We have a clear plan to internalize, integrate 
and sustain a Culture of Accountability.
and sustain a Culture of Accountability.
- Yes
- No
Whether the post-merger or acquisition focus is on combining cultures, adopting the cultural traits of the acquiring company or creating a culture where the two company cultures operate effectively as two disparate cultures, leaders must take accountability to create the culture that will be essential to success, in both long and short-term.
The Partners In Leadership culture change process helps clients accelerate the formation and integration of the needed post-merger and acquisition culture. With over two decades of experience working in the post-merger and acquisition environment, Partners In Leadership is expert at helping leaders define and implement the right cultural transition solution for their business needs.
Here are some impressive examples about how Partners In Leadership has helped clients achieve full cultural integration post-merger and acquisition.
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The Story: The Alaris story is about a company that transformed an organizational culture post-acquisition, integrating two different companies, and, as a result, literally changed the game in a way that significantly influenced an entire industry. Ultimately, it generated an increase in share price from 31¢ per share to $22.35 per share in just three years, growing revenue as much as 15 percent a year in a market where competitors were achieving a mere 3 percent. Purchased by Cardinal Health, a Fortune 20 company, Alaris eventually became the nucleus of a company called CareFusion, a spin-off from Cardinal and one of the largest medical device suppliers in the world. The Alaris story is also about CEO Dave Schlotterbeck, who valued the transforming impact of culture on what he characterized at one point as the "most difficult job" he held during his distinguished forty-year career.
When we first met Dave Schlotterbeck, he was presiding over a merger between IVAC and IMED, the most highly leveraged post-acquisition medical device company in the world, with $350 million in revenue and $525 million in debt. Prior to Alaris, Dave had spent two decades effecting successful company turnarounds and working with post-acquisition situations in the world of manufacturing. Previous experience had shown that he was good at what he did, developing what he considered a repeatable "recipe" for optimizing performance in manufacturing organizations. He had become adept at clearly seeing a company's problems after simply spending time with a set of financials. He learned to spot "sloppy systems" and to identify when people were failing to pay enough attention to the details. The Alaris post-acquisition culture had fostered a mentality of survival; people worried more about protecting themselves than getting the results the company needed. The two disparate cultures of IVAC and IMED were still alive and competing in many ways.
Dave made a conscious decision to stop focusing on financial performance. The company had racked up thirty consecutive months of losses, and he knew that similar financial results would no doubt continue for the foreseeable future. For the last eighteen months, he had been focusing on changing the financial performance of the company, a process he knew like the back of his hand, but it hadn't made any difference. "In fact," he said, "it was getting worse, and I was getting frustrated. I thought, why frustrate myself?" Instead of getting frustrated, Dave chose to concentrate his efforts on changing the culture and integrating the two organizations, something that was new to him as a manager and leader, something that was clearly missing from the Alaris management team's focus.
Dave and his team successfully implemented the Culture Track Training detailed in our New York Times Bestselling book, Change the Culture, Change the Game. Central to their effort was a simple model we call The Results Pyramid.® About three months into the change effort, Dave began to see signs of progress that would quickly evolve into a major turning point. While he could not measure them as precisely as the usual financial indicators, he began to see more of the go-to attitude he and the marketing manager had visualized spreading throughout the company. People were starting to "get things done" and Alaris was starting to get its own unique culture and identity.
Dave had avoided sharing the cultural integration project with the board of directors, because, in the beginning at least, he didn't think he could sell them on investing in a soft strategy in such hard times. Of course, he didn't need to do much selling two years later when Alaris's stock price had shot from 31¢ per share to $14 per share. They were now the heroes. Nothing could have delighted the board more than that bottom-line result.
It got even better when Cardinal Health, one of the largest medical device companies in the world, paid $2 billion for a company with a market cap of $15 million. That represented a whopping 7,000 percent return on equity investment from the day Dave and his team started working on the Alaris culture to the day they sold the company to Cardinal Health. Today, the company's technology and products protect over 1.5 million patients each year! How did it happen? Dave Schlotterbeck and his Alaris team created a culture that allowed them to flawlessly execute a game-changing strategy.
