Ginkgo Management Consulting Sees Operational Integration as Central Success Factor for Corporate Mergers

Hamburg/Singapore, August 30, 2010 – According to various recent studies, sixty to ninety percent of all mergers and acquisitions fall short of the expectations of managers and shareholders. That is, sixty to ninety percent fail to create the sort of synergies and strategic benefits originally used to justify these endeavors. In an effort to establish a set of practical guidelines aimed at helping managers to increase the likelihood for success of any kind of corporate merger, Ginkgo Management Consulting has analyzed the circumstances behind these dire statistics. So far, the professional world has devoted most of its attention to pre-merger success factors such as strategic and cultural fit, realistic company evaluations, and adequate modes of financing. Ginkgo, however, has identified the diligent preparation and execution of the operational integration as an additional, tremendously influential driver of success – a driver that so far has been widely overlooked by experts and corporations alike. According to Ginkgo Partner Lars Godzik, a large number of failed mergers could be traced back to inadequate handling of seemingly minor issues during this decisive phase of the overall process. Many corporations have failed, for instance, to set up, empower, and involve the team ultimately responsible for the operational integration early on in the process, this way missing a crucial opportunity to rule out harmful misalignment between the integration team and the managers responsible for a merger. Similarly, the selection and proper customization of an adequate integration framework has rarely received the attention the topic deserves. Particularly detrimental to the success of the analyzed cases has been the failure to secure adequate funds for the operational integration upfront, i.e., even before the decision to merge was finalized. According to Mr. Godzik, corporations need to resist the all-too-natural urge to compensate a high acquisition price through a stingily planned integration budget under all circumstances. Otherwise they would run the very risk of acting penny-wise but pound-foolish, jeopardizing mid and long-term goals for short-term savings. The full report including the detailed guidelines can be downloaded free of cost from Ginkgo’s website at: http://www.ginkgocon.com/DE/publications.html

Ginkgo Management Consulting develops and implements business strategies with a non-exclusive focus on the strategic application of business technology at large corporations. Ginkgo's clients mostly belong to the Fortune Global 500, represent a vast array of industries, and usually seek to improve their global competitiveness through the optimal alignment of business and IT. Ginkgo carefully maintains its absolute independence from vendors and solutions and, thus, is able to guarantee clients an unobstructed perspective on all available options. Ginkgo maintains offices in Germany and Singapore from which it supports clients with projects in more than twenty countries spanning five continents.

Ginkgo Management Consulting GmbH
Attn. Ms. Myrja Schumacher
Lehmweg 17
20251 Hamburg
Deutschland
Tel.: +49 40 809 081 172
Fax: +49 40 809 081 173
E-Mail: press@ginkgocon.com

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