Case: Mergers Don’t Always Lead to Cultural Clashes

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Case 06: Mergers don’t always lead to cultural clashes Problem Definition : Companies have different management and operational approaches with respect to managing mergers. One of the key points is what this merger will turn into, a success or a failure. Mckinsey says that almost 70% of mergers fail. One of the reasons is having different cultures. How companies manage mergers and deal with cultural clashes determine how successful they can be. Choosing the right way to address these difference is the answer to this problem Justification of the problem : - Most of times companies tend to do mergers for pure business reasons. They want to add value or competitive advantage by merging with a company that will provide so. - This can be good or bad depending on how this merger will be done. Not only on the business side but also on both operational side as well as cultural side. How day to day operations are run and how decisions are made reflect mode of operation. How people work and interact reflect their culture. Lots of times CEOs do the fatal mistake thinking they can change the culture easily, or simply think of business benefit or even thing just because they personally get along then this means that the merger will be fine. Yet not necessarily for mergers to succeed is to have companies with exactly same culture, in fact having different cultures merging can be a plus for both if managed well like the case we have here with MBNA and BOA where everyone expected it to fail. Understanding right approach to manage mergers and cultural differences is key in making mergers a success List of Alternatives : -Dominant approach -Leave as it is approach - Catalyst for transformation approach Evaluate Alternatives : -Dominant approach -The dominant company tries to force its culture on the other one.

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