Cultural Integration at the most highly leveraged company in medical device industry history...
The Result: A 7000% Return on Investment.
The Story: The Alaris story is about a company that transformed an organizational culture post-acquisition, integrating two different companies, and, as a result, literally changed the game in a way that significantly influenced an entire industry. Ultimately, it generated an increase in share price from 31¢ per share to $22.35 per share in just three years, growing revenue as much as 15 percent a year in a market where competitors were achieving a mere 3 percent. Purchased by Cardinal Health, a Fortune 20 company, Alaris eventually became the nucleus of a company called CareFusion, a spin-off from Cardinal and one of the largest medical device suppliers in the world. The Alaris story is also about CEO Dave Schlotterbeck, who valued the transforming impact of culture on what he characterized at one point as the "most difficult job" he held during his distinguished forty-year career.
When we first met Dave Schlotterbeck, he was presiding over a merger between IVAC and IMED, the most highly leveraged post-acquisition medical device company in the world, with $350 million in revenue and $525 million in debt. Prior to Alaris, Dave had spent two decades effecting successful company turnarounds and working with post-acquisition situations in the world of manufacturing. Previous experience had shown that he was good at what he did, developing what he considered a repeatable "recipe" for optimizing performance in manufacturing organizations. He had become adept at clearly seeing a company's problems after simply spending time with a set of financials. He learned to spot "sloppy systems" and to identify when people were failing to pay enough attention to the details. The Alaris post-acquisition culture had fostered a mentality of survival; people worried more about protecting themselves than getting the results the company needed. The two disparate cultures of IVAC and IMED were still alive and competing in many ways.
Dave made a conscious decision to stop focusing on financial performance. The company had racked up thirty consecutive months of losses, and he knew that similar financial results would no doubt continue for the foreseeable future. For the last eighteen months, he had been focusing on changing the financial performance of the company, a process he knew like the back of his hand, but it hadn't made any difference. "In fact," he said, "it was getting worse, and I was getting frustrated. I thought, why frustrate myself?" Instead of getting frustrated, Dave chose to concentrate his efforts on changing the culture and integrating the two organizations, something that was new to him as a manager and leader, something that was clearly missing from the Alaris management team's focus.
Dave and his team successfully implemented the Culture Track Training detailed in our New York Times Bestselling book, Change the Culture, Change the Game. Central to their effort was a simple model we call The Results Pyramid.® About three months into the change effort, Dave began to see signs of progress that would quickly evolve into a major turning point. While he could not measure them as precisely as the usual financial indicators, he began to see more of the go-to attitude he and the marketing manager had visualized spreading throughout the company. People were starting to "get things done" and Alaris was starting to get its own unique culture and identity.
Dave had avoided sharing the cultural integration project with the board of directors, because, in the beginning at least, he didn't think he could sell them on investing in a soft strategy in such hard times. Of course, he didn't need to do much selling two years later when Alaris's stock price had shot from 31¢ per share to $14 per share. They were now the heroes. Nothing could have delighted the board more than that bottom-line result.
It got even better when Cardinal Health, one of the largest medical device companies in the world, paid $2 billion for a company with a market cap of $15 million. That represented a whopping 7,000 percent return on equity investment from the day Dave and his team started working on the Alaris culture to the day they sold the company to Cardinal Health. Today, the company's technology and products protect over 1.5 million patients each year! How did it happen? Dave Schlotterbeck and his Alaris team created a culture that allowed them to flawlessly execute a game-changing strategy.
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The Story: When Pfizer bought out Warner Lambert, the company wrestled with the problem of merging the operations of the two companies. In the sales organization, a multitude of questions arose: What should I do about E-mail and voice mail, who does my expense reports, how do I get my money back, and what about sales reports?
