was a tough assignment to pull off, ambitious in content and constrained in resources, funds and time. Verdandi significantly improved delivery and de-risked implementation by establishing effective working relationships with the management teams of both organisations, and through highly adaptive and pragmatic use of project tools. The team achieved a massive amount in a short space of time."
    Integration Programme Director, UK Financial Services Group

    "This has been the biggest integration project ever undertaken by any UK retailer. It has involved 64 large-scale projects with 600 people working in teams. The financial benefits have exceeded plan by £100m and all this has been achieved in 18 months."
    Group Chief Executive, 5th biggest food retailer in UK     Verdandi trained 200 people in Successful Project Management methodology to manage the integration, from executive sponsors to project team members.

    Please contact us at Verdandi to obtain further information.

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