PRITCHETT, LP Post-Merger Integration Consultants

How do you evaluate a firm that offers post-merger integration consulting? These are the 5 most important areas to consider:

1. Expertise

   PRITCHETT LP's competitors have very little content about M&A integration on their web sites relative to the wealth of ‘how to’ guidance on our site, MergerIntegration.com.

   Why? Because post-merger integration is a sideline business for them. It generates a small fraction of their sales. They are general practitioners whereas we are specialists. The true experts in any field are specialists and PRITCHETT has maintained a singular, unwavering focus on post-merger integration for over 35 years.

   

   

   

   

    

2. Experience

   PRITCHETT consultants have worked on more than 650 integrations in over 50 industries on transactions ranging from $10 million to $80 billion in value. We deliver stellar results which is why acquirers sing our praises and our client list is impressive.

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   PRITCHETT’s wealth of knowledge and experience with M&A integrations is enormous. They are game-changers and fantastic to work with! The PRITCHETT playbook of processes, templates, and governance allowed us to successfully integrate our most significant acquisition with a professional and well-organized approach. The PRITCHETT consultants’ attention to detail, analytical skills, and ability to engage our stakeholders provided Primoris with the most successful M&A integration to date. All of our team members learned a tremendous amount of knowledge from PRITCHETT.
   We are delighted with our investment!

   Sean Gordon

   Senior Vice President of Special Projects

   Primoris Services Corporation

   Spirent hadn’t transacted an acquisition in a while, so it was critical to engage with M&A integration specialists who could shepherd us through a best-practices methodology while also taking a pragmatic approach. PRITCHETT’s integration framework and consultants provided the practical guidance we needed to ensure success and “taught us to fish” through the development of a playbook for future deals. Stakeholders up and down the Spirent organization were very pleased with the PRITCHETT team’s expert assistance. Money well spent!

   Rob Van Brunt

   EVP, Office of Business Excellence

   Spirent Communications

   Our transaction was very atypical, with numerous delays, a divestiture, an asset sale, and many other unique circumstances making the degree of difficulty quite formidable. Despite all this, the PRITCHETT M&A integration process and consultants helped us the entire way and were able to adjust to these circumstances and keep us on track. They were critical factors in our ability to pull off a successful integration. We are glad we had them along for this important journey for our company.

   Joe Duffy

   VP Integrated Planning & Control

   Verso Corporation

   PRITCHETT was able to quickly add a great deal of value to our integration planning, implementation, and reporting processes. With PRITCHETT, we had the confidence to tackle several integrations one after another. Our functional leads received invaluable support and training from their team. The PRITCHETT consultants worked with us to develop our integration approach to manage multiple transactions and hit the ground running. PRITCHETT brought experience, processes, and templates that we leveraged to succeed. Their consultants’ post-close oversight and timely reporting ensured we didn’t miss a beat during planning and execution.

   Nick Fiduccia

   Integration Manager

   IEA

   We used PRITCHETT's M&A integration consulting expertise to help us. Their process and know-how helped us organize, mobilize, and develop a comprehensive process and plan for our integration. The PRITCHETT consultants were expert, professional, and simply a pleasure to work with.

   Chris Simmons

   VP, Finance and Operations

   RTI Health Solutions

   PRITCHETT did a great job of leading our acquisition integration of Vigillo. We understood the possible pain points that can arise from previous acquisitions and were very pleased to work with PRITCHETT to put together an integration governance and project management approach that worked very well. I look forward to working with the firm again.

   Chris McKay

   President

   SambaSafety

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3. Thought Leadership

   Many of the most influential pieces on M&A integration have been written by PRITCHETT. We have sold two million of our books on post-merger integration, more than the sales of all other authors combined on that subject. Additionally, over 30,000 managers have attended our merger integration workshop making it the most successful M&A integration training program in the world. Plus, our web site, MergerIntegration.com, is the most visited online resource on M&A integration. It features over 100 presentations, 100 tools, and 20 playbooks from more than 100 of our consulting engagements.

    

4. Flexibility

   Our firm has consulted on the largest pharmaceutical, oil and gas, financial exchange, and bank M&A integrations in history. And on smaller deals in practically every industry. We can easily staff a project with many senior, well-experienced M&A integration consultants, or even just one, based on the size and complexity of the acquisition and bandwidth of an acquirer's integration teams.