The post-merger environment was a breeding ground for Below The Line® behavior. Common complaints included, "We should have had this all ready," "This should have been thought through beforehand," "This isn't working," and "My new manager doesn't know what is going on!" Every level-reps, district managers, regional managers-found themselves thrust onto a communications battlefield. Having adopted the Self Track™ Training, the Pfizer team determined that only an Above The Line® approach would help everyone take accountability for communication. When people asked post-merger questions, they were urged to ask another set of questions: "What else can I do about it?" and "Who else can I contact to obtain the information I need?" By placing accountability with the person who asked the questions, managers created an organization full of people working to solve the problem, rather than merely complaining about it. Increased dialogue about how to operate post-merger actually helped reduce the amount of change forced on people because they came up with their own systems. When the Pfizer sales organization adopted several of the Warner Lambert approaches, and vice versa, both groups felt comfortable with the resultant mix of best practices. All this came about because Pfizer management demanded they emulate the Accountability Training® principals and practices and have a healthy robust dialogue at a time when communication and confusion could have paralyzed everyone. By creating accountability around communication, Pfizer estimated that they kept more than 25 percent more people than they would have kept had the problem persisted. The company reaped huge savings from reduced turnover and greater consistency in its sales territories.
Making It Work After The Deal is Signed...
The Result: 25% Employee Retention Rate
The Story: When Pfizer bought out Warner Lambert, the company wrestled with the problem of merging the operations of the two companies. In the sales organization, a multitude of questions arose: What should I do about E-mail and voice mail, who does my expense reports, how do I get my money back, and what about sales reports?
The post-merger environment was a breeding ground for Below The Line® behavior. Common complaints included, "We should have had this all ready," "This should have been thought through beforehand," "This isn't working," and "My new manager doesn't know what is going on!" Every level-reps, district managers, regional managers-found themselves thrust onto a communications battlefield. Having adopted the Self Track™ Training, the Pfizer team determined that only an Above The Line® approach would help everyone take accountability for communication. When people asked post-merger questions, they were urged to ask another set of questions: "What else can I do about it?" and "Who else can I contact to obtain the information I need?" By placing accountability with the person who asked the questions, managers created an organization full of people working to solve the problem, rather than merely complaining about it. Increased dialogue about how to operate post-merger actually helped reduce the amount of change forced on people because they came up with their own systems. When the Pfizer sales organization adopted several of the Warner Lambert approaches, and vice versa, both groups felt comfortable with the resultant mix of best practices. All this came about because Pfizer management demanded they emulate the Accountability Training® principals and practices and have a healthy robust dialogue at a time when communication and confusion could have paralyzed everyone. By creating accountability around communication, Pfizer estimated that they kept more than 25 percent more people than they would have kept had the problem persisted. The company reaped huge savings from reduced turnover and greater consistency in its sales territories.
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The Story: Valassis, upon acquiring ADVO Inc., the nation's largest direct-mail marketing company, they went from $1.1 billion to $2.3 billion in total revenue, making them one of the nation's leading media and marketing services companies. The operating approaches of the two companies differed greatly. Valassis practiced a quick get-it-done approach, while ADVO took a more deliberate approach, operating "by the book," thoroughly planning and seeking full consensus before taking action. ADVO had built a reputation as a first-class outfit and ranked number one in its industry. John Lieblang, Valassis's chief information officer (CIO), ended up wrestling with the challenge not only of combining two disparate IT departments, but of solving some serious cultural, organizational, and technological challenges facing his group. Every department in the company needed to collaborate with its sister department to form one smoothly functioning unit as quickly as possible. Since the success of the company depended on the combined IT departments running smoothly, Al Schultz, the CEO, insisted that the integration happen with speed. John understood the CEO's expectation.
