Post-integration review – Case Study

Post-integration review of a financial services merger

Two life insurance companies had recently completed a merger and the resulting merged company decided to undertake a post integration review to learn the lessons from the merger and improve the company’s methodology for running large cross functional programmes in the future. We were invited to undertake an objective external review of the integration process from a programme perspective, examining elements such as the adequacy of programme definition, the effectiveness of programme management, and the success of governance, business case management and risk management.

We interviewed key staff from both of the original companies who had been involved in the merger and examined relevant documentation to understand what was done and the decisions taken at key points in the programme.

We found that overall the merger was a considerable success with some 40 out of 47 key defined success measure achieved and implementation costs controlled to within 2% of the baseline budget. With the exception of formal risk management which was largely ignored, the procedural elements of the merger programme were competently undertaken and skilfully applied.

However the same could not be said about engaging employees and capturing hearts and minds. Significant effort had been applied to presenting the coming together of the two companies as a merger. Nevertheless the result was largely perceived by most staff to have been a take-over by one company of the other.

Two key factors had hindered a smoother integration. First, the work to develop a 'best of breed' operation had taken place at a single location, requiring staff from one company, but not the other, to spend long periods away from home while under considerable personal uncertainty and stress. Second, there was insufficient HR expertise applied to the people aspects of the programme and the HR transition work was underestimated.

Our final integration review was presented to the Boards of both the merged company and its parent. Our findings and recommendations were fully accepted and seen as an important contribution to ensuring that future comparable exercises would be even more successful.