Check the Wall Street Journal or today’s M&A Daily twitter newspaper  – merger activity is up this year and the dealmaking does not seem to be slowing down. This trend extends to the HR Technology industry with several recent mergers already this quarter including a deal announced this week. As you read the M&A headlines, how many of these mergers actually see the ROI they are seeking during due diligence?

M&A Business Culture Misalignment is a Common and Expensive Problem
According to the latest research most mergers will fail to reach due diligence revenue projections. Frequently, the failure is attributed to corporate cultural issues, which have been tied directly to lost revenue according to a survey conducted by Mercer Consulting.

Often, both firms misjudge the impact of change on the acquired organization’s employees during due diligence by measuring the business but not the business culture. This is a costly mistake. As one CEO eloquently put it, “You have to remember, you’re not acquiring a business as much as you’re acquiring a culture of people.”

The miscalculation costs the acquiring firm in employee buy-in and reduced performance. Corporate culture misalignment during the post merger integration phase of M&A often means the acquired firm’s employees will dig in, form cliques, and protect the old culture. In addition to decreased morale and an exodus of top talent, culture misalignment reduces business performance. It also prolongs the time it takes for the acquiring organization to see the ROI they sought when the deal was initiated.

Without anticipating and addressing corporate culture misalignment before it happens, this cycle will continue and the majority of mergers will fail.

Quantifying and Comparing Corporate Cultures
Many failures could perhaps be avoided if executives planning the merger were able to

• Measure, visualize and dynamically compare where the two organizational cultures’ synergies and conflict lie – at the company level.
• Adapt their talent strategy to increase the likelihood of retaining key employees.

Now these revolutionary insights are possible, using Talent Meters in Advisor 3.6.

Talent Meters Takes a Bold Step Towards Solving M&A Corporate Culture Misalignment
Introduced as part of Talent Analytics Corp’s Advisor 3.6 upgrade, Talent Meters is a ground breaking analytics-driven visualization of an organization’s corporate culture at the company, department, or team level. By quantifying a company’s culture, leaders and consultants can for the first time analyze and compare an entire organization’s culture pre-and-post merger in as much detail as necessary, focusing on key areas of human capital competitive advantage and strategizing accordingly.

Enhance Culture Integration in your Next Merger by Informing your Intuition
Whether the goal of the deal is to enhance the organization’s intellectual capital, acquire key technology or increase market share, by visualizing quantified corporate cultures and designing strategies to facilitate corporate culture integration, executives and consultants can increase their odds of M&A success.

Get in touch today –  visualize M&A success with Talent Meters.

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Mike Kennedy is a Technical Evangelist at Talent Analytics, Corp. He can be reached via mike@talentanalytics.com .