As John contemplated the challenge, he took solace from the fact that he had assembled a highly motivated IT team that could solve exactly this sort of problem. They took getting results seriously and shouldered accountability for on-time, on-budget delivery, doing every job well and for pleasing their customers. Far from intimidating them, the merger had pumped new life into everyone and had ignited a sense of urgency and purpose for every project. John just had to figure out what he needed to do to cascade accountability to all IT associates throughout the organization and combine the two departments quickly and efficiently. We will never forget what John said to us as he reflected back on this whole experience. "I knew when I was hired that I had three options. Option one was to do nothing and eventually get fired. Option two was to do something bold and dramatic to change things, have that fail, and then get fired. Option three was to do something bold and dramatic to change things, have that succeed, and prove the IT group were leaders."
John preferred option three, but he recognized that to make that happen his team needed common skills and methods for quickly aligning and integrating these departments. That's when he brought us to Valassis to train the IT team in the use of the Self Track™ Training models and tools that would help the team take ownership for creating a newly integrated department in line with CEO Al Schultz's expectations. As the training commenced, John introduced the desired results, completely avoiding the subject of "merging the departments." Instead, he defined and communicated four key business results that the united IT department needed to achieve: (1) reduce IT spending (which would free up cash and improve profit); (2) improve investment return (by making sure that every investment had a clearly defined detailed financial return); (3) enhance associate careers (foster retention and advancement opportunities); and (4) reduce cycle time (implement solutions faster).
He then quantified the expected results for each of these four categories and insisted that every leader of each group attend the planned training. As the training progressed, John led the team through an alignment discussion that united the team around the key results. The training then focused on helping the team create ownership and accountability for each of the key results throughout the IT organization. Again, they did not focus on merging the organizations, but on what actions they could take to achieve the four business results.
The outcome: by the end of the fiscal year, IT was the first department to collaborate in the entire company that had successfully integrated two departments into one. While taking the best practices from the markedly different worlds of Valassis and ADVO, the associates in IT were able to combine their operations in a staggering short four months, improve service levels, and deliver high-quality new development projects on-time and on-budget. Most important, John had used the right training at the right time to energize his team and deliver the key results the CEO expected, making IT the top-performing group in the company.
Two-for-one: Combining Two IT departments to Become Top-Performing Group...
The Results: Combined their operations in a staggering short four months, improved service levels, and delivered high-quality new development projects on-time and on-budget.
The Story: Valassis, upon acquiring ADVO Inc., the nation's largest direct-mail marketing company, they went from $1.1 billion to $2.3 billion in total revenue, making them one of the nation's leading media and marketing services companies. The operating approaches of the two companies differed greatly. Valassis practiced a quick get-it-done approach, while ADVO took a more deliberate approach, operating "by the book," thoroughly planning and seeking full consensus before taking action. ADVO had built a reputation as a first-class outfit and ranked number one in its industry. John Lieblang, Valassis's chief information officer (CIO), ended up wrestling with the challenge not only of combining two disparate IT departments, but of solving some serious cultural, organizational, and technological challenges facing his group. Every department in the company needed to collaborate with its sister department to form one smoothly functioning unit as quickly as possible. Since the success of the company depended on the combined IT departments running smoothly, Al Schultz, the CEO, insisted that the integration happen with speed. John understood the CEO's expectation.
As John contemplated the challenge, he took solace from the fact that he had assembled a highly motivated IT team that could solve exactly this sort of problem. They took getting results seriously and shouldered accountability for on-time, on-budget delivery, doing every job well and for pleasing their customers. Far from intimidating them, the merger had pumped new life into everyone and had ignited a sense of urgency and purpose for every project. John just had to figure out what he needed to do to cascade accountability to all IT associates throughout the organization and combine the two departments quickly and efficiently. We will never forget what John said to us as he reflected back on this whole experience. "I knew when I was hired that I had three options. Option one was to do nothing and eventually get fired. Option two was to do something bold and dramatic to change things, have that fail, and then get fired. Option three was to do something bold and dramatic to change things, have that succeed, and prove the IT group were leaders."