   PRITCHETT consultants have subject matter expertise in many areas including IT, communications, HR, finance and accounting, sales and marketing, operations, procurement, and supply chain. We can turn on a dime to meet a client's resource needs.

    

5. Methodology

   PRITCHETT’s post-merger integration methodology is easy to follow and well-organized. It’s a streamlined, repeatable process not weighed down by extraneous junk. We made room for more of what matters by eliminating what doesn’t. Some M&A advisors pitch integration methodologies with complicated rules that create confusion and add no value. In some cases, acquirers feel compelled to hire consultants on an ongoing basis to navigate the very complexity built into the process by the same consultants.

   An effective methodology should make an organization more capable and less dependent on outside experts. PRITCHETT’s approach is highly teachable. Not over-engineered. A person needs common sense and resolve, not an advanced physics degree to understand and apply it.

   PHASE 1
   HIGH-LEVEL PLANNING

   PHASE 2
   DETAILED PLANNING

   PHASE 3
   EXECUTION

   Step 1: Define M&A Integration Strategy and Guiding Principles

   Step 2: Determine M&A Integration Governance

   Step 3: Conduct Integration Management Office (IMO) Meeting

   Step 4: Provide Post Merger Integration Training

   PHASE 2
   DETAILED PLANNING

   Step 5: Develop Post Merger Integration Risk Management Plan

   Step 6: Develop M&A Culture Integration Plans

   Step 7: Develop M&A Communication Plans

   Step 8: Develop M&A Staffing & Retention Plans

   Step 9: Develop M&A Project Integration Plans

   PHASE 3
   EXECUTION

   Step 10: Execute Acquisition Integration Plans (Including Day 1 Plans)

   Step 11: Capture M&A Integration Lessons Learned

PRITCHETT, LP consultants assist in all aspects of M&A integration:

Post-Merger Integration Planning

PRITCHETT helps executives define the integration's "finish line" and ensures teams develop clear, logical plans on how to get there. Our approach eliminates common mistakes and streamlines the planning process. We lead and educate integration teams, prioritize and synchronize their work, and create a consolidated master plan so everyone is aligned with a common integrated view of the path forward.

Post-Merger Integration Execution

We offer advice and counsel, flanker support, and a structured, disciplined approach to integration implementation. In particular, we know how to handle the defining moments, those make-or-break times when your strategy is most at risk. Our job is to protect the integration plan, front to back.

PRITCHETT knows what to expect and how you should respond. We help you maintain momentum and keep your integration on track. This is no cakewalk. It calls for well-conceived, carefully timed moves, and they must be carried out decisively. We know the drill.

M&A Integration Playbook Development

Every integration is different, but all successful, efficient ones require processes for governance, scope definition, planning, scheduling, issue management, risk management, and reporting. Many acquirers let these M&A processes evolve over time with patches made here and there. As experience is gained, tools and techniques are often missed or not captured and properly documented.

PRITCHETT can help you build a flexible, scalable M&A integration playbook tailored to your needs. Whatever the particular soft spots in your approach, we can address them as we develop and document a methodology for your acquisitions.

Post-Merger Culture Integration

We help acquirers develop and execute a plan to identify and reconcile the most meaningful cultural differences. All too often, management adopts a passive approach and never seriously addresses cultural integration. Several things may account for this:

• Managers have no methodology on how to create a cultural integration plan
• They lack insight into the cultural differences between the two firms
• They become preoccupied with short-term concerns

The reality of the situation, however, is that success of a merger is often a function of how well the two firms’ cultures are integrated.

Post-Merger Communication Planning

Mergers create an insatiable demand for more information. Our senior advisors can save you hundreds of hours by implementing communication best practices, tools, and techniques that will help keep your people focused, productive, and engaged.

Organization and Retention Planning

Deciding how to staff the combined organization is the most delicate task in M&A integration. There's almost always a need to eliminate redundancies and identify and retain people who are needed transitionally, but not indefinitely. PRITCHETT advisors help you develop a staffing process that is fair, fast, and appropriate for your deal.

Capturing Lessons Learned

Our consultants systematically debrief teams to capture lessons learned about the integration process. PRITCHETT helps ensure the know-how gained from an acquirer's experience is not lost. We document the hard-won wisdom. 

For information about our consulting services, call 800-992-5922.