John preferred option three, but he recognized that to make that happen his team needed common skills and methods for quickly aligning and integrating these departments. That's when he brought us to Valassis to train the IT team in the use of the Self Track™ Training models and tools that would help the team take ownership for creating a newly integrated department in line with CEO Al Schultz's expectations. As the training commenced, John introduced the desired results, completely avoiding the subject of "merging the departments." Instead, he defined and communicated four key business results that the united IT department needed to achieve: (1) reduce IT spending (which would free up cash and improve profit); (2) improve investment return (by making sure that every investment had a clearly defined detailed financial return); (3) enhance associate careers (foster retention and advancement opportunities); and (4) reduce cycle time (implement solutions faster).
He then quantified the expected results for each of these four categories and insisted that every leader of each group attend the planned training. As the training progressed, John led the team through an alignment discussion that united the team around the key results. The training then focused on helping the team create ownership and accountability for each of the key results throughout the IT organization. Again, they did not focus on merging the organizations, but on what actions they could take to achieve the four business results.
The outcome: by the end of the fiscal year, IT was the first department to collaborate in the entire company that had successfully integrated two departments into one. While taking the best practices from the markedly different worlds of Valassis and ADVO, the associates in IT were able to combine their operations in a staggering short four months, improve service levels, and deliver high-quality new development projects on-time and on-budget. Most important, John had used the right training at the right time to energize his team and deliver the key results the CEO expected, making IT the top-performing group in the company.
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The Story: Indiana-based Lilly Pharmaceuticals, 10th largest pharmaceutical company in the world, addressed the public perception that they were not supporting minority owned business in their home state. For years, company officials would say: "We try to get minority business, we've sent out proposals, we've waited here with the paperwork and have been willing and would be pleased to work with anyone who came in and took the job." Then, taking an Above The Line® approach on this issue, the company decided to stop waiting for something to happen, and, instead, go out and make it happen. Members of Lilly's capital project engineering group sat down with a long-time supplier, Jacobs Engineering, to plan how they could actually help create a minority owned business. They concluded that a start-up business could quickly grow into a full-line firm that would not only work for Lilly but for other companies as well. The CEO of Jacobs Engineering gave Lilly's capital projects engineers total support, stating that they would provide work process and procedures and help line up needed investors in Indianapolis to start this firm from scratch. For its part, Lilly committed that it would pay the new firm within fifteen days instead of the thirty-five days afforded to other vendors. In a short period of time, they lined up the needed investors to start a small minority-owned engineering firm. During the first year, this firm billed over $3.5 million worth of engineering service fees in the Indianapolis area. Again, we see a high performing organization benefit from greater accountability by driving beyond the expected to deliver unexpected results. Apply the principles and practices of the Accountability Training® and operating Above The Line opens doors that cause things to happen, things that would never, ever happen Below The Line.®
Eli Lilly/Jacobs Engineering - The launch of a new engineering firm...
The Result: $3.5 Million - first year revenues.
The Story: Indiana-based Lilly Pharmaceuticals, 10th largest pharmaceutical company in the world, addressed the public perception that they were not supporting minority owned business in their home state. For years, company officials would say: "We try to get minority business, we've sent out proposals, we've waited here with the paperwork and have been willing and would be pleased to work with anyone who came in and took the job." Then, taking an Above The Line® approach on this issue, the company decided to stop waiting for something to happen, and, instead, go out and make it happen. Members of Lilly's capital project engineering group sat down with a long-time supplier, Jacobs Engineering, to plan how they could actually help create a minority owned business. They concluded that a start-up business could quickly grow into a full-line firm that would not only work for Lilly but for other companies as well. The CEO of Jacobs Engineering gave Lilly's capital projects engineers total support, stating that they would provide work process and procedures and help line up needed investors in Indianapolis to start this firm from scratch. For its part, Lilly committed that it would pay the new firm within fifteen days instead of the thirty-five days afforded to other vendors. In a short period of time, they lined up the needed investors to start a small minority-owned engineering firm. During the first year, this firm billed over $3.5 million worth of engineering service fees in the Indianapolis area. Again, we see a high performing organization benefit from greater accountability by driving beyond the expected to deliver unexpected results. Apply the principles and practices of the Accountability Training® and operating Above The Line opens doors that cause things to happen, things that would never, ever happen Below The Line.®
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The Story: Precor, one of the largest fitness manufactures in the United States, has weathered the challenges posed by relocation, market downturn, product failure, and a merger and an acquisition. For the last 12 years, they have made the Self Track™ Training and now, the Culture Track™ Training, a part of their corporate culture. Precor successfully became a subsidiary of Amer Sports Corporation, the world's largest sports equipment company, upon being purchased by ITW.
Rather than resting on their laurels and accepting their current level of performance, they created a world class manufacturing organization and addressed market challenges in their distribution system. In addition to these changes, they recognized the vital importance of maintaining alignment all of their key initiatives, including their effort to create and sustain a Culture of Accountability.® At one point, Precor's President Paul J Byrne stated to employees, "The world's a mess, the company is slow, and the weather is bad we're simply not going to accept any of these old excuses anymore." Precor developed an accountable culture that did not foster Below the Line thinking and behavior. Rather, the culture powerfully motivates people to ask, "what else can I do?" to overcome obstacles and achieve the result? Precor's Management team focused on modeling accountability and keeping the company riveted on achieving their results. After fifteen months of focused, concerted effort to transform their culture, imbue accountability in everyone, and improve business operations, Precor recorded their best year ever: increasing revenues by 13 percent, and profitability by 66 percent, while substantially increasing their service measures. These performance improvements did not come because the company has slumped. To the contrary, the improvements came because a highly effective organization knew that it could always accomplish more by rigorously applying the Self Track™ Training.
Precor's ability to successfully experience a change in ownership twice in a short period of time and then to maintain their focus on Creating a Culture of Accountability® for results shows the strength of their culture, the effectiveness of their management team and the power of the Self Track Training.
Precor - Merger and Acquisition Athletes...
The Results: Subsequent to a merger AND an acquisition, increased revenues 13% and profitability by 66%, while substantially increasing their service measures.
The Story: Precor, one of the largest fitness manufactures in the United States, has weathered the challenges posed by relocation, market downturn, product failure, and a merger and an acquisition. For the last 12 years, they have made the Self Track™ Training and now, the Culture Track™ Training, a part of their corporate culture. Precor successfully became a subsidiary of Amer Sports Corporation, the world's largest sports equipment company, upon being purchased by ITW.
Rather than resting on their laurels and accepting their current level of performance, they created a world class manufacturing organization and addressed market challenges in their distribution system. In addition to these changes, they recognized the vital importance of maintaining alignment all of their key initiatives, including their effort to create and sustain a Culture of Accountability.® At one point, Precor's President Paul J Byrne stated to employees, "The world's a mess, the company is slow, and the weather is bad we're simply not going to accept any of these old excuses anymore." Precor developed an accountable culture that did not foster Below the Line thinking and behavior. Rather, the culture powerfully motivates people to ask, "what else can I do?" to overcome obstacles and achieve the result? Precor's Management team focused on modeling accountability and keeping the company riveted on achieving their results. After fifteen months of focused, concerted effort to transform their culture, imbue accountability in everyone, and improve business operations, Precor recorded their best year ever: increasing revenues by 13 percent, and profitability by 66 percent, while substantially increasing their service measures. These performance improvements did not come because the company has slumped. To the contrary, the improvements came because a highly effective organization knew that it could always accomplish more by rigorously applying the Self Track™ Training.
Precor's ability to successfully experience a change in ownership twice in a short period of time and then to maintain their focus on Creating a Culture of Accountability® for results shows the strength of their culture, the effectiveness of their management team and the power of the Self Track Training.
